Adelicia Acklen

Adelicia Acklen
Portrait by William Brown Cooper
Born	Adelicia Hayes March 15, 1817 Nashville, Tennessee
Died	May 4, 1887 (1887-05-05) (aged 70) New York, New York
Resting place	Mount Olivet Cemetery
Occupation(s)	Planter, socialite
Spouses	Isaac Franklin Joseph Alexander Smith Acklen William Archer Cheatham
Children	10, including Joseph H. Acklen and William Hayes Ackland
Relatives	Richard Cheatham (third father-in-law) Sarah Ewing Sims Carter Gaut (cousin)

Adelicia Hayes Franklin Acklen Cheatham (March 15, 1817 – May 4, 1887) was an American planter and slave trader. She became the wealthiest woman in Tennessee and a plantation owner in her own right after the 1846 death of her first husband, Isaac Franklin. As a successful slave trader, he had used his wealth to purchase numerous plantations, lands, and slaves in Tennessee and Louisiana.

In 1880 Acklen sold four contiguous plantations in Louisiana as one property. These have formed the grounds of the Louisiana State Penitentiary (also known as "Angola" after one of the plantations) since 1901.

When married to her second husband, Joseph Alexander Smith Acklen, Adelicia Acklen built the Belmont Mansion in Nashville, Tennessee. She sold the property in 1887; it was converted for use as a girls' school and later junior college campus. It is now operated as a museum at the center of what is now known as Belmont University.