Sunnyside Plantation
Sunnyside Plantation | |
---|---|
Town/City | Lake Village |
State | Arkansas |
Province | Chicot County |
Coordinates | 33°19′N 91°14′W / 33.317°N 91.233°W |
Established | c. 1820–1830 |
Disestablished | 1945 |
Owner |
|
The Sunnyside Plantation was a former
Built as a cotton
History
The land belonged to Native Americans, followed by the French, until Emperor Napoleon sold it to the United States as a result of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. By 1819, the Arkansas Territory was established. A year later, in 1820, slavery became the law of the land as a result of the Missouri Compromise.
Early years of Sunnyside Plantation
The land near modern-day Lake Village in Chicot County, Arkansas was acquired in the 1820s and 1830s by
In 1840, the plantation was acquired by Elisha Worthington for US$60,000.[2][3] Worthington also agreed to give 250 bales of cotton to Johnson annually for the next ten years.[3] Alongside the land and several buildings, Worthington purchased 42 of Johnson's slaves in the transaction.[3] He built a dock on the Mississippi River to facilitate the transportation of cotton.[2]
During the American Civil War of 1861–1865, the plantation was badly damaged by Union Army forces.[3] Worthington moved his slaves and livestock to Texas from 1862 to 1865, and let his two mulatto children, including his son James W. Mason, take care of the land.[3] On June 5, 1864, Union forces invaded the plantation to disrupt landings on the Mississippi River by the Confederate States Army.[2] Meanwhile, on June 5–6, the Battle of Old River Lake, also known as the Battle of Ditch Bayou, took place not far from the plantation.[2] By 1865, it had been declared "abandoned land" by the Freedmen's Bureau.[3] Even though Worthington was pardoned by President Andrew Johnson, he decided to sell his plantation, partly due to the loss of his workforce, the dwindling price of cotton, and his worsening health.[2]
Reconstruction
In 1866, Worthington sold the plantation to Robert P. Pepper of Kentucky.[3] Two years later, in 1868, it was acquired by Major William Starling of the William Starling Company,[5] through inheritance.[3]
In 1881, the plantation was acquired by John C. Calhoun II, the grandson of John C. Calhoun, and his brother, Patrick Calhoun.[2] The brothers were seen as prominent financiers and builders of the "New South".[6] Together, they founded the Calhoun Land Company, and attempted to bring former slaves back to their old plantations.[2] John C. Calhoun II testified before the United States Senate Committee on Education and Labor in September 1883, explaining that his goal was to empower freedmen to save and become self-sufficient tenants.[3] The testimony was so well-received that it was published by civil rights leader Timothy Thomas Fortune in his 1884 Black and White: Land, Labor, and Politics.[3] In reality, while some freedmen managed to become tenants, other were sharecroppers, or even wage laborers.[2]
By the mid-1880s, the Calhoun brothers decided to sell the plantation, partly because of the flood of 1882.[2]
Labor
Convict laborers and Italian immigrant laborers
By 1886, it was acquired by the New York banker Austin Corbin as repayment of debt incurred by Calhoun.[2][3] Corbin built a mansion, called Corbin House, and moored his boat, Austin Corbin, on Lake Chicot.[2] He added a railroad from the cotton fields to the cotton gin to save time and boost production.[2] He also established a telephone line to Greenville, Mississippi, the county seat of nearby Washington County, Mississippi, home to the cotton industry.[2] However, most freedmen refused to work for Corbin, because he was not a Southerner but a carpetbagger.[2]
In 1894, Corbin entered into an agreement with the state of Arkansas to use
In December 1898, Corbin's heirs leased the plantation to Hamilton R. Hawkins, Orlando B. Crittenden,
Shortly afterward,
Sweet Hope (Guernica Editions, 2011), a historical novel by Mary Bucci Bush, tells the story of Italian immigrants working on a Mississippi Delta cotton plantation in the early 1900s. It is based on the experiences of Bush's grandmother, who worked on the Sunnyside Plantation as a child.[12][13]
By the 1910s, the Italian laborers were replaced by Black sharecroppers.[3] In 1920, the plantation was acquired by W.H. and J.C. Baird.[3] Four years later, it was acquired by the Kansas City Life Insurance Company at an auction.[3] In 1935, they leased it to the Arkansas Rural Rehabilitation Corporation.[3] The plantation was visited by the Federal Writers' Project in the late 1930s.[3]
The plantation was finally broken up, as tracts of land were sold to individual buyers from 1941 to 1945, in the midst of World War II.[3] Nowadays, only a historical marker reminds residents and visitors of its lost history.[2]
References
- ^ Donald P. McNeilly, Old South Frontier: Cotton Plantations and the Formation of Arkansas Society, Fayetteville, Arkansas, University of Arkansas Press, 2000, p. 39
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Marc R. Matrana, Lost Plantations of the South, Oxford, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2009, pp. 40-43
- ^ JSTOR 40022326.
- ^ Charlie Daniels, Jennifer Hughes, The Historical Report of the Arkansas Secretary of State 2008, Fayetteville, Arkansas: University of Arkansas Press, 2009, p. 346
- ^ Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Mississippi, Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing, 1999, Part 2, p. 819
- ^ John N. Ingham, Biographical Dictionary of American Business Leaders, Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood Publishing Group, Volume 1, 1983, pp. 124-125
- Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture. Archivedfrom the original on January 9, 2017. Retrieved September 2, 2018.
- ^ JSTOR 40022327.
- ^ JSTOR 40022329.
- ^ JSTOR 40022328.
- ^ "Italians of Sunnyside plan 125th anniversary". Chicot County Newspapers. Retrieved 2021-06-22.
- ISBN 9781550710991.
- ^ Vernon, Thom (2012). "Sweet Hope in Delta: An Interview with Mary Bucci Bush on Italians, African Americans, and Ghosts". Arkansas Review. 43 (3): 181–195.[dead link]