page_title: Philip St. George Cocke
section_title: Plantation owner
hierarchical_section_title: Philip St. George Cocke / Plantation owner
caption_attribution_description: Drawing; Drawings
context_page_description: Philip St. George Cocke was a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the first year of the American Civil War. He is best known for organizing the defense of Virginia along the Potomac River soon after the state's secession from the Union. He commanded troops in the Battle of Blackburn's Ford and the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861 before becoming despondent and committing suicide.
context_section_description: This Philip St. George Cocke owned large plantations  in several Virginia counties, including Powhatan, Surry and Brunswick Counties, as well as cotton plantations in Mississippi. He used enslaved labor on all his plantations. In 1835, Philip St. George Cocke commissioned architect A.J. Davis to build a manor house named "Belmead" in Powhatan County. In 1840, Cocke owned 30 slaves in Surry County, 125 slaves in Brunswick County and 82 slaves in Powhatan County. The numbers grew by 1850 to 118 slaves in Powhatan County, 45 in the southern district of Brunswick County,and 187 slaves in Lowndes County, Mississippi. In 1860, Cocke owned 124 slaves in Powhatan County, at least 33 in Yazoo County, Mississippi and possibly another 39 in Holmes County, Mississippi and 52 in Fluvanna County, Virginia.
  Cocke published many articles in journals, as well as a book on plantation management entitled Plantation and Farm Instruction in 1852. From 1853 to 1856, Cocke was president of the Virginia State Agricultural Society. In 1859, concerned by John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry, he organized a militia infantry company known as the Powhatan Troop to help defend Powhatan County in case of a similar action or a slave revolt in the future.
caption: Belmead Plantation
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