Overview

Location

Natchez, Adams Co., MS

Date Constructed/ Founded

1784

Associated Surnames

Chamberlain, Dunbar, Ferguson

Historical notes

Mount Locust was constructed in the 1780s and served as an inn on the old Natchez Trace, a road from Natchez, Mississippi to Tennessee. The Trace was an important transportation route in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Mount Locust is located about 15 miles outside the town of Natchez. After the introduction of the cotton gin in the Natchez area, Mount Locust was transformed into a successful cotton plantation.

Associated Slave Workplaces

none

Associated Free Persons

• William Ferguson
• Mrs. Ferguson - wife of William Ferguson; inherited the plantation after the death of William Ferguson
• Mr. Chamberlain - Mrs. Ferguson's second husband

• Joseph Dunbar
• Olivia Dunbar

Associated Enslaved Persons

• none recorded yet

Research Leads and Plantation Records

Natchez-Area Manuscript collections in The Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections at Louisiana State University: Magruder, Eliza L. Diary, 1846-1857
2 vols., 1 typescript. Location: G:17. Available on microfilm: University Publications of America Southern Women and Their Families in the 19th Century: Papers and Diaries Series E, Reel 34. Young woman of Locust Plantation near Natchez, the home of her aunt and uncle, Olivia and Joseph Dunbar (d.1846). Diary comments on local social events and amusements; visiting friends; births and deaths; and treatment, care of, and unrest of slaves. http://www.lib.lsu.edu/special/guides/natchez.html

Miscellaneous Information

• Sleepy Hollow; William Ferguson built a structure behind his house to accomodate weary travellers. This building was known as "Sleepy Hollow."
• Other buildings on the property consisted of a separate kitchen building and slave quarters. Only the main house is still standing.
• Natchez Trace: This historic route generally follows the old Indian trace, or trail, between Nashville, TN and Natchez, MS. Of the estimated 443 miles, 423 are completed as a parkway.
• Slave Cemetery: located in the woods behind the main house. Only a single grave is marked with a roughly hewn slab of limestone. Number of graves is unknown. Ser Seshab Heter performs an African-style libation in the African-American cemetery at Mount Locust. This is a dignified ceremony and offering given in gratitude and atonement to the ancestors.

References

• African-American Archeaology at USM (online) http://ocean.otr.usm.edu/~aloung/mtlocust.html
• Natchez-Area Manuscript collections in The Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections at Louisiana State University http://www.lib.lsu.edu/special/guides/natchez.html

Users Researching This Workplace

• none recorded yet

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