Edward Ward (businessman)

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Edward Ward (born in the 1770s – December 22, 1837) was a Virginia-born American businessman and politician who became active in Tennessee and Alabama. A landowner, he served three terms in the Tennessee legislature. In 1804 he bought Andrew Jackson’s second plantation, Hunter’s Hill (640 acres), for about $10,000. Ward was president of the Clover Bottom Jockey Club and, according to some accounts, once won about $500 in gold from Jackson in a bet on a cockfight. He and Jackson were involved in land speculation around Huntsville and Florence, Alabama, and in 1809 Ward bought 4,500 acres in western Madison County, Alabama for over $13,000.

After the Panic of 1819, Ward and Jackson opposed a debtor-relief act and sent a memorial of protest to the Tennessee assembly; the assembly refused to accept it, saying its language was disrespectful to lawmakers. The memorial charged some lawmakers who supported the loan-office act with perjury because they had sworn to uphold the Constitution but then supported the measure to pay debts with something other than gold and silver.

Ward ran for governor in 1821 but lost to William Carroll. He was murdered in 1837 by four of his nephews. An 1839 abolitionist pamphlet used his murder as an example of depraved violence associated with slaveholding.