Overview

Location

Jefferson Co. MS. David Hunt's Black Creek Plantation probably began in about 1818 when Hunt acquired about 600 acres of land at T10N-R1W sections 39 and 43. It was expanded in 1840 and 1844 when David bought 747 more acres of land at T10N-R1W sections 26, 27, and 40. The plantation was on Black Creek, which was a small creek that emptied into Coles Creek near where Coles Creek emptied into the MS River at that time. The MS RIver has since shifted away to the west so that the land is about a mile or so from where Coles Creek empties into the MS River now. The land can be found at the following two websites.

1. The General Land Office Recores at the Bureau of Land Management website. http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/SurveySearch/Survey_Detail.asp?dmid=74216&Index=66&QryID=2095.385
2. The MS Department of Transportation website County Highway maps shows this land. http://www.gomdot.com

Date Constructed/ Founded

1818 through 1844.

Associated Surnames

Hunt

Historical notes

This plantation was named after Black Creek which ran through part of this plantation.

This plantation was never a residence for any of the Hunt clan before the Civil War. It would have been operated for David Hunt by a plantation manager who lived on the plantation. In a 1900 lawsuit, the plantation had 2,200 acres. In the lawsuit the value of the plantation appeared to have been mainly in its cypress trees, which like to grow in swampy conditions. Thus, a lot of this plantation's land must have been a swamp; but of course to have been called a plantation it would have had at least 20 slaves and a cash crop growing there before the Civil War.

David Hunt's daughter Elizabeth inherited this plantation just after the Civil War. It was put into a trust  which allowed her husband to have the plantation until his death and for it to then to go to her surviving children. The four surviving children got the plantation in 1899. The real value of the 2,200 acre plantation was in it's 30,000 cypress trees, which Elizabeth's husband cut and sold. Thus, the children just inherited 2,200 acres that wasn't worth much. In 1900 the four children tried to sue someone - maybe the trustee - for the value of the trees. They lost.

Associated Slave Workplaces

• See David Hunt's Woodlawn Plantation MS

Associated Free Persons

• David Hunt

Associated Enslaved Persons

• From the 1860 Federal Slave Schedule, Jefferson Co. Transcribed by Tom Blake, 386 slaves - HUNT, David, Police Dist. 4, page 60B. (These 386 slaves would have been spread across the several plantations that David Hunt owned in Jefferson Co. - see Woodlawn Plantation MS}

Research Leads and Plantation Records

• none reported yet

Miscellaneous Information

• none

References

*Plantations of David Hunt, by Andy McMillon. http://jeffersoncountyms.org/davidhunt.htm

*The Hunt Family of Jefferson County, by Andy McMillion. http://jeffersoncountyms.org/hunt_family.htm

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