Meredith Calhoun (c. 1805 – March 14, 1869) was an American landowner and slaveholder, known for owning some of the largest plantations in the Red River area north of Alexandria, Louisiana.
Calhoun played a major role in the inter-regional slave trade of the American South, acting as a broker for the purchase and sale of thousands of enslaved persons.
[2] An 1842 advertisement for "valuable cotton land" (in the form of a pair of Alabama plantations from Smith's estate) reported that Calhoun lived in Huntsville during the summer and in New Orleans during the winter.
"[4] In 1840 Calhoun placed a runaway slave ad in a Huntsville newspaper seeking to recover Charles, "an excellent plasterer," about 30 years old, with notices also placed in Tuscaloosa, Louisville, and Nashville papers.
The highest plantation engaged in its culture on Red River is at its confluence with the Bon Dieu, that of Meredith Calhoun, Esq., who has erected a most magnificent brick house and purgery more than 300 feet (91 m) long, and will this year make some 200 hhds.
As he passed through London, he says Mr. Yancey told him he anticipated the breaking of the blockade by England and France between the 15th of October and the 15th November, at farthest, in which opinion Mr. C., whose opportunities for acquiring information very favorable, fully concurs.
"[13] As of June 1862 Calhoun's house in Huntsville had been occupied by the U.S. Army which had used it as a field hospital; news reports stated that "this mansion cost $50,000, contains a large and handsome collection of paintings, statuary, &c, including some rare specimens of Mosaic tables, a facsimile of the celebrated Warwick vase, &c., and that the grounds are laid out in parterres, with elaborate elegance, It is to be hoped that these will be spared from vandal depredations.