Sister Act
Windy Hill Manor was never one of Natchez’s biggest or grandest homes, but it harbored a celebrated fugitive and scored high in the eccentricity sweepstakes. Dubbed Halfway Hill when it was built southeast of town in 1788 by Colonel Benijah Osmun, it sat atop a gentle rise at the end of a lush cedar allée. Its relative remoteness held great appeal for Osmun’s old friend Aaron Burr who found temporary sanctuary in 1806 after being charged with treason. In 1817, the house was sold to Gerard Brandon, and afterwards to General Robert Stanton who planted his vast acreage with cotton, added rooms for his growing family and renamed the place Windy Hill. Stanton also gave the nondescript façade a columned gallery and installed a floating spiral staircase in the entry...
Read MoreThe Black Pharaoh
Henri Christophe was a man in a hurry. Born a slave in 1767, he grew up in the French colony of Sainte-Domingue (Haiti) where he worked hard to secure his freedom in a world where man’s inhumanity to man was the rule. The French were among history’s harshest taskmasters, importing African slaves to be worked to death, usually within three years, in the sugar cane fields. By 1789, Sainte-Domingue was the most lucrative colony in the world. With half a million black slaves, 32,000 whites and 25,000 people of mixed blood, it was also a time bomb of racial outrage. The inevitable slave uprising came in 1791, and Henri, at age 24, quickly joined the rebellion led by Toussaint L’Ouverture. A courageous soldier with superb leadership skills, Henri’s rise through the...
Read MoreVoyage Into History
In celebration of Black History Month, I salute Robert Smalls (1839-1915), a man of uncommon courage who, with one bold move, altered his destiny and changed American history. Born a slave in Beaufort, SC, Smalls was greatly favored by his white owner, John McKee, who may also have been his father. Concerned that the carefree youth was being shielded from the realities of the slave world, his mother Lydia, a house servant, made certain he saw field hands toiling in the cotton fields. Smalls was so horrified and outraged that his mother averted trouble by convincing McKee to send the twelve-year-old to work in Charleston. Hired as a lamplighter in the bustling port city, Smalls was fascinated by the waterfront and quickly developed a love for the sea. As an...
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