Woodlawn Plantation (Jefferson County, Mississippi)

{{short description|Historic house and plantation in Mississippi, United States}}

Woodlawn was a deep-south, cotton plantation in Jefferson County, Mississippi circa 1813.

Location

File:Plantations_in_the_vicinity_of_Waterproof,_and_St._Joseph,_Louisiana,_and_Rodney,_Mississippi.jpg

The Woodlawn Plantation land with its original owner's residence is located on the north side of Coles Creek, seven miles south of the town of Rodney, in Jefferson County, Mississippi.{{cite journal |last1=Hunt |first1=Dunbar |title=Sketch of David Hunt, November 12, 1906 |journal=Fayette Chronicle |date=May 29, 1908 |volume=XLI |issue=35}}

History of Ownership

Woodlawn was created by cotton planter, and slaveholding entrepreneur David Hunt (1779–1861) approximately when he began having his Woodlawn residence built circa 1813. As shown on various maps, David Hunt's Woodlawn residence was built on the land at T9N-R1E, sections 6 and 8. Thus, Hunt would have owned this just-under 300 acre site by 1813. According to the bureau of land management website, in 1820 Hunt purchased the rest of the adjoining land for Woodlawn Plantation at T9N-R1W, sections 7, 3/4 of 9, 23, and 24; and T10N-R1W section 49{{cite web |last1=Tobin |first1=Edgar |title=Mississippi Plantations and Antebellum Homes |url=https://msgw.org/plantations/jefferson/jefferson.htm |website=MSGW |access-date=26 March 2025}} The previous land parcels add up to approximately 1,500 to 1,600 acres, which adjoin both the Calviton Plantation site and the Huntley Plantation site.{{cite web |last1=Government |first1=Federal |title=Search Documents |url=https://glorecords.blm.gov/default.aspx |website=Government Land Office Records |publisher=Government |access-date=13 April 2025}}

After David and his wife Ann Ferguson married in 1816, they used Woodlawn as their primary residence for the rest of their lives. David and Ann had fourteen children at Woodlawn. Many of them lived to adulthood, and married on Woodlawn.

The Wagner's bought Woodlawn after the Civil War. It was about 1,500 to 1,600 acres. It was then increased to 2,200 acres.

Antebellum Plantation Operations

Woodlawn's cash crop was cotton. Hunt believed in making his plantations self-sufficient.{{cite book |last1=Kane |first1=Harnett T. |title=Natchez on the Mississippi |publisher=Bonanza Books |location=New York |pages=174–189}} Thus, he did not allocate all of his plantation land for cotton. Cattle, sheep, hogs, horses and mules were raised on his plantations. Mainly on his home plantation, Woodlawn, he had a program of home industry and trades to supply all of his plantations. Carpentry, black-smithing, thread spinning, cloth weaving, clothes making, sock knitting, leather tanning, and shoemaking were carried out on Woodlawn Plantation by the enslaved Africans. He also ensured that his crops were shifted to rebuild the soil. He had to purchase the salt and iron needed on his plantations, though.

In December, 1861 Woodlawn had the following stock and plantation supplies. 132 sheep, 10 beef cattle, 10 yolk of oxen, 49 head of dairy cattle, 9 calves, 13 mares, 4 colts, 7 mule colts, 8 yearling colts, 28 mules, 4 plough horses, 1 stallion, 2 wagon horses, 11 carriage horses, 1 jack, 160 hogs, 2,700 bushels corn, 10,000 pounds fodder, 50 bushels peas, 1 cart, 3 ox wagons, 2 horse wagons, 10 ox yokes and chains, furniture of overseer's house, 90 fattening hogs, 1 lott carpenter tools, 13 axes, 40 hoes, 12 spades & shovels, 6 iron wedges, 22 ploughs, 15 harrows, 4 cotton drills, 6 sweeps, 2 sepatators, 2 large harrows, blacksmith tools and irons, lott of plough fixtures.

David Hunt's enslaved African ownership numbers (thought to be for Woodlawn) from census data and other sources follow.

1808 - Jefferson County, MS, 11 (census when David was living on Calviton Plantation, which adjoined the land that became Woodlawn, after his marriage to Mary Calvit)
1810 - Jefferson County, MS, 24{{cite journal |title=An Alphabetical List of Slaveowners of Jefferson County Who Owned 20 or more slaves (1820) |journal=The Rodney Telegraph |date=2019 |volume=0ne |issue=Five}}
1816 - Jefferson County, MS, 31 (census when David was living on Woodlawn after his marriage to Ann Ferguson)
1820 - 50 enslaved shared between 636 acres on Coles Creek (referred to as the Hunt Place - probably Woodlawn) and 880 acres on Black Creek (often called Black Creek Plantation - but was mainly just valuable for its cypress trees)
1861 - Woodlawn, 123

The following are some details about the enslaved.

File:Suppressed - Flogging the negro.jpg

Peter Brown was an enslaved African on Woodlawn Plantation, who was owned by David and Ann Hunt.{{cite web |last1=Brown |first1=Peter |title=SLAVE NARRATIVES A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/11255/11255-h/11255-h.htm#BrownPeter |website=Gutenberg.org |publisher=Federal Writers Project |access-date=10 April 2025}} He was born March 1, 1852 on Woodlawn Plantation. His parents were Jane and William Brown. One set of his grandparents were Sofa and Peter Bane, who also lived on Woodlawn. Some of his siblings were Jonas, Sofa, Peter, Alice, Isaac and Jacob. As a child he recalled hearing the enslaved being staked to the ground on their stomachs and bull whipped morning after morning by David Hunt and the overseers. He stated that the enslaved were overworked.

File:Cotton pickers and overseer around 1850.jpg

File:Slave Cabin, Barbour County near Eufaula, Alabama, USA, from Federal Writer's Project, 'Born in Slavery Slave Narratives', United States Work Projects Administration, 1936.jpg, Barbour County, Alabama, still in use as a residence and photographed {{circa|1936}} for the Slave Narratives project of the Works Progress Administration]]

Cyrus Bellus was born in 1865 in Jefferson County.{{cite web |last1=Bellus |first1=Cyrus |title=SLAVE NARRATIVES A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/11255/11255-h/11255-h.htm#BellusCyrus |website=Gutenberg.org |publisher=Federal Writers Project |access-date=10 April 2025}} His parents, Cyrus and Matilda Bellus, were enslaved by David Hunt. His father's parents were John and Dinah Major, who were owned by David Hunt. His mother's parents were Annie and Stephen Hall. He said his parents were field hands. The men had to pick 400 pounds of cotton and the women had to pick 300 pounds of cotton in a day. If they didn't do it, they were whipped by the overseer. He said that Hunt didn't know what it was to buy shoes for the enslaved. He said they had tanning vats to make the leather, so that they could make their own shoes. He also said that the enslaved spun thread and wove cloth with which to make their clothes, and that they knitted socks. He said that the enslaved sometimes worked all night at this. According to David Hunt's son Dunbar, this program of home industry to provide most of the supplies for all of the family plantations was mainly carried out on David's home plantation of Woodlawn. The enslaved were allowed to have fun during certain hours when they would play fiddles, sing, dance and have wrestling matches. They had to turn a kettle over in their cabin to keep their religious praying and singing from being heard outside. They lived in one room log houses with one window and one door. Each was big enough for one family. The working age enslaved were each given four pounds of meat and a peck of meal per week. They ate before sunrise in their cabins and again in their cabins at seven or eight at night. The children were fed during the day by the enslaved who were too old to work with food from the big house. Cyrus went to a Jefferson County school called Dobbins Bridge for three years. He stopped at age 15 and worked as a share cropper until he was 26. Then he moved to Wilderness Plantation - probably the Hunt's Issaquena County, Mississippi Wilderness Plantation, which was right on the Mississippi River. Then he moved on to Arkansas.
Tilde (short for Matilda) was enslaved on Woodlawn Plantation. She moved to 287 Jackson Avenue (the street has since been renumbered) in the Garden District of New Orleans in about 1865 to work as a nurse for David Hunt's daughter Elizabeth (Hunt) Ogden's children when she married William F. Ogden that year. It was a large house on the corner of Jackson and Carondelet Street. Tilde was referred to as a girl who slept in the nursery with the children, and it was written that Elizabeth took charge of her in every way. The live-in servants were a butler, cook, maid and nurse. Someone came from outside the residence to do the washing and ironing. Elizabeth once sold some of her diamonds to take her family on a trip to Niagara Falls. Tilde went to Niagra Falls with them. Tilde later married in New Orleans and moved on.{{cite journal |last1=Anderson |first1=Elizabeth Ogden (Reed) |title=My Mother - A Southern Saga |journal=A Family Account}}
The 1861 property appraisal taken after David Hunt's death lists his approximately 375 Jefferson County enslaved by name and value. They lived on David Hunt's Woodlawn, Fatlands, Brick Quarters (which were in close proximity) and Black Creek Plantations. It is highly likely that the partial list below includes most of the people mentioned above.{{cite web |last1=Jefferson County |title="Mississippi Probate Records, 1781-1930" Catalog: Probate records, 1800-1930 Probate records v. H 1859-1866 |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99Q8-FFTX?i=319&cc=2036959&cat=239972&lang=en |website=Family Search |publisher=Family Search |access-date=14 February 2025}}

Woodlawn 123 enslaved	Fatlands 121 enslaved	Brick Quarters 128 enslaved \|\| Black Creek 3 enslaved
class="wikitable mw-datatable"
Peter, age 15, $1,000	John, $1,000	Cyrus 1,200
Jane, age 35, $700	Dinah, $800	Matilda, $500
Peter, age 4, $200	Peter, $800	Anna, $100
Jacob, age 9, $400	Sophy, $800	Stephen, $100
Isaac, age 8, $400	Stephen, $50	William, $800
Matilda, age 6, $300	Ann, $100	Alice, $50
Matilda, age 20, $800
Ann and Infant, age 48, $500

Owner's Residence

File:Woodlawn Plantation Owner's Residence, Jefferson County, Mississippi.jpg residence on Woodlawn Plantation in Jefferson County, Mississippi. Hunt was known for his frugality, and this house was modest for his millionaire status.]]

File:"Old_Slave_Kitchen"_image_from_1920_history_of_Caroline_County,_Maryland.jpg

The house, begun in 1813, took the place of a log house; and was constructed from cypress logs, which were sawed into suitable building material on the plantation. It was still not totally complete by 1815. The structure rested on brick pillars.{{cite book |last1=Logan |first1=Marie T. |title=Mississippi-Louisiana Border Country: Revised Edition |date=1980 |publisher=Claitor's Publishing Division |location=Baton Rouge, Louisiana |pages=142, 143, 144, 153, 154 |edition=Second}} The first floor originally had a center hall with one room on each side. This floor was later changed to have two rooms on each side of the center hall. A stairway at the rear of the center hall led to the second floor. The second floor originally had a small cloakroom to the right of the stairs. The rest was one large room, used as a ballroom. The ballroom was later partitioned off into three bedrooms, which made four rooms on that floor including the cloakroom.

The first floor rooms were plastered. The second floor had walls that were just rough boards with wainscoting. The fireplace mantels were wooden with a distinctive design. The house had a small portico on the front and a porch that ran the full length of the rear. There were originally three cisterns around the house. Food was passed through the dining room window from the separate kitchen building to the right of the house - with no door ever being installed.

In December, 1861 the owner's residence, kitchen (and store room) and probably a carriage house on Woodlawn had the following. parlor furniture, dining room furniture, hall furniture, furniture for 2 downstairs bedrooms, furniture for 5 upstairs bedrooms, 2 entries up stairs furniture, kitchen furniture, 10 barrels molasses, 8 sacks salt, 1,000 pounds meat, 1 loom, 2 carriages with harnesses.