Three Cotton Planters

Zebulon Butler was born September 27, 1803 to a prominent family in the Wyoming valley of Pennsylvania. He graduated from Princeton College and its Seminary, and arrived in Vicksburg, Mississippi, as a missionary in 1827. Soon thereafter he supplied the pulpit at Port Gibson, Mississippi. He became a leading church figure in his area and supported the establishment of Oakland College. He was a member of the Mississippi Colonization Society and was noted for a compassionate attitude to slaves. Shortly before his death, he bequeathed land and $1,000 to erect a church for slaves, writing "surely all of our wealth and luxury come from the labor of those servants and we should give back." He died December 23, 1860.