Natchez Trails

William Johnson, a freed person of color, was a barber, entrepreneur, and slave owner. He built this house in 1841 using materials salvaged after the 1840 tornado that damaged much of downtown. His diary details its construction and provides insight into business deals, politics, and entertainments like horse races and cockfights. His family lived upstairs, and one of his first-floor tenants was a dancing master. Johnson's descendants lived in the house until 1976. Today, the National Park Service maintains the property as a house museum and interpretive center that is one unit of Natchez National Historical Park.The Mississippi Central Railroad Depot (behind you) sits on land bought from William Johnson's family in 1906. In the 1900s, the railroad played an important role in the Great Northern Migration of African Americans from the South. This exodus resulted from a combination of available factory jobs in the North, racial segregation in the South, boll weevil-infested cotton, and farm machines that displaced workers. In recent years, this station has housed shops and condominiums.The Natchez & Hamburg Railroad was planned in the early 1830s to run from Natchez to Jackson, but construction went only as far as Hamburg in Jefferson County. Natchez failed to develop railroad connections



until 1882. This failure spared the city from siege or major battle. The Union Army instead targeted Vicksburg, which had both a river port and railroad connections. With limited resources, the Confederate Army left Natchez undefended and fortified only Vicksburg in this area.At the end of World War II, an automobile dealership, Bluff City Motors, replaced almost two blocks of historic buildings on South Canal Street. The automobile proved to be the greatest threat to the historic character of Natchez as car dealerships, service stations, tire stores, and parking lots rapidly took the place of historic buildings.

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Show me all markers in:  Natchez, MS  |  Adams County  |  39120  |  Mississippi  |  United States of America

The William Johnson House
William Johnson House
Intersection of State and South Wall streets
Adams County Confederate Memorial, a War Memorial
Texada
Richard N. Wright
Commercial Bank Building
Natchez
Spanish Colonial Natchez
Bluff Park - Playground for the City

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