Black Owned Plantations
A few years ago, 60 Minutes featured a feel good segment about a black family that purchased a plantation. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sharswood-air-force-veteran-plantation-ancestors-reclaiming-history-60-minutes-2022-08-28/ Viewers were led to marvel and wonder at the incredible circumstance of a black family buying a former plantation in the South, Pittsylvania County, Virginia to be more precise. The family happened to be my distant cousins through my Mom’s side of the family. Only later did I discover my own Grandma’s Grandfather had purchased a former plantation/farm on the banks of the James River in 1871. There was no 60 minutes anchorwoman available to interview Daniel Brown (1833 - 1885).
There is this idea in the ethos that all blacks after the Civil War were all destitute and stone-cold poor. By now, my readers know this idea is a falsehood. People in any age are driven by enterprise, ambition, grit, high aim and the acquisition of property. Well, I came of ancestors with this mindset coming out of American slavery. Reparations for slavery makes zero sense if ancestors were acquiring plantations, let alone city lots in town. Let’s live in reality this morning.
I present to you pioneer black lawyer Louis J. Winston (1844 - 1918).
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The son of a wealthy white father and a slave mother, Louis J. Winston was born on October 22, 1844 in Natchez, Adams County, Mississippi. Winston received his education in Natchez.
Little is known about the childhood of Winston. His world and the world of his generation changed with the Civil War. There was a world before the War. There was a new world of possibility and opportunity after the War. It was on you to take advantage of the moment.
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Being able to read and write propelled Winston forward in Natchez. In 1870, he found employment as a policeman. The work was honest and gave Winston security.
In 1874 to 1875, Winston served as Assessor of Adams County. This was a position that required good character and the trust and confidence of property owners.
The next step up for Winston was his election as Circuit Clerk in 1876. Serving as clerk was one of the most influential positions in local government. Winston excelled in this role and would be elected by the voters 20 times for 20 consecutive one-year terms.
Ambitious in his personal aim, Winston became a lawyer around this time. His reputation brightened through his legal practice. From the 1870s through 1900, Winston represented numerous blacks in land holdings. Winston himself owned several hundred of acres of land in the 1870s but his sights were on more property holdings. He was eventually recognized as the “most successful black lawyer in the county.” His law office was located on Main and State Streets in downtown Natchez.
Real estate consumed more and more of Winston’s attention. An examination of The Land and Deed Books record over sixty entries, mainly town lots, for Winston. Winston, however, wanted more. He wanted a Big House as a sign he had arrived. The most powerful black man in the State of Mississippi, U.S. Senator Hiram Revels, lived at a former plantation called Mount Welcome. Winston set his sights on buying Mount Welcome.
Winston accomplished his goal. He purchased the 1,027 acre plantation, Mount Welcome, east of Natchez. A son of a slave mother owned a mighty plantation in the 1880s.
Winston was not alone. There was a class of black Plantation owners in Natchez in the 1880s. Black owned plantations was a thing. See Black Experience in Natchez: 1720 - 1880 — Special History Study. These were the sort of men who would have considered my Grandma’s Grandfather Our Kind of People. Even in the 1880s, race did not prevent the ambitious from owning a former plantation. Did not matter if one had been a slave or not.
This is why the giddiness shown to my distant cousins on the 60 Minutes segment did not sit well with me. Black people have owned former plantations since at least 1871 in my family and an entire class of ambitious black men owned plantations down in Natchez in the 1880s. “There is a striking amount of evidence in the records to suggest a unique class of black landowners emerged in the twenty years after the Civil War.” Black Experience in Natchez, p. 204
Beware of false narratives that paint all Black people as poor charity cases.
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Aside from purchasing a former plantation and practicing law, Winston founded a black newspaper, The Natchez Reporter, in 1890. He published and edited his paper from 1890 through 1909.
In 1891, Winston authored the publication Mississippi Co-Operative and Benefit Association.
In 1897, U.S. President William McKinley appointed Winston Collector of the Port of Natchez. He served for three years.
On January 9, 1900, McKinley nominated Winston as Collector of Customs for the district of Natchez. Winston resigned as Collector of Customs in 1903.
Consider that Reconstruction had ended in 1877 but not the soul and spirit of Winston. Winston continued to engage himself in the larger civic life of Natchez. He founded two successful building and loan investment companies. Through these companies, he financed new homes for black homeowners in the Woodlawn neighborhood in 1882 (yet another reason why reparations for American slavery is the second worst idea in U.S. history). In addition to financing the sale of new homes for black citizens, Winston served on the school board and founded the fraternal organization, Woodman of Union.
Conclusion: Louis J. Winston passed away on September 11, 1918. His funeral was held at the Zion A.M.E. Church. His tombstone is the only tombstone in Natchez City Cemetery surrounded by a bronze bust. Winston was survived by 3 sons and 2 daughters. Some modern scholars are incapable of understanding Winston. How could a son of a slave acquire a plantation and hold federal office years after the end of Reconstruction in Mississippi?
These scholars are incapable of perceiving Winston as an individual.
Louis J. Winston (1844 - 1918)
I recall that 60 Minutes story. The MSM does their job well which is to keep the false narrative going. Every news show should have the word racist inserted into it, because as we know,everything is racist. 60 Racist Minutes. My guess is that the stories of success among black Americans are more numerous than those about failure, poverty, and oppression.