1930. Robert Coates studies the outlaws who preyed on traffic along the Natchez Trace from Natchez all the way to New Orleans from about 1880 to 1885. Among other violent and lawless acts, they planned to build an empire using the labor of stolen slaves. They stole and pillaged to the extent that this period is sometimes referred to as the outlaw years, as bands of land pirates roamed the country in search of riches.