The William Johnson House

Completed in 1841, the William Johnson House was built by William Johnson, who was born enslaved in Natchez in 1809, freed in 1820, learned barbering from his brother-in-law, owned a barbershop at an early age, and later prospered through real estate investments. Johnson was killed in 1851 in a land dispute, and his murderer, Baylor Wynn, eventually went free because Mississippi law barred several black men who witnessed the crime from testifying against a white man. Johnson’s diary, published in 1951, provides a complete account of his life as a free man of color in the antebellum South and offers a unique perspective on Natchez during its heyday as a center of the slave-based cotton economy. In 1976 the Preservation Society of Ellicott Hill purchased and stabilized the house and restored its street façade. In 1987 the house became the first project of the Historic Trust Fund of Mississippi’s Department of Archives and History. The City of Natchez purchased the house and the adjacent Lancashire Building, dating to about 1837, and donated both properties to the National Park Service in 1991. Plans are underway to convert the house to a museum dedicated to interpreting Johnson’s life and other aspects of the African-American heritage of Natchez and the surrounding region.

Vidalia, Louisiana · United States