Abijah Hunt was an American merchant, planter, slave trader, and banker in the Natchez District.
22 Facts About Abijah Hunt
1.
2.
Abijah Hunt was killed in a duel with George Poindexter in 1811.
3.
Abijah Hunt moved from New Jersey to Cincinnati, Ohio to work as a merchant supplying the United States Army soldiers stationed at Fort Washington there.
4.
Abijah Hunt worked with his brothers, buying goods on credit in Philadelphia and New York City.
5.
Abijah Hunt made a small fortune providing supplies to the soldiers in Cincinnati.
6.
Land records show that Abijah Hunt bought land around Cincinnati during his time there.
7.
Abijah's nephew David Hunt presumably inherited this land, passing on his Cincinnati investments to his children upon his death.
8.
In 1795 Abijah helped his cousin, John Wesley Hunt, set up a similar merchant business in nearby Lexington, Kentucky.
9.
In 1798, Abijah Hunt moved to the Natchez District of Mississippi.
10.
Abijah Hunt reportedly built the first cotton gin in Greenville around 1808, which was in active use until 1848.
11.
Abijah Hunt invested some of his money in land, developing cotton plantations in Adams, Jefferson and Claiborne counties.
12.
Abijah Hunt developed a profitable slave-trading business with John, Jeremiah, and Jesse Hunt beginning in 1800.
13.
John would ship the slaves from Kentucky to Mississippi, where Abijah Hunt predicted he could get an average of $500 for them.
14.
In 1799, Abijah Hunt was appointed as deputy US postmaster of the Mississippi Territory.
15.
In 1807, Winthrop Sargent bought Bellevue Plantation in Adams County from Abijah Hunt and renamed it Gloucester.
16.
In 1808, Abijah Hunt sold a plantation on the Bayou Pierre in Claiborne County, complete with 60 or 61 slaves.
17.
Abijah Hunt lived in Greenville on the Old Natchez Trace in Jefferson County.
18.
Abijah Hunt had the misfortune, in 1811, to fight a duel with Gov.
19.
Some detail about the duel that killed Hunt comes from a letter written by Thomas A Claiborne to Andrew Jackson.
20.
Abijah Hunt died June 9 or June 11,1811, at the age of 49, two or three days after he was shot during a duel with Democratic Republican opponent George Poindexter.
21.
The inventory of Abijah Hunt's estate listed his 60 slaves by name, which were divided into two plantation groupings in Jefferson and Claiborne Counties.
22.
Abijah Hunt bought out his Uncle's other partners, and acquired probably all of his uncle's personal property as well.