1. Overview
    1. Location
    2. Date Constructed/ Founded
    3. Associated Surnames
    4. Historical notes
    5. Associated Slave Workplaces
  2. Associated Free Persons
  3. Associated Enslaved Persons
  4. Research Leads and Plantation Records
  5. Miscellaneous Information
  6. References
  7. Users Researching This Workplace

Overview

Location

Jefferson Co., MS.

The plantation was at T10N-R1W, section 49 and T9N-R1W part of section 9. One source states that Woodlawn also included T10N-R1W section 50, though it is listed with a different owner (possibly James Corbit) in the original land survey. These map coordinates can be located on the county highway maps at the Mississippi Department of Transportation website. The original land survey is on-line at the General Land Office website of he bureau of land management.

After viewing the previous map, find the same land with a map search at www.google.com by typing in "Rodney Mississippi" into the search bar. Look at the "satellite" view to see the fields and forests. Then zoom out slightly and look in the area where the Natchez Trace Parkway and Highway 553 intersect to see the land in the vicinity of this plantation.

This plantation was seven miles south of Rodney (almost extinct), Jefferson Co. and about two miles north west of Greenville (now extinct), in north-west Jefferson Co., MS on the north side of Coles Creek. It would have been on Frazier Road today near the intersection with Rodney Rd.

Date Constructed/ Founded

David Hunt probably founded Woodlawn Plantation by claiming 216 acres on Cole's Creek in about 1800. He acquired the title to his land through preemption, which means that he got it free so long as he settled on it and made some improvements. However, the location of this land is unknown. In 1817 David was listed as the owner of about 600 acres at T10N-R1W, section 49 which was definitely part of Woodlawn. This was after David got his big inheritance in 1811 from his Uncle Abijah's estate. By 1822 David had expanded Woodlawn by purchasing part of section 9 in T9N-R1W (about 200 acres). Thus, Woodlawn was probably in the vicinity of 800 to 1,500 acres in size.

Associated Surnames

Bane, Bellus, Brown, Hall, Hunt, Major

Historical notes

Though David Hunt had various residences in the town of Natchez, his main residence throughout his adult life was Woodlawn Plantation. He was born and raised on a farm in Hunterdon Co., NJ. In 1800 when he was 20 or 21 years old, he moved to the Natchez District in the Mississippi Territory to work for his rich Uncle Abijah. Abijah was in the process of investing his large fortune into many new businesses in the area - five dry goods stores, several public cotton gins and three or four cotton plantations. Uncle Abijah put David to work as a modestly paid clerk in his Greenville (now extinct), Jefferson Co., MS dry goods store. View a photo of a nearby store of the same era.

At first David was just a simple store clerk with a small cotton farm, probably without any slaves (or possibly one or two loaned to him by his rich Uncle), that he ran in his spare time. He earned $300 his first year and $500 his second year working for his Uncle. Read a good description of life on such a farm here and here.

An antebellum cotton press would have been located with each of Abjiah Hunt's public cotton gins. Cotton presses were needed to bale the cotton after it was ginned.

David's Uncle Abijah was killed in an 1811 duel. David wound up with most of his Uncle's large fortune. Two of David's marriages caused him to get many more plantations. Because he was interested in farming and a frugal man, he was good at managing plantations. His wealth grew until by about 1848 possibly only Stephen Duncan was richer than David in the Natchez area.

Woodlawn was David's "headquarters" plantation. Cotton and corn were grown and livestock was raised on all of his plantations; however, on Woodlawn a slave training program was instituted to teach the slaves trades to serve the other plantations. Thus, on Woodlawn blacksmith and carpentry work was done, leather was tanned, shoes made, thread spun and cloth was woven. This work was done by the slaves. Consequently, while most of the slaves on Hunt's other plantations were field hands, many slaves on Woodlawn were blacksmiths, carpenters or seamstresses. The WPA slave narratives of Cyrus Bellus and Peter Brown are rare records of slave life on the Hunt plantations.

Associated Slave Workplaces

Uncle Abijah's plantations and land

  1. Adams Co., MS
    1. Hunt Plantation
    2. lot number one of square number three in Natchez with a Hunt and Smith general store located on it.
  2. Jefferson Co., MS
    1. 1/2 ownership of Huntley Plantation
    2. a couple of lots in the town of Greenville with a Hunt and Smith general store located on them.
    3. 195 acres on Coles Creek with a Hunt and Smith firm public cotton gin located on it. The land coordinates for this land is at T9N-R1E, section 31.
    4. 221 acres at T9N-R3E sec 6 and T9N-R3W sec 40
    5. Abijah and partner William Forman owned several sections of land to the immediate west of the town of Fayette - at T9N-R2E, sections 22,29,32, 34 and 35.
    6. T8N-R1W, section 42. This land adjoined Abijah's business partner, William G. Forman's section 27. Section 27 (and probably section 42 as well) later became David Hunt's Oakwood Plantation.
  3. Claiborne Co., MS - It appears that Abijah bought land for three plantations and one general store, and that he sold one of the plantations and immediately bought another in 1808 in Claiborne County.
    1. Abijah bought 3,159 acres on the Bayou Pierre just north of Port Gibson in Claiborne County in about 1800. What is known of the exact locations of some of Abijah's 3,159 acres of land on the Bayou Pierre is as follows.
      1. 1,000 acres at land coordinate T11N-R2E, section 23 & 3. This land was adjacent to the town of Port Gibson (to the east of the town). Abijah's slaves had cultivated 600 acres of cotton on this land in 1811 - the year Abijah died.
      2. About 400 acres at land coordinate T12N-R3E, section 22. This is the land where Abijah had his Hunt and Smith general store on the banks of the Bayou Pierre at the Grind Stone Ford. This location was just to the north-east of Port Gibson on the Old Natchez Trace.
      3. 572 acres at land coordinate T12N-R4E, section 29. This land was just to the east of the Grind Stone Ford on the Bayou Pierre.
      4. Abijah sold an approximately 900 acre plantation on the Bayou Pierre in 1808 for $60,000 complete with 61 slaves, a cotton gin and press, and livestock. It's possible that this was one of the following three historic plantations: Woodlawn Plantation - Claiborne MS, Ashland Plantation - Claiborne MS or possibly Fairview Plantation.
    2. Abijah bought 800 acres on the Big Black River in Claiborne County in 1808 ("Federal Writers Collection," Northwest State University in Louisiana, retrieved 14 Jan 08). This was at about the same time that he sold a plantation on the Bayou Pierre in Claiborne County (mentioned above). Since the other land he purchased was for plantations, this land surely was for a plantation too. This 800 acres was probably on both sides of the Big Black River. The bulk of the land was on the south side of the River in Claiborne County and was located at T13N-R3E, sections 15, 16, 17, and 18 and also probably section 24. On the north side of the River in Warren County the land probably included T13N-R3E, section 19. The map at the Bureau of Land website shows this land.
  4. Concordia Parish, LA. Abijah and Partner William Forman (Abijah's partner in Huntley Plantation) bought land at T9N-R10E, section 26. This land may have later become part of David Hunt's Arcola Plantation.

David Hunt owned the following 25 plantations, though probably not all at the same time (Harnett T. Kane, "Natchez on the Mississippi," Bonanza Books, NY, p 179).
  1. Tensas Parish, LA - Arcola Plantation
  2. Tensas Parish, LA - Argyle Plantation
  3. Belle Ella Plantation - probably in Tensas Parish, LA
  4. Concordia Parish, LA - Hole In The Wall Plantation
  5. Adams Co., MS - Homewood Plantation
  6. Adams Co., MS - Lansdowne Plantation
  7. Adams Co., MS - Oakley Grove Plantation
  8. Adams Co., MS - Wilderness Plantation
  9. Fairview Plantation - probably in Claiborne Co, MS
  10. Issaquena Co., MS - Georgiana Plantation
  11. Jefferson Co., MS - Ashland Plantation MS
  12. Jefferson Co., MS - Black Creek Plantation
  13. Jefferson Co., MS - Buena Vista Plantation
  14. Jefferson Co., MS - Calviton Plantation
  15. Jefferson Co., MS - Fatlands Plantation
  16. Jefferson Co., MS - Huntley Plantation
  17. Jefferson Co., MS - Oakwood Plantation
  18. Jefferson Co., MS - Servis Island Plantation
  19. Jefferson Co., MS - Southside Plantation - Jefferson MS
  20. Jefferson Co., MS - Brick Quarters Plantation
  21. Jefferson Co., MS - Waverly Plantation - Jefferson MS
  22. Jefferson Co., MS - Woodlawn Plantation MS
  23. Fatherland Plantation MS
  24. Givin Place Plantation
  25. Oak Burn Plantation

Associated Free Persons

  • Uncle Abijah Hunt - David Hunt's benefactor
  • David Hunt (b.1779-d.1861) - owner; benefactor of Alcorn State University
  • Margaret Stampley - David Hunt's first wife
  • Mary Ann Calvit - David Hunt's second wife; daughter of Thomas Calvit who owned Calviton Plantation and possibly Fatlands Plantation)
  • Ann Ferguson (b.1797-d.1874) - third wife of David Hunt; daughter of Jane Dunbar and John Ferguson who owned Oakley Grove Plantation)

Associated Enslaved Persons

1860 Federal Slave Schedule, David Hunt
From the 1860 Federal Slave Schedule, Jefferson Co. Transcribed by Tom Blake

  • 386 slaves - HUNT, David, Police Dist. 4, page 60B
(In 1860, Hunt owned several plantations in Jefferson County - see the "Historical Notes" section above - so this 386 number of slaves would have been spread across all of these plantations.)

From the WPA Slave Narratives: Cyrus Bellus, age 73

  • Matilda Bellus - wife of Cyrus Bellus I; had a son (Cyrus Bellus II b.1865, he married in 1932, he had no children) who recorded a WPA Slave Narrative; she was a field worker
  • Cyrus Bellus - husband of Matilda Bellus; had a son (Cyrus Bellus II b.1865) who recorded a WPA Slave Narrative, he was a field worker
  • Annie Hall - wife of Stephen Hall; mother of Matilda Hall (Bellus); she spun thread, wove cloth and knitted socks on Woodlawn Plantation which was probably sent to supply all of David Hunt's other plantations.
  • Stephen Hall - husband of Annie Hall; father of Matilda Hall (Bellus)
  • John Major - husband of Dinah Major; father of Cyrus Bellus I
  • Dinah Major - wife of John Major; mother of Cyrus Bellus I
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938, Arkansas, Peter Brown (Helena, Arkansas), age 86
  • Peter Brown (b. Mar. 1, 1852) - recorded a WPA Slave Narrative
  • Jane Brown - wife of William Brown; had a son (Peter Brown); had ten children including three sets of twins (Jonas and Sofa, Peter and Alice, and Isaac and Jacob)
  • William Brown - husband of Jane Brown; had a son named Peter Brown
  • Sofa Bane - grandmother of Peter Brown
  • Peter Bane - grandfather of Peter Brown
  • Tildie - She had lived on Woodlawn Plantation before the Civil War. She went with David Hunt's daughter Elizabeth to live in New Orleans when Elizabeth married in 1865. They lived in a town house on Jackson Street in the Garden District of New Orleans. Tildie was probably a child or teenager at this point and slept in the nursery with the children. At some point in the late 1800's after Elizabeth Hunt had died, her widower had lost enough of the family money that he had to sell the house on Jackson Street and let the servants go. It is thought that Tildie married in New Orleans. Nothing is known after that.

Research Leads and Plantation Records

  • none reported yet

Miscellaneous Information

  • none

References


Users Researching This Workplace


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