James Ford (pirate), Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

James Ford (pirate)

American pirate

Date of Birth: 22-Oct-1775

Place of Birth: Spartanburg County, South Carolina, United States

Date of Death: 07-Jul-1833

Nationality: United States

Zodiac Sign: Libra

James Ford, born James N.
Ford, also known as James N.
Ford, Sr.
the "N" possibly for Neal (October 22, 1775 – July 7, 1833), was an American civic leader and business owner in western Kentucky and southern Illinois, late 1790s to mid-1830s.
Despite his clean public image as a "Pillar of the Community", Ford was secretly a river pirate and the leader of a gang that would later be known as the "Ford's Ferry Gang".
His men were the river equivalent of highway robbers.
They would hijack flatboats and Ford's "own river ferry" for tradable goods from local farms that were coming down the Ohio River.
Ford was an Illinois associate of Isaiah L.
Potts and the Potts Hill Gang, highway robbers, of the infamous Potts Inn.
James Ford also was an associate of John Hart Crenshaw, an illegal slave trader and a kidnapper of free African Americans, and may have taken part in the Illinois version of the Reverse Underground Railroad.
At one point, the outlaws used "Cave-in-Rock" as their headquarters on the Illinois side of the lower Ohio River, approximately 85 miles below Evansville, Indiana.