Edward McGehee (November 8, 1786 – October 1, 1880) was an American judge and major planter in

Wilkinson County, Mississippi Wilkinson County is a County (United States), county located in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of 2020, its population was 8,587. Its county seat is Woodville, Mississippi, Woodville. Bordered by the Mississippi River ...

. He owned nearly 1,000 slaves to work his thousands of acres of cotton land at his Bowling Green Plantation. In the 1830s, McGehee was among a group of major planters who founded the Mississippi Colonization Society, to transport

free people of color In the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, free people of color (French: ''gens de couleur libres''; Spanish: ''gente de color libre'') were primarily people of mixed African, European, and Native American descent who were not ...

from the state to West Africa. They intended to remove what they considered the destabilizing threat of free blacks to the slave society. They bought land known as

Mississippi-in-Africa Mississippi-in-Africa was a colony on the Pepper Coast (West Africa) founded in the 1830s by the Mississippi Colonization Society of the United States and settled by American free people of color, many of them former slaves. In the late 1840s, ...

, which later 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 its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...

Biography

Early life

Edward McGehee was born on November 8, 1786. His father was Micajah McGehee and his mother, Ann (Scott) McGehee.

Career

After becoming established as an attorney, McGehee was appointed as a state judge in Mississippi.Helen Kerr Kempe, ''The Pelican Guide to Old Homes of Mississippi: Natchez and the South'', Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing, 1989, pp. 9–1

/ref> A wealthy cotton planter, he owned the Bowling Green Plantation near Woodville in

.D. Clayton James, ''Antebellum Natchez'', New Orleans, Louisiana: Louisiana State University, 1993, p. 19

/ref>Patti Carr Black, Marion Barnwell, ''Touring Literary Mississippi'', Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2002, p. 7

/ref> The plantation spread across several thousand acres; McGehee held nearly 1,000 slaves to work this vast area.Harold S. Wilson, ''Confederate Industry: Manufacturers and Quartermasters in the Civil War'', Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2005, pp. 190–19

/ref> Additionally, McGehee owned a textile factory on his plantation, with about 100 slaves working in it. In 1831, he purchased the West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, West Feliciana Rail Road Company in

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

As early as the 1830s, together with other planters

Isaac Ross Isaac Beattie Ross (born 27 October 1984) is a New Zealand rugby union player. He plays in the lock position for the Austin Gilgronis of Major League Rugby (MLR) competition. Professional career Ross is of Māori descent, and played for New ...

(1760–1838),

Stephen Duncan Stephen Duncan (March 4, 1787 – January 29, 1867) was an American Planter class, planter and banker in Mississippi during the Antebellum South. He was born and studied medicine in Pennsylvania, but moved to Natchez District, Mississippi Terr ...

(1787–1867),

John Ker John Ker (8 August 1673 – 8 July 1726), born John Crawford in Crawfurdland, Ayrshire, was a Scots Presbyterian linked with Cameronian radicals who between 1705 and 1709 acted as a government informer against the Jacobites. Dogged by financi ...

(1789–1850), and educator/minister

Jeremiah Chamberlain Jeremiah Chamberlain (1794–1851) was an American Presbyterian minister, educator and college administrator. Educated at Dickinson College and Princeton Theological Seminary, he served as the president of Centre College in Kentucky from 1822 to ...

(1794–1851), McGehee co-founded the

Mississippi Colonization Society Mississippi-in-Africa was a colony on the Pepper Coast (West Africa) founded in the 1830s by the Mississippi Colonization Society of the United States and settled by American free people of color, many of them former slaves. In the late 1840s, s ...

, whose goal was to send freedmen and free people of color to

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

/ref>Dale Edwyna Smith, ''The Slaves of Liberty: Freedom in Amite County, Mississippi, 1820–1868'', Routledge, 2013, pp. 15–2

/ref> The organization was modeled after the

American Colonization Society The American Colonization Society (ACS), initially the Society for the Colonization of Free People of Color of America until 1837, was an American organization founded in 1816 by Robert Finley to encourage and support the migration of freebor ...

, but it focused on freedmen from Mississippi, where slaves outnumbered whites by a three-to-one ratio. During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

of 1861–1865, McGehee supported the

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

. However, he also sold clothes made in his textile factory to the

Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

. The mansion at his Bowling Green Plantation was burned down by

United States Colored Troops The United States Colored Troops (USCT) were regiments in the United States Army composed primarily of African-American (colored) soldiers, although members of other minority groups also served within the units. They were first recruited during ...

in 1864.Donald Davidson, ''Still Rebels, Still Yankees: And Other Essays'', New Orleans, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 1999, pp. 99–10

/ref> His wife wrote about the incident in '' Army & Navy Herald,'' a Confederate newspaper.

Personal life

He married Mary Hines Burruss. They had three sons and two daughters: * Charles Goodrich McGehee (1823–1903) * Francis William McGehee (1831–1843) * John Burruss McGehee (1836–1913) * Harriett Lucinda McGehee (1844–1851) * Augusta Eugenia McGehee (1854–1882)

Death

McGehee died on October 1, 1880, at his plantation in

Woodville, Mississippi Woodville is a town in and the county seat of Wilkinson County, Mississippi, United States. Its population as of 2020 was 928. History This historic town, one of the oldest in Mississippi, is set among the rolling hills and pastures of Wilkins ...

Legacy

* Author

Stark Young Stark Young (October 11, 1881 – January 6, 1963) was an American teacher, playwright, novelist, painter, literary critic, translator, and essayist. Early life Stark Young was born on October 11, 1881 in Como, Mississippi. His father, Alfre ...

(1881–1963) was his nephew. He wrote about the fire that destroyed the plantation house in his 1934 novel ''So Red the Rose''. He also referred to it symbolically in his 1951 novel ''The Pavilion''. * The former ''Edward McGehee Church of the Methodist Episcopal Church,'' built between 1851 and 1853 and located at the intersection of Lafayette, Girod and Baronne streets in

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

, was named in his honor.Mary Louise Christovich, Roulhac Toledano, ''New Orleans Architecture: The American Sector'', Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing, 1 Jul 1998, p. 15

/ref> It was purchased by the Freemasonry, Freemasons in 1906 and renamed as the ''Scottish Rite Cathedral.'' * The former ''Edward McGehee College of Girls'' in Mississippi was named in his honor; author Henry Walter Featherstun (1849–1932) served as its President.Patronize Home Industry.
'' Woodville Republican'', December 5, 1891

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:McGehee, Edward 1786 births 1880 deaths People from Wilkinson County, Mississippi American planters American slave owners American colonization movement American people of Scottish descent