David Cobb (b. between 1776 and 1794 – d. September 17, 1826) was an early 19th-century American slave trader and tobacco merchant who worked in Lexington and lived in central Kentucky.
[6] In 1823, David Cobb, Daniel Bradford, and James Kelly were tenants of a building located on the north west corner of Short and Upper streets in Lexington, Kentucky.
[8] Cobb was based in Lexington at the time of his death in 1826,[1] and in spring of that year had been tenant of a brick house with a lot located on Constitution Street.
[11] At the time of his murder, a newspaper in Rhode Island stated that "One of the individuals, who fell a victim to the fury of the slaves, as above recited, [Cobb] is a man who has for many years been engaged in the slave trade; and he possessed a heart so callous to all the feelings of our natures, that it is almost incredible to suppose that the pointed steel could reach its centre.
'"[12] Abolitionist Lewis Hayden, who had escaped from slavery in Lexington, Kentucky, wrote to Harriet Beecher Stowe about the slave trade that, "I knew a great many of them, such as Neal, McAnn, Cobb, Stone, Pulliam, and Davis, &c. They were like Haley, they meant to repent when they got through.