Davis Island is a large

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

located in the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

. It lies mostly in

Warren County Warren County is the name of fourteen counties in the USA. Some are named after General Joseph Warren, who was killed in the Battle of Bunker Hill in the American Revolutionary War: * Warren County, Georgia * Warren County, Illinois * Warren County ...

in the state of

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

but is also partly in Madison Parish, in the state of

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

. It is located about 20 miles southwest of

Vicksburg, Mississippi Vicksburg is a historic city in Warren County, Mississippi, United States. It is the county seat, and the population at the 2010 census was 23,856. Located on a high bluff on the east bank of the Mississippi River across from Louisiana, Vic ...

, USA. The island is approximately in size depending on the level of the

. It was formerly a peninsula known as Davis Bend, with an area of rich bottomlands, bounded on three sides by the Mississippi River.Brian Hamilton, "Davis Island: A Confederate Shrine, Submerged"
''Edge Effects'', 9 October 2014, University of Wisconsin-Madison, accessed 14 June 2015 Before the American Civil War, Joseph Davis developed his

Hurricane Plantation Hurricane Plantation located near Vicksburg, Mississippi, was the home of Joseph Emory Davis (1784–1870), the oldest brother of Jefferson Davis. Located on a peninsula of the Mississippi River in Warren County, Mississippi, called Davis Bend a ...

for cotton production on the peninsula. He worked to develop a model slave community, providing more autonomy to his slaves, for instance allowing them to keep a certain portion of monies they earned. He bought the land in 1818. In the 1830s he allowed his much younger brother (by 23 years), future

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Jefferson Davis Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives as a ...

, the use of an adjoining . There, the younger Davis developed

Brierfield Plantation Brierfield Plantation was a large forced-labor cotton farm built in 1847 in Davis Bend, Mississippi, south of Vicksburg and the home of Confederate president Jefferson Davis. History The use of the plantation, with more than 1,000 acres, was ...

. Joseph never gave the younger Davis title to that land, which caused legal problems after his death in 1870. The peninsula was separated from the mainland by a shift in the river in March 1867, after which it was an island accessible only by water. After the war, Davis provided a mortgage to

Ben Montgomery Benjamin Thornton Montgomery (1819–1877) was an influential African-American inventor, landowner, and freedman in Mississippi. He was taught to read and write English, and became manager of supply and shipping for Joseph Emory Davis at Hurrica ...

, his former slave who had managed his plantation, and other freedmen, to acquire both plantations. They operated them for several years, but declining cotton prices, economic hard times in the financial panic, and the repeated flooding caused failure. Davis heirs foreclosed on the note, forcing Montgomery descendants and others to leave the island. After several years of litigation, in 1878 Jefferson Davis gained legal possession of Brierfield plantation from his brother's heirs. He never lived at the plantation again; both he and other Davis family members leased the properties to tenant farmers. Their only access was by water. Following the

Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 was the most destructive river flood in the history of the United States, with inundated in depths of up to over the course of several months in early 1927. The uninflated cost of the damage has been estimat ...

, which inundated nearly , the US Army Corps of Engineers raised the height of the levees to try to prevent such damage in the future. This had the unintended consequence of increasing the severity of flooding of Davis Island. It has been under water more than once. The Davis family finally sold the properties in 1953, and the private Brierfield Hunting Club has controlled most of the island since then. Access is only by water.

References

External links

Brian Hamilton, "Davis Island: A Confederate Shrine, Submerged"
''Edge Effects'', 9 October 2014, University of Wisconsin-Madison River islands of Louisiana River islands of Mississippi Landforms of Madison Parish, Louisiana Landforms of Warren County, Mississippi Islands of the Mississippi River {{WarrenCountyMS-geo-stub

References

Further reading

External links