Freeman Towns
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
American entrepreneur (ne. Robert Parcel Mallencroft), known for the founding of Garibalzano Two Sicilies, born in Atlanta in 1800 and began a career in banking in the Two Sicilies in 1824. He would soon move on to buying a large amount of iron mines and commercial property in Naples and L'Aquila, while at the same time buying the freedom of slaves in and around Atlanta, Georgia to work for his new industries in Italy. In a money making endeavour he invested a sum of about 200,000 American dollars into a group of slaves freed from the American South seeking a better life. The town was officially established in 1834 around an iron mine that he owned himself- also the largest employer in the city. The town was located about twenty miles south of Naples and had 2,000 residents at its height in 1858.
It was burned down in September of 1860 during Garibaldi's invasion of the [Two Sicilies]] and was not rebuilt.
Freeman Towns died in Atlanta on December 31, 1860 after being exiled from the newly created Kingdom of Italy by Victor Emmanuel II in 1861. He died after a long struggle with alcoholism and without a cent to his name.
