Day 13 - Benjamin Montgomery - On His Own Terms

Benjamin Montgomery

What does it look like when you are so brilliant and capable people have no choice but to acknowledge it no matter what or who they think you are?

It looks like Benjamin Thornton Montgomery. (1819 - 1877)

Benjamin was born in 1819 to an enslaved woman in Loudon County, VA. The first enslaver used Benjamin as a companion for his young son. I have to assume they were little boys together. This was not an unusual thing.


What was unusual was that the enslaver's son taught Benjamin how to read and write.

I could find no reason for this, but at some point, the first enslaver decided to, as Mark Twain called it in his book Puddin' Head Wilson, "sell Benjamin down the river".

These days we use the phrase - Selling someone down the river - as a way of saying that someone betrayed them.

Always Had Mixed Feelings About This

Back in the days of enslavement when the phrase came into the vernacular, it was used to denote an enslaved person who was sold from the northern states to the southern states because they were a problem. They would be sold to the cotton plantations as a punishment. The southern states were seen as a place where enslaved people would be treated inhumanely.

There is absolutely no information that I could find that explained why Benjamin was sold further south. I just thought I'd throw that lovely little piece of etymology in there.

Benjamin was sold to Joseph E. Davis, brother of Jefferson Davis - who was the first and only president of the Confederacy - in Natchez, MS in 1836.


I didn't know much about either Joseph or Jefferson Davis before I wrote this. I ended up having to research them to really get a good picture of why what happened next happened.

Joseph E. Davis

Before we go further, let me state that both Jefferson and Joseph - based on what they did - seem to have been morally upright, civic-minded citizens. They worked in their communities, they loved America, they held office, and they were saddened that the abolitionists made them have to withdraw from the Union.

 Joseph believed in the "Jeffersonian philosophy" about enslaved people. In summary, enslavement is wrong. Though negroes are a "lesser race" they should be eased out of enslavement.





Joseph Davis provided the enslaved people on his land with medical care and allowed them to sell their own products and keep the money so long as they paid him for the lost labor he experienced when they were working for themselves. He created a court on his lands so they could settle legal problems, provided them enough to eat, and trusted them to police themselves instead of hiring overseers. It was a community of enslaved people that worked the land and took care of his business while also taking care of themselves.

Benjamin Montgomery delighted and surprised Joseph Davis. When the enslaver discovered Benjamin could read, he encouraged him to use the library on Hurricane Plantation. 

Hurricane Plantation

The more Joseph knew of Benjamin, the more impressed he became. Eventually, he put Benjamin in charge of both his and Jefferson Davis' plantation which was right next door.

Benjamin was not only a reader, organizer, and leader, he learned about land surveying and management, taught himself how to create and read architectural designs, and learned about flood management. He was also mechanically minded. He repaired machines and did everything on the plantation that needed doing. He also ran the commissary where the enslaved people could sell their products and buy things on credit from Joseph Davis.

Okay, and now we get into the potential mythology part as I could find only one source for this story.

Apparently, Benjamin escaped from Hurricane Plantation at some point. He was captured and returned to Joseph. The two men were supposed to have had a long, involved conversation, about why Benjamin decided to run away and the end result was that they came to some kind of mutual agreement.

(I would like to interject at this point that I have written and deleted several paragraphs about how infuriating it was to realize that Joseph Davis had no idea that Montgomery might find being enslaved onerous even if the enslaver was beneficent! Still, I wasn't in that conversation, so I don't know how it went. Heck, I don't even know if it actually happened!)

Joseph allowed Benjamin to open his own store on Hurricane Plantation. Benjamin did business with everybody. The enslaved and the enslavers came to his mercantile. He opened a line of credit in his own name and bought and sold products from as far away as New Orleans. He became a wealthy man. He even paid Joseph Davis for his wife's labor so that she could stay home and raise the children.

Montgomery's Propeller

Because Benjamin was doing business on the Mississippi River, he noticed that sometimes the riverboats that brought his goods ran into shallow water and got stuck, or had to make long trips to avoid shallow areas. This delayed his shipments.

At this point in his life, it was generally accepted that nobody, black or white, was as skilled a mechanic as Benjamin Montgomery. He put his mind to the problem and came up with a solution.


He modified a propeller for steamboats that could adjust its angle and how it moved so that it could even maneuver in shallow water. It changed the steamboat industry on the Mississippi.

In 1858 Benjamin attempted to patent his upgrades. The United States patent office refused his patent. He was enslaved, and therefore not a citizen of the country, and therefore not allowed to hold a patent.

In years to come, both Jefferson and Joseph Davis attempted to patent the device under their own names, and both were denied because they were not the original inventors.

After the Civil War, Benjamin was a freedman. He returned to Hurricane Plantation and started farming it with other freedmen.

Joseph sold the plantation to Benjamin for 300,000 dollars.

Montgomery was potentially the first freedman to assume an elected office. In 1867, he was appointed as Justice of The Peace for Davis Bend, the name that was given to the settlement of freedmen living on the land that had been Joseph and Jefferson Davis' plantations.

Davis Bend

Benjamin wanted to turn it into a community for freedmen.

His dream did not come true. After he died,  his sons continued his legacy.

After the Civil War, Benjamin Montgomery was one of the wealthiest plantation owners in the southern United States.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it!


Joseph Davis and Benjamin Montgomery became close friends in the years they spent together.

In fact, when Joseph Davis died, Benjamin oversaw having his body transported to Davis Bend and buried him with honor on Brierfield Plantation Cemetery which was part of Hurricane Plantation at the time.

So, here is to Benjamin Thornton Montgomery. He was an amazing man in his own right and on his own terms. He wasn't successful because somebody gave him a boost. He was successful because nobody stopped him.

Celebrate Black History!