Somehow, descendents of slaves became major landowners of what used to be the Davis estate.
Its a bit blurry from a historical perspective, if for no other reason than after his release from Ft Monroe, Davis was not just a ‘man without a country’ but without means, or land holdings. He worked and lived on the largess of supporters that faired much better, and in a few instances actually prospered, in the wake of the defeat of the South.
As I recall it, he was living on the estate of a woman rumored to be his lover, and his wife Varina refused to join him there, using a reference to a three way relationship that for the era was a bit crude, but right on ‘point’. To say that marriage had some obsticles to overcome is a gross understatement. Most marriages don’t survive the death of a child, and the Davis’s youngest son’s sudden death after falling from a balcony in Richmond devastated both of them forever, according to the histories.
Davis had a slave who performed the duties of overseer, which is a far cry from running the plantation. In Davis' absence his brother was responsible for managing the property. And it should be noted that while Pemberton was trusted to a certain extent by Davis and did act as overseer, he was still a slave and remained a slave till the day he died. In all his years as a slave owner, not once did Jefferson Davis ever emancipate a single slave he owned.