Dr. Stephen Duncan (1787-1867)
M.D., President of the Bank of Mississippi & Cotton Planter, of "Auburn" Natchez
He was born and educated in Pennsylvania. Becoming a Physician, he served in the Seminole War. In 1808, he moved to Mississippi where he became the wealthiest cotton planter and the second-largest slave owner in the country with over 2,200-slaves. He owned 15 cotton and sugar plantations, was President of the Bank of Mississippi, and held major investments in railroads and lumber. In 1827, he bought "Auburn" (see images) from the estate of Lyman Harding and added the wings either side. In the 1830s, he co-founded the Mississippi Colonization Society and helped purchase land in West Africa (Mississippi-in-Africa, Liberia) to create a colony for the relocation of free people of color. He was a Southern Unionist and declined to offer assistance to the Confederate cause in the Civil War. Ostracized, he moved to New York City in 1863.
