William T. Johnson and family papers. Volume 22, diary, 1844-1845. - William T. Johnson and family papers. Volume 22, diary, 1844-1845.

William T. Johnson (1809?-1851) and his sister, Adelia, were the children of Amy Johnson, a enslaved woman freed in 1814 by William Johnson, a planter of Adams County, Mississippi. William T. and Adelia were freed in 1820 and 1818, respectively. In 1820, Adelia married James Miller, a free African American from Philadelphia. Miller was a barber and a respected businessman in Natchez, Mississippi, and he trained his brother-in-law, William T. Johnson to become a barber. In 1830, William T. Johnson moved from Port Gibson to Natchez to pursue the trade, having purchased Miller's unexpired lease. Five years later, William married a former enslaved woman, Ann Battles (1815?-1866). In 1822, she and her mother, Harriet Battles, had been freed by Gabriel Tichenor of Natchez. William T. and Ann Johnson had ten children: William (born 1836), Richard (born 1837), Byron (1839-1872), Anna (1841-1922), Katharine (1842-1901), Phillip (born 1844), Eugenia (born 1845), Alice (born about 1846), Josephine (born 1849), and Clarence (born 1851). Between 1835 and 1850, Johnson acquired three barber shops, a bath house in Natchez, and a plantation; he also maintained business connections in New Orleans.</br></br>In the late 1840s, Johnson became involved in a dispute with Baylor Winn and Benjamin Wade regarding a property line on his plantation. In May 1851, after the circuit court ordered a survey, the dispute was settled out of court. However, on June 16, 1851, Johnson was fatally wounded in an ambush, and before his death on the morning of June 17, he named Winn as his assassin. At the time of his death he owned more than 2,000 acres of land in Adams County.</br></br>Colonel A. L. Bingaman (approximately 1790-1869) was a politician, orator, and slaveholder of Natchez, Mississippi. He studied law at Harvard University and graduated there with a Bachelor of Arts in 1812. During his time in Massachusetts, Bingaman married Julia Maria Murray, the daughter of the women's rights advocate, playwright, and poet, Judith Sargent Murray. The couple had at least one child. Bingaman and his family lived at Fatherland, the Bingaman family plantation in Natchez. Bingaman served as a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1833 and served as president of the State Senate from 1838 to 1840. His talent in oration was well-reputed following the delivery of his speech to General Andrew Jackson at Natchez in January of 1840. Bingaman was a good friend of William Johnson; following Johnson's death in 1851, he remained close to Johnson's immediate family. Bingaman was known to have engaged in a relationship with a free woman of color named Mary E. Williams, and may have fathered children with her. Colonel Bingaman died in New Orleans on September 6, 1869 at about the age of 79.