“William Johnson, Diarist: Concepts of Race and Class in Our Understanding of Old Natchez”
William Johnson kept a 16-year diary detailing everyday life in Natchez. Natchez Park Service Photo
The series of personal journals maintained between 1835 and 1851 by Natchez barber William Johnson, a free man of color, provide valuable and fascinating insights into the complex world of a prosperous Mississippi river town in the years before the Civil War. In her talk, Kathleen Bond, superintendent of the Natchez National Historical Park, will discuss how Johnson’s reporting of local, everyday life illuminates our understanding of politics, codes of honor, economics, gender roles, and recreation, and sheds some light into the mind of the diarist himself.
The University of Mississippi Center for the Study of Southern Culture Brown Bag Lecture occurs at noon on Wednesday, March 1, 2017 in the Tupelo Room of Barnard Observatory.
VIDEO
A Natchez History Minute:
William Johnson, The Barber of Natchez, who was freed by his father on January 21, 1820
Presented by Natchez National Historical Park Guide Barney Schoby
Published on Jan 20, 2016