Cobb circa 1851
Cobb circa 1851

Joseph Beckham Cobb (April 11, 1819 – September 15, 1858) was an American writer and politician.

Joseph Beckham Cobb was born on April 11, 1819, in Oglethorpe County, Georgia;[1] George T. Buckley identifies Cobb's birthplace as near Lexington, Georgia.[2] His father was Thomas W. Cobb.[3] He attended a school in Willington, South Carolina, and the University of Georgia, leaving in 1838 without a degree.[4] He married Almira Clayton on October 5, 1837.[5]

Cobb moved to Mississippi in 1838 and was elected to the Mississippi Legislature in 1841, resigning in 1843.[6] By 1844 he lived in Columbus, Mississippi, where he held a plantation.[7] As of his death in 1858, his $117,000 (~$3.1 million in 2022) estate included 1,500 acres of land and more than 100 enslaved persons.[5]

Cobb published three books: The Creole (1850), a work of historical fiction; Mississippi Scenes (1851), a set of humorous observations about people and culture in Columbus; and Leisure Labors (1858), an essay collection.[8] He published essays in magazines as well.[7] Jay Broadus Hubbell describes Cobb's politics as "typical of the wealthy Whig planters" in that he opposed secession of the South from the United States.[9] In Mississippi Scenes, he wrote about Indigenous people, including Choctaw, and Black enslaved people, in highly derogatory terms.[10]

Cobb died on September 15, 1858.[11]

Publications

  • "Uncle Billy Brown" (1847)[12]
  • The Creole; or, Siege of New Orleans (1850)[12]
  • Mississippi Scenes; or, Sketches of Southern and Western Life (1851)[8]
  • Leisure Labors; or, Miscellanies Historical, Literary, and Political (1858)[8]

Citations

  1. ↑ Rogers 1969, p. 132.
  2. ↑ Buckley 1938, p. 166.
  3. ↑ Rogers 1969, p. 131.
  4. ↑ Buckley 1938, pp. 166–167.
  5. 1 2 Buckley 1938, p. 167.
  6. ↑ Rogers 1969, pp. 132–133.
  7. 1 2 Hubbell 1954, p. 637.
  8. 1 2 3 Wimsatt, Mary Ann; Phillips, Robert L. (1985). "Antebellum Humor". In Rubin Jr., Louis D. (ed.). The History of Southern Literature. Louisiana State University Press. p. 151. ISBN 0-8071-1251-8. OCLC 12049940.
  9. ↑ Hubbell 1954, p. 638.
  10. ↑ Satz, Ronald N. (1986). "The Mississippi Choctaw: From the Removal Treaty to the Federal Agency". In Wells, Samuel J.; Tubby, Roseanne (eds.). After Removal: The Choctaw in Mississippi. University Press of Mississippi. pp. 16–17. ISBN 978-1-61703-084-0. OCLC 698116897.
  11. ↑ American Authors and Books (3d ed.). Crown Publishing Group. 1972. p. 125. ISBN 0-517-50139-2. OCLC 523487.
  12. 1 2 Wright, Lyle H. (1948). American Fiction, 1774–1850: A Contribution Toward a Bibliography. San Marino, California: Huntington Library. p. 62. OCLC 1145800927.

Works cited

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