David Hunt (October 22, 1779 – May 18, 1861) was an American planter based in the Natchez District of Mississippi.

Known as "King David," Hunt made a fortune in cotton production and sales.

He had a brother, Andrew Hunt, and several half siblings from his father Jonathan's second marriage.

[6] Shortly before the American Civil War, Hunt and his adult children owned a total of some 1,700 slaves and controlled tens of thousands of acres of land.

[1] Two of the people Hunt enslaved, Cyrus Bellus and Peter Brown, recorded interviews that were later included in the WPA Slave Narrative Collection for the state of Arkansas.

[5] Additionally, he owned business concerns in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Lexington, Kentucky.

[17][18] Hunt was among the largest financial supporters of Oakland College, near Rodney, Mississippi, which was founded in affiliation with the Presbyterian Church.

The state legislature used this facility to establish the first land grant institution for African Americans in American history, named Alcorn A&M College and now called Alcorn University, a historically black college.

[20] The Presbyterian Church used the money from the sale to found Chamberlain-Hunt Academy in nearby Port Gibson in 1879.

Many of David Hunt's descendants or relatives attended Chamberlain-Hunt over the years and until quite recently.

[1] He was related to John Wesley Hunt, who lived in the Hunt-Morgan House in Lexington.