John Jenkins Poindexter (c. 1816–1870) was an American slave trader, commission merchant, school commissioner, and steamboat master of Louisiana and Mississippi.

[11] As of the 1850 census, Poindexter lived in Tensas Parish, Louisiana with his nine-year-old son; the head of the household was Thomas B.

"[14] In October 1857 Poindexter was seeking the return of an 18-year-old named Ruffin with "lips very much scarred" who was the legal property of Daniel Craig of Arkansas.

[15] Also in October 1857 a 21-year-old "griffe color" man named Simon escaped from Poindexter's slave depot at 63 and 65 Barrone Street in New Orleans.

[16] In 1860 John J. Poindexter appeared in the federal census of New Orleans with occupation "slave depot," and personal property worth $40,000.

[18] The Poindexter & Little slave depot in New Orleans appears in the 1914 biography of Allen Allensworth, a survivor of American slavery:[19] The next day, under a Negro driver, they were marched out of the slave mart here, double file to the steamboat landing at Memphis and placed on a packet for New Orleans.

There was Uncle Billy with a gigantic physical frame, who looked as if he drank ox blood at every meal, whose business it was to give the cat-o'-nine-tails when a man or woman was assigned to the 'horse.'

Many times were men and women sent out to Uncle Billy to be punished, possibly in compliance with the instructions of their owners, who, when placing these folks, ordered that for so many days they were to be given from 10 to 50 lashes a day on their naked backs.In April 1861, in his capacity as the Common Schools Commissioner of Arkansas County, Arkansas, Poindexter offered for sale two sections of land, totalling 1,280 acres.

In his Confederate amnesty application Poindexter claimed had taken no active part in the rebellion against the United States but had removed with his steamboat to the Red River where he remained for the duration.