Background
Haller Nutt was born on February 17, 1816 on Laurel Hill Plantation in Jefferson County, Mississippi. His father was Doctor Rush Nutt, son of Richard Nutt of Northumberland County, Virginia. Nutt returned to Mississippi and helped his father manage the Laurel Hill Plantation.
Education
Nutt was educated at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia from 1832 to 1835.
Career
He was a successful cotton planter and plantation owner in Mississippi. He developed a strain of cotton that became important commercially for the Deep South. He owned several plantations, including:
the Araby Plantation in Louisiana. the Evergreen Plantation in Louisiana. the Winter Quarters Plantation in Louisiana. the Cloverdale Plantation in Mississippi. the Laurel Hill Plantation in Mississippi.
These plantations brought him considerable wealth.
He made a Netto profit of more than $228,000 from agricultural enterprises in 1860. He owned 43,000 acres (170 km2) of land and 800 slaves.
His fortune prior to the Civil War was estimated at more than three million dollars. He suffered large financial losses during the American Civil War due to the destruction of his cotton fields and real estate.
However, General Grant spared the Winter Quarters plantation because Nutt was pro-Union.
Nevertheless, the expropriation of stores and supplies by the Union and Confederate armies led to the foreclosure on Nutt"s plantations in Louisiana. After the war, he filed documents with the federal government that would compensate for the loss of assets due to the Union army. Nutt died on June 15, 1864, of pneumonia.
His family continued living at Longwood plantation after his death.