Prospect Hill Plantation

The Prospect Hill Plantation was a Southern plantation in Jefferson County, Mississippi. It was used as a cotton plantation. Slaves were freed and repatriated to Mississippi-in-Africa in the country of Liberia prior to the American Civil War. The house still stands today.

Location

The plantation is located in a rural area near Lorman in Jefferson County, Mississippi.^[1][2] By car, it is located 15 minutes East of Lorman, 20 minutes away from Port Gibson, and 45 away from Natchez.^[3]

History

The plantation was built for Isaac Ross.^[4][5] It was used a cotton plantation.^[6] It contained the Wade Family Cemetery.^[1] The mansion and cemetery span 23 acres.^[2]

Isaac Ross died in 1836.^[4][5] He was buried in the cemetery, with a monument commissioned by the Mississippi Colonization Society for US$25,000 two years later, in 1838.^[7] Meanwhile, his will stipulated that his slaves were to be repatriated to the African continent, in a place known as Mississippi-in-Africa, in the country of Liberia.^[4][6] Even though his grandson, Isaac Ross Wade, contested the will, it was upheld by the Mississippi Supreme Court in 1847.^[4][5] During the process, slaves had burned down the mansion on the plantation in 1845.^[4][6][8] Meanwhile, a six-year-old girl was murdered, and slaves were hanged for it.^[3][8] A new plantation house was built in 1854.^[3][5]

The freed slaves eventually settled in Liberia, where they established their own plantations with Greek Revival mansions.^[4][6] According to journalist Alan Huffman, in his 2010 book entitled Mississippi in Africa: The Saga of the Slaves of Prospect Hill Plantation and Their Legacy in Liberia Today and published by the University Press of Mississippi, the tension between the new African planters and local African tribesmen led to the Liberian Civil War a century later.^[4][6]

The mansion is still standing today, even though it is deteriorating.^[2] The roof was damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.^[8] In 2011, it was purchased by the Archeological Conservancy, a non-profit organization, to preserve it.^[2] It has received $50,000 from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History as well as private donations for preservation purposes.^[2] The house is home to a peacock.^[3]

The Prospect Hill Plantation Collection papers are kept at the library on the campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi.^[5]

References