Johnson, William T., 1809-1851.

William T. Johnson (1809?-1851) and his sister, Adelia, were the children of Amy Johnson, a slave freed in 1814 by a white planter of Adams County, Miss. William T. and Adelia were freed in 1820 and 1818, respectively. In 1820, Adelia married James Miller, a free black from Philadelphia. William married a former slave, Ann Battles (1815?-1866); they had ten children: William (b. 1836), Richard (b. 1837), Byron (1839-1972), Anna (1841-1922), Katharine (1842-1901), Phillip (b. 1844), Eugenia (b. 1837), Alice (b. ca. 1846), Josephine (b. 1849), and Clarence (b. 1851). Between 1835-1850, Johnson acquired three barber shops, a bath house in Natchez, and a plantation; he also maintained business connections in New Orleans.

In the late 1840's Johnson became involved in a dispute with Baylor Winn and Benjamin Wade, regarding a property line on his plantation. On June 16, 1851, Johnson was fatally wounded in an ambush, and before his death on the morning of June 17, he named Winn as his assassin.

On Johnson's death, his son Byron became head of the family. William Johnson, Jr. suffered from mental illness, and by 1866 was confined to a New Orleans asylum. After the death of Byron Johnson in 1872, Anna L. Johnson was the most prominent figure in the family. Richard Johnson worked his family's Peachland Plantation (Adams County) in the 1890's. Anna lived at Peachland during the period 1912-1920. Their nephew William R. Johnston (d. 1938) received an undergraduate degree from Wilberforce University in 1897 and earned a medical degree from Howard University. Johnston practiced medicine in Natchez until his death in 1938. (ca. 1890's the spelling of the family name was changed to Johnston. Both forms appear in contemporary documents).