Joseph Emory Davis

Joseph Emory Davis was born on 10 December 1784, near Augusta, Georgia. He was the oldest of the ten children of Samuel Emory Davis (Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Province of Pennsylvania, 1756 - 4 July 1824) and wife (1783) Jane (Cook) Davis (Christian County (later Todd County), Kentucky, 1759 - 3 October 1845), paternal grandson of Evan Davis (Cardiff, Glamorgan, Wales, Great Britain, 1729 - 1758) and wife Lydia Emory, and maternal grandson of William Cook and wife Sarah Simpson, daughter of Samuel Simpson (1706 - 1791) and wife Hannah ... (1710 -). Samuel farmed in Georgia, but in 1793 the Davis family (by then consisting of the couple, four sons, and a daughter) set out for the newly formed state of Kentucky, where the land was more promising. In Kentucky, four more daughters were born, and lastly son Jefferson in 1808. Joseph was 23 years older than Jefferson. ==Legal career==

At an early age, Joseph Davis began working in a mercantile house. He studied law in Russellville and in Wilkinson County, Mississippi, where he accompanied his father in 1811 to explore the area. He was admitted to the bar in 1812 and first practiced in Pinckneyville, Mississippi. He also worked as an attorney in Greenville. He served as delegate from Jefferson County in the convention that wrote the Mississippi state constitution in 1817. In 1820 Davis moved to the river port of Natchez, Mississippi, where he formed a law partnership with Thomas B. Reed, then the leader of the Mississippi bar. They prospered in Natchez. ==Personal life==

While building his fortune, Davis fathered three illegitimate daughters, born 1811 through 1823. It was not unusual for unmarried men to have relationships and children before marriage. It is not known if the daughters had the same mother. Davis acknowledged them publicly, arranged for them to be educated, supported them, and brought them to live in his household for periods of time. Each of the three girls eventually married, aided by their father's wealth and status. They were Florida Ann Davis (b. 31 March 1811, d. 18 January 1891, Warren County, Mississippi); Mary Lucinda Davis (b. 1 May 1816, d. 22 November 1846, near Vicksburg, Mississippi); and Caroline Davis (b. – d. 13 July 1907, Williamsburg, Virginia). In 1827, the 43-year-old Davis decided to marry and retire from law. He used his savings to buy land and slaves to become a planter. Davis also adopted two children, Joseph D. Nicholson, the infant son of Mrs. Jane Nicholson, and Martha Quarles, daughter of John Quarles. Martha Quarles was the granddaughter of Martha Brooks Wallace. Martha Wallace reared her until age 13 when the girl started living in Davis's household. He was a friend of Margaret Louisa Kempe Howell, whom he had known in his youth, serving as a groomsman at her wedding and accompanying her on a trip to New York. Howell's daughter, Varina, later married Davis's brother. ==Mississippi planter==

As a cotton planter Davis made a fortune, becoming "one of the richest men in Mississippi at the onset of the Civil War." He provided improved living conditions and increased autonomy for the slaves, including establishing a plantation court which included a slave jury system. Recognizing the intelligence and leadership of Ben Montgomery, a slave, Davis made him an overseer. He also entrusted him with running a store on the plantation. Montgomery also negotiated the sale of cotton from both plantations, which was highly unusual for the time. ==American Civil War==

In 1863, after the fall of Vicksburg, Davis took his family and took many of his slaves away from the plantation to Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Such moves were typical of major planters trying to preserve their "property" in chattel. His wife Eliza died the following year. They had no children together. Ben Montgomery continued to run things. But some slaves broke into the Big House and appropriated clothing and furniture. When the Union Army gained control of the area, General Ulysses S. Grant decided to make Davis Bend a "negro paradise" and allowed freedmen to lease land, as well as allowing black refugees to settle in the area. In 1865, Davis Bend raised nearly 2000 bales of cotton which Montgomery arranged for sale at a profit of $160,000. The slave community at Davis Bend had internal conflicts, as well as conflict with some of the military orders during the war. Many left after emancipation. ==Postwar years==

At the war's end, Davis returned to Vicksburg, slightly upriver from Davis Bend. Although his land had been confiscated during the war, he secured a pardon from President Andrew Johnson. He eventually regained his land from the Freedmen's Bureau, which was managing refugees. Many freedmen had already left by 1867 when Davis Bend got cut off from the mainland. The flooding Mississippi River cut a new channel across the neck of the peninsula, transforming it into the island. Davis arranged a mortgage for Montgomery, selling him the plantation on a long-term note to make a community of freedmen. The community continued as a cooperative until it failed in the 1880s, at which time Isaiah Montgomery, Benjamin's son, moved the residents to found a new black community in Mound Bayou, Mississippi. Davis and a granddaughter (born to one of his illegitimate daughters) resided upriver in the city of Vicksburg, from 1868 to his death in 1870. They lived in a grand house known as Anchuca, now on the National Register of Historic Places. Davis became noted for his benevolence, for he paid to educate many youths of both sexes. ==See also==