Joseph Dunbar (politician)

Joseph Dunbar (c. 1782–July 15, 1846), sometimes Col. Jo. Dunbar, was a politician, plantation owner, and racehorse owner of the Natchez District in Mississippi, United States. He associated with the Jacksonian Democratic Party in the state. Said to be a "heavy planter" of cotton, he invented the notion of wrapping cotton in iron bands instead of hemp bagging, in part to stick it to Kentucky and South Carolina on tariff issues; cotton grown by his slaves on his land was said to bring high prices from cotton traders selling to the mills of Liverpool, England. At the time of his death he was described by a newspaper of the state capital as "one of the fathers of the State."