''For the rugby player from New Zealand, see

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 Ne ...

.'' Isaac Ross (January 18, 1760January 19, 1836) was an

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

veteran and planter from South Carolina who developed

Prospect Hill Plantation The Prospect Hill Plantation was a former 5,000-acre plantation in Jefferson County, Mississippi. In the early 19th century, the plantation was owned by planter Isaac Ross of South Carolina, who enslaved African American people to farm cotton as ...

Jefferson County, Mississippi Jefferson County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi; its western border is formed by the Mississippi River. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, the population was 7,726, making it the third ...

, for cotton cultivation. He owned thousands of acres and nearly 160 slaves by 1820. In 1830 Ross was among the major donors and founders of Oakland College, a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

-affiliated school for young men near

Rodney, Mississippi Rodney is a former city in Jefferson County in southwest Mississippi, approximately northeast of Natchez. Rodney was founded in 1828, and in the 19th century, it was only three votes away from becoming the capital of the Mississippi Territo ...

, which operated from 1830 to 1870. After it failed, its campus was sold to the state and used to start Alcorn College, the first

land-grant university A land-grant university (also called land-grant college or land-grant institution) is an institution of higher education in the United States designated by a state to receive the benefits of the Morrill Land-Grant Acts, Morrill Acts of 1862 and ...

for Blacks in the United States. Influenced by war ideals and 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 ...

, Ross was among the founders of 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, so ...

. Its goal was to repatriate (or transport) freed slaves and

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 ...

to Africa in order to get them out of the South, where planters believed they threatened slave societies. In 1835 Ross wrote a will to free his hundreds of African-American slaves (who were overwhelmingly US native-born). It ordered the sale of his plantation to generate revenue to fund the transport of the freed slaves to

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, ...

, the state's colony in what became

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 ...

in coastal West Africa. The Mississippi Colonization Society had purchased land there. In 1847 it became part of the

Commonwealth of Liberia The Colony of Liberia, later the Commonwealth of Liberia, was a private colony of the American Colonization Society (ACS) beginning in 1822. It became an independent nation—the Republic of Liberia—after declaring independence in 1847. Early ...

Biography

Early life

Isaac Ross was born on January 18, 1760, in North Carolina. His family moved when he was young to

Orangeburg County, South Carolina Orangeburg County is a county located in the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 92,501. Its county seat is Orangeburg. The county was created in 1769. Orangeburg County comprises the Orangeburg, SC Microp ...

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

/ref> He was named after his father, Isaac Ross. His mother was Jean (Brown) Ross (1722-1766).

Career

In the

of 1775–1783, Ross rose to the rank of Captain of the Second Dragoons under the leadership of General

Thomas Sumter Thomas Sumter (August 14, 1734June 1, 1832) was a soldier in the Colony of Virginia militia; a brigadier general in the South Carolina militia during the American Revolution, a planter, and a politician. After the United States gained independen ...

(1734–1832).Bobby Gilmer Moss, ''Roster of South Carolina Patriots in the American Revolution'', Genealogical Publishing Co., 2009, Volume I, A-Jp. 31

/ref> In 1808, together with his brother Thomas, Ross moved from South Carolina to the

Mississippi Territory The Territory of Mississippi was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from April 7, 1798, until December 10, 1817, when the western half of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Mississippi. T ...

. He purchased what he developed as the

near Port Gibson, Jefferson County. By 1818, after Mississippi became a state, he owned 3,881 acres of land and 133 slaves; 158 slaves in 1820; and 4,240 acres of land and 113 slaves in 1830. By 1828, he also owned several other plantations and more slaves. Shortly before his death, Ross owned around 5,000 acres of land, 160 slaves, and had an estimated wealth of US$100,000. In 1830, Ross was one of the financial supporters of Oakland College, near Rodney, Mississippi, a Presbyterian college whose president was 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 ...

.Mary Carol Miller, ''Must See Mississippi: 50 Favorite Places'', Oxford, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2007, pp. 41-4

/ref> In the 1830s, together with Chamberlain and three other planters,

Edward McGehee Edward McGehee (November 8, 1786 – October 1, 1880) was an American judge and major planter in Wilkinson County, Mississippi. He owned nearly 1,000 slaves to work his thousands of acres of cotton land at his Bowling Green Plantation. In the 183 ...

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 ...

, and

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 ...

, Ross co-founded the

. Like the American Colonization Society, its goal was to relocate free blacks and newly freed slaves to the American colony of

in West Africa in order to remove them from American society, particularly from the slave societies of the South.Dale Edwyna Smith, ''The Slaves of Liberty: Freedom in Amite County, Mississippi, 1820-1868'', Routledge, 2013, pp. 15-2

/ref> The organization was focused on slaves freed in Mississippi, where slaves outnumbered whites by a ratio of three-to-one. These major slaveholders believed that free blacks threatened the stability of American society, and that transporting freed slaves to Africa might be a long-term solution.

Personal life

Ross married Jane Allison (1762-1829). They had two sons and three daughters: *Margaret Allison Ross Reed (1787-1838). Her second husband was

Thomas Buck Reed Thomas Buck Reed (May 7, 1787November 26, 1829) was a United States senator from Mississippi. Biography Early life Thomas Buck Reed was born on May 7, 1787 near Lexington, Kentucky. He attended the public schools and the College of New Jersey ...

(1787–1829), who served as

United States Senator The United States Senate is the Upper house, upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives being the Lower house, lower chamber. Together they compose the national Bica ...

from Mississippi from January 28, 1826, to March 4, 1827, and again from March 4, 1829, to November 26, 1829. *Martha B. Ross (1793-1818). *Jane Brown Ross Wade (1786-1851). Mother of Issac Ross Wade. *Isaac Ross (1796-1852). *Arthur Alison Ross (1801-1834). He married Octavia Van Dorn, daughter of

Earl Van Dorn Earl Van Dorn (September 17, 1820May 7, 1863) started his military career as a United States Army officer but joined Confederate forces in 1861 after the Civil War broke out. He was a major general when he was killed in a private conflict. A g ...

(1820–1863), an officer who served as a general in 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 ...

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. Widowed when her husband Alison died, in 1837 Octavia married Dr Vans Murray Sulivane (1810-1840); they had a son, Clement Sullivane (1838-1920), who served in the Confederate States Army during the Civil War. He was later elected as a member of the

Maryland Senate The Maryland Senate, sometimes referred to as the Maryland State Senate, is the upper house of the General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland. Composed of 47 senators elected from an equal number of constituent single- ...

. Ross was widowed in 1829. Around the same period that he lost his wife, their daughter and a son-in-law, and two Ross sons also died.

Death and legacy

Ross died on January 19, 1836, in Jefferson County, Mississippi. He was buried in the cemetery at Prospect Hill Plantation. It later became known as the Wade Family Cemetery after his grandson Isaac Ross Wade reacquired the plantation in the 1850s, building a new mansion and living on the grounds. Ross freed his slaves in his will, ordering the sale of his plantation to raise funds in order to pay for their transport to

and provide them with a stake to get necessary supplies for their new lives.Alan Huffman, ''Mississippi in Africa: The Saga of the Slaves of Prospect Hill Plantation and Their Legacy in Liberia Today'' (2010)
Project Muse, text online The will stipulated that those slaves who chose not to emigrate to Africa should be sold to the highest bidder, with the proceeds invested to go to the

to build a new university in Liberia for the colonists and support it for 100 years. Ross added the caveat that slave families could not be separated. An elaborate white marble monument, based on the

Choragic Monument of Lysicrates The Choragic Monument of Lysicrates near the Acropolis of Athens was erected by the ''choregos'' Lysicrates, a wealthy patron of musical performances in the Theater of Dionysus, to commemorate the prize in the dithyramb contest of the City Diony ...

, to Isaac Ross stands at his gravesite in the cemetery at Prospect Hill Plantation. Ross and other supporters of such colonization referred to freed slaves being "repatriated" to Africa, but by this time, most slaves were overwhelmingly American born, and had been for generations. In the North most free blacks did not want to leave the United States but to improve their treatment and gain civil rights here. They expressed considerable opposition to the program of the American Colonization Society, but thousands of free blacks did migrate as pioneers to Liberia. Of Ross' 160 registered slaves at Prospect Hill Plantation, 123 chose to be freed and emigrate to Africa. (Five were prohibited from leaving.) Other freed slaves were added from other plantations, making a group of nearly 300. Ross' grandson Isaac Ross Wade contested the will for nearly a decade, as the estate was used to fund the migration. In 1842 Mississippi passed a law prohibiting the manumission of slaves by will, and prohibiting removal of slaves from the state for the purpose of manumission. But perhaps legislators had not envisioned 'repatriation' for the purpose of manumission, as the Ross will was upheld in 1845 by the

Supreme Court of Mississippi The Supreme Court of Mississippi is the highest court in the state of Mississippi. It was established in the first constitution of the state following its admission as a State of the Union in 1817 and was known as the High Court of Errors and Appe ...

. There were additional technicalities that delayed the freedmen's departure. During this period, they worked under the authority of Isaac Ross Wade at Prospect Hill Plantation, with the stipulation that they were technically free and would be paid for their time. Mitchell Map Liberia colony 1839

Finally traveling from

Natchez, Mississippi Natchez ( ) is the county seat of and only city in Adams County, Mississippi, United States. Natchez has a total population of 14,520 (as of the 2020 census). Located on the Mississippi River across from Vidalia in Concordia Parish, Louisiana, N ...

by ship, the Prospect Hill freedmen reached Liberia in two groups in 1848. They settled in what came to be known as

, on land purchased by the Mississippi Colonization Society. Most of them could read and write, and were likely among the elite household staff and artisans among slaves. Many corresponded with Wade and members of his family, as well as representatives of the MCS, in an attempt to gain supplies they desperately needed. They also sought to have the Wade family pay them what they were owed for three years' work - an estimated $100,000. They were met mostly with silence; in one letter the Wade family told them their board and court expenses had been charged to the money they were owed, and that in fact they were in debt to the family. The letters from the African Americans reported the high fatalities their group suffered, with many dying in the first year or so of "African fever." Neither the Wade family nor the ACS ever followed through on their obligations to the settlers; no university in Liberia was endowed or established from Ross' funds. In ''Mississippi in Africa: The Saga of the Slaves of Prospect Hill Plantation and Their Legacy in Liberia Today'' (revised edition, 2010), author Alan Huffman argues that tensions introduced by the development of this colony (and the larger influence of

Americo-Liberian Americo-Liberian people or Congo people or Congau people in Liberian English,Cooper, Helene, ''The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood'' (United States: Simon and Schuster, 2008), p. 6 are a Liberian ethnic group of Afric ...

s in the country) created longstanding resentments among the indigenous tribesmen. In addition, the Americo-Liberians repressed the native peoples and assumed their own superiority, in a colonial manner. They created a society with inequities that Huffman believes strongly contributed to the

First Liberian Civil War The First Liberian Civil War lasted from 1989 to 1997. President Samuel Doe had established a regime in 1980 but totalitarianism and corruption led to unpopularity and the withdrawal of support from the United States by the late 1980s. The Nat ...

of 1989-1996 more than a century later, and to the

Second Liberian Civil War The Second Liberian Civil War was a conflict in the West African nation of Liberia lasted from 1999 to 2003. It was preceded by the First Liberian Civil War, which ended in 1996. President Charles Taylor came to power in 1997 after victory in t ...

of 1999–2003. Because the Americo-Liberians dominated the country politically and economically into the 20th century, suppressing the native tribes, there was great resentment against them among the indigenous peoples. The Americo-Liberians treated the native tribes as inferior to them, much as they had been treated by whites in the United States.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ross, Isaac 1760 births 1836 deaths People from Orangeburg County, South Carolina People from Jefferson County, Mississippi Continental Army officers from South Carolina American planters African-American repatriation organizations South Carolina colonial people Burials in Mississippi American slave owners American colonization movement