Joseph Emory Davis

Joseph Emory Davis (10 December 1784 – 18 September 1870) was an American lawyer who became one of the wealthiest planters in Mississippi in the antebellum era; he owned thousands of acres of land and was among the nine men in Mississippi who owned more than 300 slaves. He was the elder brother (by 23 years) of Jefferson Davis and acted as his surrogate father for several years. The younger Davis became a politician, U.S. Senator, and later President of the Confederacy.

In the 1820s, Joseph Davis developed the Hurricane Plantation at Davis Bend, Mississippi.

Joseph Davis provided living conditions to his enslaved laborers that were better than on neighboring plantations. Davis allowed slaves marginal self-government and provided skills training and health care. He left the plantations in 1862 during the American Civil War, but they continued to operate under Union direction, as well as to house black soldiers and refugees. After the war, Davis received a pardon and regained his lands. But, in the 1867 spring floods, the Mississippi River cut a new channel across the peninsula and transformed Davis Bend into Davis Island. Davis moved to Vicksburg, selling the plantation to Benjamin Montgomery, his former slave who had been an outstanding manager. Davis encouraged him in making a community of freedmen.