Isaac Ross (January 18, 1760 – January 19, 1836) was an

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

veteran and planter from South Carolina who developed

Prospect Hill Plantation The Prospect Hill Plantation was a former 5,000-acre plantations in the American South, plantation in Jefferson County, Mississippi. In the early 19th century, the plantation was owned by planter Isaac Ross (planter), Isaac Ross of South Carolina, ...

Jefferson County, Mississippi Jefferson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi; its western border is formed by the Mississippi River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 7,260, making it the fourth-least populous county in Mississippi. Until 182 ...

, for cotton cultivation. He owned thousands of acres and nearly 160 slaves by 1820. In 1830 Ross was among the major donors and founders of Oakland College, a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

-affiliated school for young men near

Rodney, Mississippi Rodney is a ghost town in Jefferson County, Mississippi, United States. Most of the buildings are gone and the remaining structures are in various states of disrepair. The town regularly floods and buildings have extensive flood damage. The Rod ...

, which operated from 1830 to 1870. After it failed, its campus was sold to the state and used to start Alcorn College, the first

land-grant university A land-grant university (also called land-grant college or land-grant institution) is an institution of higher education in the United States designated by a state to receive the benefits of the Morrill Land-Grant Acts, Morrill Acts of 1862 and ...

for Blacks in the United States. Influenced by war ideals and the

American Colonization Society The American Colonization Society (ACS), initially the Society for the Colonization of Free People of Color of America, was an American organization founded in 1816 by Robert Finley to encourage and support the repatriation of freeborn peop ...

, Ross was among the founders of the Mississippi Colonization Society. Its goal was to repatriate (or transport) freed slaves and

free people of color In the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, free people of color (; ) were primarily people of mixed African, European, and Native American descent who were not enslaved. However, the term also applied to people born free who we ...

to Africa in order to get them out of the South, where planters believed they threatened slave societies. In 1835 Ross wrote a will to free his nearly 200 African-American slaves. It ordered the sale of his plantation to generate revenue to fund the transport of the freed slaves to Mississippi-in-Africa, the state's colony in West Africa that eventually became part of

Liberia Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to Guinea–Liberia border, its north, Ivory Coast to Ivory Coast–Lib ...

. The Mississippi Colonization Society had purchased the land, and in 1847 it became part of the

Commonwealth of Liberia Liberia, officially the Colony of Liberia, later the Commonwealth of Liberia, was a Colony, private colony of the American Colonization Society between 1821, before becoming the self-proclaimed independent nation of the Liberia, Republic of Liberi ...

Biography

Early life

Isaac Ross was born on January 18, 1760, in North Carolina. His family moved when he was young to

Orangeburg County, South Carolina Orangeburg County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 84,223. Its county seat is Orangeburg, South Carolina, Orangeburg. The count ...

.Mary Carol Miller, ''Lost Mansions of Mississippi'', Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2010, Volume II, pp. 53-5

/ref> He was named after his father, Isaac Ross. His mother was Jean Ross, née Brown (1722–1766).

Career

In the

of 1775–1783, Ross rose to the rank of Captain of the Second Dragoons under the leadership of General

Thomas Sumter Thomas Sumter (August 14, 1734June 1, 1832) was an American military officer, planter, and politician who served in the Continental Army as a Brigadier general (United States), brigadier-general during the American Revolutionary War, Revolution ...

(1734–1832).Bobby Gilmer Moss, ''Roster of South Carolina Patriots in the American Revolution'', Genealogical Publishing Co., 2009, Volume I, A-Jp. 31

/ref> In 1808, together with his brother Thomas, Ross moved from South Carolina to the

Mississippi Territory The Territory of Mississippi was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that was created under an organic act passed by the United States Congress, Congress of the United States. It was approved and signed into law by Presiden ...

. He purchased what he developed as the

near

Port Gibson Port Gibson is a city and the county seat of Claiborne County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 1,567 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. It is bordered on the west by the Mississippi River. The first European settlers i ...

, Jefferson County. By 1818, after Mississippi became a state, he owned 3,881 acres of land and 133 slaves; 158 slaves in 1820; and 4,240 acres of land and 113 slaves in 1830. Shortly before his death, Ross owned around 5,000 acres of land, 160 slaves, and had an estimated wealth of US$100,000. In 1830, Ross was one of the financial supporters of Oakland College, near Rodney, Mississippi, a Presbyterian college whose president was minister

Jeremiah Chamberlain Jeremiah Chamberlain (January 5, 1794 – September 5, 1851) was an American Presbyterianism, Presbyterian minister, educator and college administrator. He was president of three institutions of higher education between 1823 and 1851, specifica ...

.Mary Carol Miller, ''Must See Mississippi: 50 Favorite Places'', Oxford, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2007, pp. 41-4

/ref> In the 1830s, together with Chamberlain and three other planters, Edward McGehee,

Stephen Duncan Stephen Duncan (March 4, 1787 – January 29, 1867) was an American planter and banker in Mississippi. He was born and studied medicine in Pennsylvania, but moved to Natchez District, Mississippi Territory in 1808 and became the wealthiest ...

, and John Ker, Ross co-founded the Mississippi Colonization Society. Like the American Colonization Society, its goal was to relocate free blacks and newly freed slaves to the American colony of

in West Africa in order to remove them from American society, particularly from the slave societies of the South.Dale Edwyna Smith, ''The Slaves of Liberty: Freedom in Amite County, Mississippi, 1820-1868'', Routledge, 2013, pp. 15-2

/ref> The organization was focused on slaves freed in Mississippi, where slaves outnumbered whites by a ratio of three-to-one. These major slaveholders believed that free blacks threatened the stability of American society, and that transporting freed slaves to Africa might be a long-term solution.

Personal life

Ross married Jane Allison (1762–1829). They had two sons and three daughters: *Margaret Allison Ross Reed (1787–1838). Her second husband was

Thomas Buck Reed Thomas Buck Reed (May 7, 1787November 26, 1829) was a United States senator from Mississippi. Biography Early life Thomas Buck Reed was born on May 7, 1787, near Lexington, Kentucky. He attended the public schools and the College of New Jerse ...

(1787–1829), who served as

United States Senator The United States Senate consists of 100 members, two from each of the 50 U.S. state, states. This list includes all senators serving in the 119th United States Congress. Party affiliation Independent Senators Angus King of Maine and Berni ...

from Mississippi from January 28, 1826, to March 4, 1827, and again from March 4, 1829, to November 26, 1829. *Martha B. Ross (1793–1818). *Jane Brown Ross Wade (1786–1851). Mother of Issac Ross Wade. *Isaac Ross (1796–1852). *Arthur Alison Ross (1801–1834). He married Octavia Van Dorn, daughter of

Earl Van Dorn Earl Van Dorn (September 17, 1820May 7, 1863) was an American Major General who started his military career as a United States Army officer and became famous for successfully leading two defenses of a Native American settlement from the Comanch ...

(1820–1863), an officer who served as a general in the

Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army (CSA), also called the Confederate army or the Southern army, was the Military forces of the Confederate States, military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) duri ...

during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

of 1861–1865. Widowed when her husband Alison died, in 1837 Octavia married Dr Vans Murray Sulivane (1810–1840); they had a son, Clement Sullivane (1838–1920), who served in the Confederate States Army during the Civil War. He was later elected as a member of the

Maryland Senate The Maryland Senate, sometimes referred to as the Maryland State Senate, is the upper house of the General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland. Composed of 47 senators elected from an equal number of constituent single ...

. Ross was widowed in 1829. Around the same period that he lost his wife, their daughter and a son-in-law, and two Ross sons also died.

Death and legacy

Ross died on January 19, 1836, in Jefferson County, Mississippi. He was buried in the cemetery at Prospect Hill Plantation. It later became known as the Wade Family Cemetery after his grandson Isaac Ross Wade reacquired the plantation in the 1850s, building a new mansion and living on the grounds. Ross freed his slaves in his will, ordering the sale of his plantation to raise funds in order to pay for their transport to

and provide them with a stake to get necessary supplies for their new lives.Alan Huffman, ''Mississippi in Africa: The Saga of the Slaves of Prospect Hill Plantation and Their Legacy in Liberia Today'' (2010)
Project Muse, text online The will stipulated that those slaves who chose not to emigrate to Africa should be sold to the highest bidder, with the proceeds invested to go to the

to build a new university in Liberia for the colonists and support it for 100 years. Ross added the caveat that slave families could not be separated. An elaborate white marble monument, based on the

Choragic Monument of Lysicrates The Choragic Monument of Lysicrates near the Acropolis of Athens was erected by the ''Choregos (ancient Greece), choregos'' Lysicrates, a wealthy patron of musical performances in the Theater of Dionysus, to commemorate the prize in the dithyram ...

, to Isaac Ross stands at his gravesite in the cemetery at Prospect Hill Plantation. Ross and other supporters of such colonization referred to freed slaves being "repatriated" to Africa, but by this time, most slaves were overwhelmingly American born, and had been for generations. In the North most free blacks did not want to leave the United States but to improve their treatment and gain civil rights here. They expressed considerable opposition to the program of the American Colonization Society, but thousands of free blacks did migrate as pioneers to Liberia. Of Ross' 160 registered slaves at Prospect Hill Plantation, 123 chose to be freed and emigrate to Africa. (Five were prohibited from leaving.) Other freed slaves were added from other plantations, making a group of nearly 300. Ross' grandson Isaac Ross Wade contested the will for nearly a decade, as the estate was used to fund the migration. In 1842 Mississippi passed a law prohibiting the manumission of slaves by will, and prohibiting removal of slaves from the state for the purpose of manumission. But perhaps legislators had not envisioned 'repatriation' for the purpose of manumission, as the Ross will was upheld in 1845 by the

Supreme Court of Mississippi The Supreme Court of Mississippi is the Supreme court, highest court in the state of Mississippi. It was established in 1818 per the terms of the first constitution of the state and was known as the High Court of Errors and Appeals from 1832 to 1 ...

. There were additional technicalities that delayed the freedmen's departure. During this period, they worked under the authority of Isaac Ross Wade at Prospect Hill Plantation, with the stipulation that they were technically free and would be paid for their time. Mitchell Map Liberia colony 1839

Finally traveling from

Natchez, Mississippi Natchez ( ) is the only city in and the county seat of Adams County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 14,520 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located on the Mississippi River across from Vidalia, Louisiana, Natchez was ...

by ship, the Prospect Hill freedmen reached Liberia in two groups in 1848. They settled in what came to be known as Mississippi-in-Africa, on land purchased by the Mississippi Colonization Society. Most of them could read and write, and were likely among the elite household staff and artisans among slaves. Many corresponded with Wade and members of his family, as well as representatives of the MCS, in an attempt to gain supplies they desperately needed. They also sought to have the Wade family pay them what they were owed for three years' work - an estimated $100,000. They were met mostly with silence; in one letter the Wade family told them their board and court expenses had been charged to the money they were owed, and that in fact they were in debt to the family. The letters from the African Americans reported the high fatalities their group suffered, with many dying in the first year or so of "African fever." Neither the Wade family nor the ACS ever followed through on their obligations to the settlers; no university in Liberia was endowed or established from Ross' funds. In ''Mississippi in Africa: The Saga of the Slaves of Prospect Hill Plantation and Their Legacy in Liberia Today'' (revised edition, 2010), author

Alan Huffman Alan Huffman is an American author and journalist. He is the author of five nonfiction books, three of which deal with history related to the American South. He is notable as an opposition researcher. Life and work Huffman is from Bolton, Mississi ...

argues that tensions introduced by the development of this colony (and the larger influence of

Americo-Liberian Americo-Liberian people (also known as Congo people or Congau people),Cooper, Helene, ''The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood'' (United States: Simon and Schuster, 2008), p. 6 are a Liberian ethnic group of African Am ...

s in the country) created longstanding resentments among the indigenous tribesmen. In addition, the Americo-Liberians repressed the native peoples and assumed their own superiority, in a colonial manner. They created a society with inequities that Huffman believes strongly contributed to the

First Liberian Civil War The First Liberian Civil War was the first of Second Liberian Civil War, two civil wars within the West African nation of Liberia which lasted between 1989 and 1997. President Samuel Doe's regime of totalitarianism and widespread Political cor ...

of 1989-1996 more than a century later, and to the

Second Liberian Civil War The Second Liberian Civil War was a civil war in the West African nation of Liberia that lasted from 1999 to 2003. The war was mainly caused by transition failures after the First Civil War, especially the peace-building process which would res ...

of 1999–2003. Because the Americo-Liberians dominated the country politically and economically into the 20th century, suppressing the native tribes, there was great resentment against them among the indigenous peoples. The Americo-Liberians treated the native tribes as inferior to them, much as they had been treated by whites in the United States.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ross, Isaac 1760 births 1836 deaths People from Orangeburg County, South Carolina People from Jefferson County, Mississippi Continental Army officers from South Carolina People from colonial South Carolina 18th-century American planters American slave owners People of the American colonization movement 19th-century American planters