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 (~$3.21 million in 2023) 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]