Prospect Hill Plantation
Prospect Hill Plantation | |
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Archeological Conservancy | |
The Prospect Hill Plantation was a former 5,000-acre
In 1836, Ross died, and his will freed those enslaved people who agreed to move to Mississippi-in-Africa, and provided for sale of his plantation to fund their move. His will was contested and litigated by a grandson and heir who occupied the plantation while the court case and appeals were litigated. The will was finally upheld by the
In the 1850s, Ross' grandson Isaac Ross Wade reacquired the Prospect Hill property, building a second plantation great house in 1854. Wade and Ross family descendants occupied the house until 1956, and it was occupied by others until 1968.
This mansion still stands today. In 2011 the plantation and house were acquired by the
Location
The plantation is located in a rural area near Lorman in Jefferson County, Mississippi.[1] By car, it is located 15 minutes east of Lorman, 20 minutes away from Port Gibson, and 45 away from Natchez.[2]
History
The plantation was built for Isaac Ross, a South Carolina slave owner.[3][4] He migrated with an older brother to Mississippi in 1808, taking a contingent of enslaved people, as well as some free Blacks who had served with him in the war. He developed the property as a cotton plantation, and enslaved many more people to develop and work it. He eventually enslaved nearly 300 people and acquired other plantations as well.
The plantation had a cemetery, where Isaac Ross and some of his family were buried. After his grandson Isaac Ross Wade reacquired the plantation, this area became known as the Wade Family Cemetery. The mansion and cemetery property acquired by the Conservancy span 23 acres.[1]
Family history
Isaac Ross died in 1836 and was buried in the cemetery on his plantation.
Ross' grandson
On an April night in 1845, a fire in the mansion burned it down, killing a six-year-old white girl. A Wade descendant attributed it to a
In the settlement of the court case, the enslaved people gained their freedom and the plantation was sold to fund their migration to the colony in West Africa, which the final group reached in 1848. They never received any of the pay owed for their three years of working for Wade.[6] The area near Monrovia where freed enslaved people from Mississippi were settled became known as Mississippi-in-Africa. It later became part of the country of Liberia.[3]
Wade ultimately reacquired the plantation property and had a new great house built in 1854.[2][4] He and his descendants lived there, with family ownership extending into the 20th century.
20th century to present
The last Ross and Wade family descendants left in 1956, by which time the outbuildings had collapsed: the kitchen, slave quarters, smokehouse and barns.
Planned archeological excavation of the grounds is expected to yield important evidence about the African-American culture of the slaves and their relation to the diaspora.[2] In 2014 the Archeological Conservancy held a reunion at the plantation for descendants of its residents: "descendants of the divided slave-holding family, the slaves who remained in the area, and the slaves who emigrated to Liberia."[9]
The Prospect Hill Plantation Collection papers, from the period 1873–1917, are kept at the library on the campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi. They are primarily copies of tenant and other contracts, as well as family correspondence.[4]
See also
- Rosswood
- Mississippi in Africa: The Saga of the Slaves of Prospect Hill Plantation and Their Legacy in Liberia Today - A book about slaves from this plantation who emigrated to Liberia
References
- ^ a b c d e Prospect Hill Plantation (Mississippi), The Archeological Conservancy, August 8, 2014
- ^ a b c d "See Prospect Hill With Your Own Eyes!", Preservation in Mississippi, October 19, 2011
- ^ a b c d Finding Aid for the Prospect Hill Plantation Collection (1873-1917), University of Mississippi Libraries
- ^ Walt Grayson, Mississippi Seen: "Grand monument honors man’s benevolent legacy", Today in Mississippi, 17 October 2014, published by Electric Power Associations of Mississippi, accessed 2 December 2015
- ^ a b c Dale Edwyna Smith, The Slaves of Liberty: Freedom in Amite County, Mississippi, 1820-1868, Routledge, 2013, pp. 15-21 [1]
- ^ a b c Mary Carol Miller, Lost Mansions of Mississippi, Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2010, Volume II, pp. 53-56 [2]
- ^ a b MYSTERY MONDAY: "12 Lynchings and a MS-African Colony Connection at 'Prospect Hill' ", WJTV, April 22, 2014. Archived October 21, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Alan Huffman, "Wednesday, April 9, 2014", Alan Huffman blogspot
External links
- Prospect Hill Plantation at the Archeological Conservancy website