page_title: David Hunt (planter)
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: David Hunt (planter) / Biography / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of Mississippi River from Grand Gulf, Mississippi to Natchez, Mississippi. Extracted from a map published by Coloney, Fairchild &amp; Co. entitled Ribbon Map Of The Father Of Waters. The map identifies "Genl. Taylors Old Place", which was the Cypress Grove Plantation owned by U.S. President Zachary Taylor.
context_page_description: David Hunt was an American planter based in the Natchez District of Mississippi who controlled 25 plantations, thousands of acres and more than 1,000 slaves in the antebellum era. From New Jersey, he joined his uncle in Mississippi business. He became a major philanthropist in the South, contributing to educational institutions in Mississippi, as well as the American Colonization Society and Mississippi Colonization Society, of which he was a founding member.
  Known as "King David," Hunt made a fortune in cotton production and sales. He was one of twelve millionaires residing near Natchez, Mississippi at a time when there were 35 millionaires in the entire United States.
context_section_description: Hunt inherited Woodlawn Plantation near Rodney, Mississippi from his uncle, Abijah Hunt (1762-1811), who had become wealthy as a merchant to the Army and later in cotton. He ended up owning twenty-five plantations in the Natchez District. In addition to the twenty-one plantations listed below, Hunt also owned the following four plantations: Fatherland, Fairview, Oak Burn and Givin Place.
  His Jefferson County plantations were: Calviton, Woodlawn, Huntley, Waverly, Fatlands, Southside, Brick Quarters, Ashland, Black Creek, Oakwood, Buena Vista, and Servis Island. Zachary Taylor bought the approximately 2,000-acre Buena Vista Plantation (also known as Cypress Grove Plantation), which bordered Ashland Plantation and was formed on the land of David Hunt and others. It was located about ten miles south of Rodney along the Mississippi River. President Taylor and his son Richard "Dick" Taylor - later a Confederate General - visited Hunt's residence on Woodlawn Plantation.
  His Adams County plantations were: Lansdowne, located three miles north of Natchez (on what is now highway 555); Homewood, which adjoined Lansdowne; and Oakley Grove, located nine miles northeast of Natchez.
  His Issaquena County plantations were: Wilderness Plantation, located on the Mississippi River near Mayerville; and Georgiana Plantation, located on Deer Creek south of Rolling Fork. David's son George Hunt owned 400 acres on the Mississippi River in Issaquena County close to Tallulah.
  His Louisiana plantations were: Arcola, located just south of the town of Waterproof, Louisiana in Tensas Parish; the adjoining plantations of Argyle and Belle Ella, located to the west of Waterproof, also in Tensas Parish; and Hole in the Wall, located on the Mississippi River on Maxwell Road in northern Concordia Parish, Louisiana
  Shortly before the American Civil War, Hunt and his adult children owned a total of some 1,700 slaves and controlled tens of thousands of acres of land. Cyrus Bellus and Peter Brown were two of David Hunt's slaves whose interviews are included in the WPA Slave Narrative Collection for the state of Arkansas. Peter Brown told of a time when he was a slave on David Hunt's Woodlawn Plantation and Dr. Coleman of Wyolah Plantation came to care for his parents, who had contracted cholera.
  As a result of his extensive holdings and cotton production, Hunt became one of the wealthiest cotton planters in the Antebellum South. Additionally, he owned business concerns in Cincinnati, Ohio and Lexington, Kentucky. At his financial peak in about 1850, Hunt was worth about $2,000,000.
caption: Map of Mississippi River (1866) Showing Hole-in-the-wall Plantation
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