William T. Johnson and family papers. Correspondence and manuscript materials. Folder 01-01, 1829-1853. - William T. Johnson and family papers. Correspondence and manuscript materials. Folder 01-01, 1829-1853.

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Title
William T. Johnson and family papers. Correspondence and manuscript materials. Folder 01-01, 1829-1853.
Biographical Information
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>On Johnson's death, his son Byron became head of the family. William Johnson, Jr., suffered from mental illness, and by 1866 he was confined in a New Orleans asylum. In 1865, Byron enlisted in the Mississippi Federal Colored Militia. Other male members of the family were exempted from service due to health problems. Following the war, Byron leased St. Genevieve Plantation (Concordia Parish, La.) from Ayers P. Merrill, Jr. Byron subscribed in the survey of the proposed Natchez-Jackson Railroad in 1869 and rented Carthage Plantation (Adams Co., Miss.) from John and Katherine Minor in the same year. Byron also leased Black Lake Plantation (Concordia Parish, La.) from Lucien Malus for three years in 1870. Anna L. Johnson, Juanito Garrus, Carlito Garrus, and Byron Johnson contracted with freedmen to work Carthage Plantation. Black Lake Plantation was worked by freedmen in accordance with an agreement signed by the Garruses, Anna L. and Katharine G. Johnson. In 1871, Byron received a judgment for $2,000 in a suit against Stephen Duncan involving a mortgage of Magnolia Plantation, a case begun in 1862.</br></br>After the death of Byron Johnson in 1872, Anna L. Johnson was the most prominent figure in the family. Anna, Alice, Josephine, and Katharine taught in the Natchez primary schools. Richard Johnson worked his family's Peachland Plantation (Adams County) in the 1890s. Anna lived at Peachland during the period 1912 through 1920. Their nephew, William R. Johnston (died 1938), received his undergraduate degree from Wilberforce University (Ohio) in 1897 and earned a medical degree from Howard University. While studying at Howard, he boarded with Dr. & Mrs. Henry Lewis Bailey. Johnston practiced medicine in Natchez until his death in 1938.</br></br>William T. Johnson's diaries were edited for publication by William Ransom Hogan and Edwin Adams Davis and appeared under the title <em>William Johnson's Natchez: The Ante-Bellum Diary of a Free Negro</em> (LSU Press, 1951). This work provides additional information about the family.
Date Created
1829 - 1853
Description
Correspondence of Ann Battles Johnson and William Johnson, both free persons of color of Natchez, Mississippi, primarily relates family news and family business matters between the Johnsons and extended family members and friends during the Antebellum period.</br></br>Correspondents include: James Miller, Adelia Miller, Lavinia Miller McCrary, Byron Johnson, Phoebe Smith, John Chavoir, William Mosby, Ann Battles Johnson, William Johnson, and Washington Stern.</br></br>Letters from James Miller to his brother-in-law, William Johnson, concern barbering and their respective shops and family news. Members of the Miller family write from their home in New Orleans to discuss family news. Included is an 1848 funeral notice written in French for the burial of James Miller's son, James Miller Jr. in New Orleans. Also included is a letter from Ann Battles Johnson's sister, Phoebe Smith, discussing themes of marriage, children, health, and religion (dated 1853). An 1833 letter from Lawrence W. Minor of New Orleans to Ann Battles Johnson describes her son and William Johnson Jr.'s progress with his schooling and good behavior.</br></br>Of note is an 1849 letter from William Mosby of Jefferson County, Indiana to William Johnson describing Baylor Winn, the man who William Johnson accused of shooting him, as a ""...black-hearted wretch and those in co. with him no better."" One item in French.
Type of Resource
text
Size
28 items.
Language
English
Language
French
Source
Louisiana State University Libraries, Special Collections, Hill Memorial Library, Baton Rouge, La., http://www.lib.lsu.edu/special
Digital Collection
Revealing an Unknown Past: Free People of Color in Louisiana and the Lower Mississippi Valley
Repository Collection
William T. Johnson and family memorial papers, Mss. 529, 561, 597, 770, 926, 1093, LSU Libraries.
Shelf Location
Mss. 529, Box 1
Contact Information
To inquire about ordering copies of these images, email lsudiglib@lsu.edu See instructions for ordering reprints of this image here: http://www.lib.lsu.edu/special/services/duplication.html . Include the "Item URL" in your request.
Rights
Physical rights are retained by the LSU Special Collections. Copyright has expired and the item is therefore in the public domain. Permission to reproduce this image must be requested through the repository that holds the original.
Preferred Citation
William T. Johnson and Family Memorial Papers,Mss. 529, 561, 597, 770,926, 1093,Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections, LSULibraries, Baton Rouge.
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