The Natchez nabobs were a group of American planters, lawyers, and politicians who lived in and around the Natchez District of the lower Mississippi River valley during the early- to mid-19th century. The term nabob was borrowed into English from the Hindustani term nawab, and was used to refer to Britons who went to India and returned with large fortunes. During the 1850s, there were 55 "fabulously wealthy" Natchez nabobs. Stephen Duncan was one of them, owning at least 15 plantations where he farmed sugar and cotton with more than 250 slaves. The nabobs were closely collected to one another by a web of kinship ties created by both intermarriage and by joint investments in slaves, land, banks, ships, and trains. Most of the nabobs were not native to the south, and consequently their political makeup was different from that of the archetypical southern plantation owners. After the outbreak of the Civil War, many moved back to their New England homes and supported the Union. In 1863 Dr. Stephen Duncan, one of the richest nabobs, returned to his home in New York. Before exiting, he presented the Confederate government with a bill for $185,000, which he claimed as wartime losses resulting from the secession.