Civil War  |  Historic Site

The William Johnson House

Mississippi

210 State Street
Natchez, MS 39120
United States

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The home of a free African American entrepreneur and diarist in antebellum Natchez, the William Johnson House provides a unique opportunity to glimpse a seldom-interpreted part of Southern history. Born a slave, Johnson was freed by his father. He was educated and became a well-known Natchez businessman and slaveholder himself. Johnson's diaries cover 16 years of his life from 1835 until his death in 1851 and provide the best autobiographical account of a free black in the Deep South prior to the Civil War. The National Park Service restored Johnson's downtown house and opened it as a museum in 2005.