Elisha Worthington was an American planter and large slaveholder in the

Antebellum South In History of the Southern United States, the history of the Southern United States, the Antebellum Period (from la, ante bellum, lit=Status quo ante bellum, before the war) spanned the Treaty of Ghent, end of the War of 1812 to the start of ...

. He was the owner of the

Sunnyside Plantation The Sunnyside Plantation was a former cotton plantation and is a historic site, located near Lake Village in Chicot County, Arkansas, in the Arkansas Delta region. Built as a cotton plantation in the Antebellum South, it was farmed using the ...

Chicot County, Arkansas Chicot County ( ) is a county located in the southeastern corner of the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2010 census, the population was 11,800. The county seat is Lake Village. Chicot County is Arkansas's 10th county, formed on October 25, 1 ...

Early life

Elisha Worthington was born in

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

.Marc R. Matrana
''Lost Plantations of the South''
Oxford, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2009, pp. 40-43

Career

He acquired the Sunnyside Plantation in Chicot County from

Abner Johnson In the Hebrew Bible, Abner ( he, אַבְנֵר ) was the cousin of King Saul and the commander-in-chief of his army. His name also appears as "Abiner son of Ner", where the longer form Abiner means "my father is Ner". Biblical narrative Ab ...

in 1840. He also owned the Redleaf Plantation, the Meanie Plantation (a.k.a. the So So Plantation or the Rose Plantation), and the Eminence Plantation. By 1860, he owned 543 African slaves and 12,000 acres of land in Chicot County. In 1862, in the midst of 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 ...

, Worthington moved his slaves and livestock to

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. He returned to Chicot County at the end of the war, in 1865. He was pardoned by President

Andrew Johnson Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808July 31, 1875) was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. He assumed the presidency as he was vice president at the time of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Johnson was a Dem ...

on January 31, 1866. In 1866, Worthington sold his Sunnyside plantation to Robert P. Pepper of Kentucky. With the proceeds of the sale, he paid back loans he had taken from

Wade Hampton Wade Hampton may refer to the following people: People *Wade Hampton I (1752–1835), American soldier in Revolutionary War and War of 1812 and U.S. congressman *Wade Hampton II (1791–1858), American plantation owner and soldier in War of 1812 *W ...

and

Abraham Van Buren Abraham Van Buren II (November 27, 1807 – March 15, 1873) was the eldest son of Martin Van Buren, the eighth President of the United States and his wife, Hannah Hoes Van Buren. A career soldier and veteran of the Second Seminole War and Mexi ...

. Meanwhile, he moved into his Redleaf Plantation with his daughter Martha.

Personal life

Elisha Worthington had two children, son

James W. Mason James Worthington Mason (c. 1841 – November 1874) was a state senator, sheriff, and postmaster in Arkansas. In 1868 he was one of the first six African Americans to serve in the Arkansas House. He also served in the Arkansas Senate and was the f ...

(aka James Mason Worthington) and daughter Martha W Mason. Their mother was a slave. Worthington sent both James and Martha to

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio. It is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational liberal arts college in the United S ...

preparatory school in Ohio. James was a student at Oberlin from 1855 to 1858. Martha was a student there from 1860 to 1861.The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture James W. Mason (1841–1874) aka: James Mason Worthington

Death

He died in 1873.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Worthington, Elisha 1873 deaths People from Kentucky People from Chicot County, Arkansas American planters American slave owners