Last week we ended our story with a hint of mystery concerning the death of Joel Cameron, who had been killed by his slaves. Joel was a close friend of Alexander G. McNutt. Alexander G. McNutt if you remember was the son of Alexander and Rachel (Grigsby) McNutt of Rockbridge County, Virginia. He was also an uncle to Brig. General Bull Paxton and first cousin to Ann Glasgow of Adams County, Ohio. Before we look into Joel’s death let’s take a look at the life of Joel Cameron.
Joel Cameron was born circa 1785. In 1829, he married Elizabeth “Bettie” Ann Lewis, a beautiful girl twenty years younger than he. Joel and Alexander G. McNutt were not only friends but business partners both owning half of a 4,000-acre plantation called, “Walnut Hills” just outside of Vicksburg, Mississippi. They owned around 65 slaves. The plantation produced “the largest crops in proportion to the number of hands employed ever known in Mississippi,” wrote Author Henry S. Foote. Mr. Foote was a Mississippi lawyer, a politician who was known for his hot temper and he had a reputation as a duelist. He was also considered the worst shot in the state. Foote goes on to say, “Perhaps Cameron was, upon the whole, one of the most skillful planters that had ever undertaken the cultivation of the earth; and the plantation upon which he was located had been long celebrated as being peculiarly adapted to the growing of cotton. The plantation was situated among the hills which surrounded Vicksburg on all sides except along the river bank.”
Foote writes that Cameron, though skilled as a farmer, had a demon soul. “The community could have little or no regret that Cameron had ceased to live.” wrote Foote. “He had been long recognized as a monster of cruelty, and had little social interaction except with his own father-in-law.” In fact, it was generally believed that Cameron had killed as many as eight of his own slaves. His father-in-law, Stephen Lewis, a blacksmith, was a scary man too. Lewis had been tried and exonerated twice for killing two men. According to Foote, “The last of the murders” committed by Lewis, “with which he had been charged was one inflicted upon a negro fellow, whom he had actually held upon the burning coals until the fire found its way to his vitals.” The only reason nothing had ever been done to either Cameron or his father-in-law, Lewis, was due to the fact that all of the known victims were black. Foote wrote, that he regretted to say that in that part of the South, juries were not all accustomed to hanging white men for murder done upon the sons and daughters of Africa.
Now for the details of Joel Camerson’s murder. It happened early one morning in 1833. It was his daily routine to ride horseback out to the fields where his hands were at work. The murderers laid in wait, as Joel rode upon a narrow path which ran along the verge of a thicket of brushwood. There they pulled him from his horse and proceeded to beat him unmercifully with clubs. After he had been killed by repeated blows, the murderers attached large iron weights to his bruised and broken body, and sank it in the waters of a nearby lake. After which, Joel’s saddled horse
ran back to the barn without its rider. Immediately, suspicions were aroused. Where was master Joel Cameron? A search was immediately launched. Next week we will continue to look into the mystery. Who wanted Joel dead and why? Why does Alexander G., Camerson’s friend and partner, suddenly become a major topic of discussion?