Thursday, October 1, 2026
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Imagine a steamboat gliding along the Mississippi River in 1858, the scent of magnolia and cigar smoke drifting through the air, while gentle banjo music plays on deck. Near Vicksburg, you spot the grand Hurricane Plantation. As was the captain’s custom, the boat pauses and docks, giving passengers a chance to stretch their legs and shop for honey, fresh eggs, and flowers at the plantation store. Eliza Davis, the plantation owner's wife, often greeted visitors personally and offered tours of the flourishing gardens—adding to the estate’s allure and showcasing the legacy of a family that had risen from modest beginnings.
Joseph Emory Davis was born on December 10, 1784, in Georgia. In 1793, his family relocated to Kentucky, and finally Mississippi. After the death of his father, Joseph—then the eldest son—assumed the role of family patriarch. He became a guiding force for his eight younger siblings, including Jefferson Davis, the youngest, offering mentorship that would shape their lives.
After earning a law degree in 1820, Joseph settled in Natchez, Mississippi, where he built a successful legal career and quickly became one of the town’s most eligible bachelors. In a surprising departure from social norms of the time, he fathered three children out of wedlock prior to 1827. He publicly acknowledged them, gave them his surname, brought them into his home, and ensured they received an excellent education. That same year, he married Eliza Van Benthusen, a member of a prominent and wealthy New York family that had recently relocated to New Orleans. Joseph and Eliza shared a devoted, forty-five-year marriage.
Dissatisfied with urban life, Joseph purchased land along a bend of the Mississippi River that came to be known as Davis Bend. There, he established Hurricane Plantation, which grew to over 5,000 acres and became one of Mississippi’s leading cotton producers. His vision extended beyond economic success—he sought to create a model plantation focused on the well-being of the 365 enslaved individuals who lived and labored there.
The library pavilion at Hurricane Plantation, one of the few structures of the main house to avoid destruction by Federal troops
Public Domain
In a period of rigid racial hierarchy, Davis’s approach was considered radical. He provided improved living conditions, a degree of autonomy, and even instituted plantation laws that included a slave jury and a slave judge. Writing for the Mississippi Historical Society in 2007, historian Neil McMillen noted, “These Black ‘servants’—he [Davis] never called them ‘slaves’—were permitted to operate an independent court that, for the most part, managed plantation discipline. His enslaved field hands enjoyed relatively good working conditions, comfortable quarters, adequate food and clothing, and a level of medical and dental care unknown to poor White people.”
Among the most notable individuals at Hurricane was Benjamin Montgomery, an enslaved man who learned to read and write. Davis placed him in charge of the plantation store, allowing him to retain profits from sales. McMillen wrote, “Ben is known to have been a brilliant and enterprising man... and achieved a level of independence and responsibility that have few parallels in the annals of plantation slavery. His mercantile establishment flourished, and Ben soon established his own credit line with New Orleans wholesalers. For a time, Ben even financed an extraordinary biracial education experiment, in which a White tutor of his employ taught the Montgomery and Davis children in a single classroom.”
In 1862, with the Civil War underway, Joseph and Eliza fled to Alabama. Eliza died the following year; the couple had no children together. During their absence, parts of Hurricane were burned, and the plantation was confiscated by Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant. Though Joseph returned to Vicksburg after the war, he never again set foot on Hurricane Plantation.
