Historians In Awe Over Discovery At Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello Property

Acklen Turned Down A Presidential Appointment

Joseph Hayes Acklen was originally a lawyer in Nashville but left law behind to tend to his family’s many sugar plantations near Pattersonville, Louisiana. He also served as Colonel of the Louisiana Militia. He later served as a U.S. Representative from Louisiana and even turned down an appointment from President Rutherford B. Hayes to become a federal judge.

His family built the “Belmont Mansion and owned seven plantations in Louisiana, another 2,000-acre plantation in Tennessee, and 50,000+ acres of land in Texas. The Acklens were one of the largest slave-owning families, owning upwards of 659 enslaved black human beings.