Black Families of Edgefield Plantation – Woodville, Mississippi: Part 8

Part 8. The Last Owner

Nathaniel Ware sold the plantation and the enslaved families to John Connell, a plantation owner, and former Sheriff of Woodville. Connell, who married Eliza Chinn of Kentucky in 1826, died in 1831, and Eliza Chinn Connell and their two minor children inherited the estate. In 1833, she married J. C. Patrick, who would become the last owner of the plantation before the Civil War and Emancipation. Both of Eliza Patrick’s children she had with John Connell died as teenagers, and she inherited Connell’s entire estate in Woodville. 

Josiah Clinton aka Jesse aka J. C. Patrick was born November 9th, 1800, in York District, South Carolina. (My Edgefield Plantation family oral historians said Patrick came from New York, but instead, he appears to have been from York, South Carolina.) He graduated from South Carolina College and was invited to take charge of the Minerva Academy in Edgefield District South Carolina. His connection to Edgefield South Carolina appears to be why he later named the Woodville plantation “Edgefield.”

In 1828 Patrick began medical studies at the Transylvania School in Lexington, Kentucky.  After graduating in 1830 he settled in Woodville to practice medicine. Patrick borrowed money and mortgaged a large sugar cane plantation in West Baton Rouge from Auguste Doussan, a doctor from a French emigrant family who settled in Louisiana. Patrick and his family moved from Woodville to West Baton Rouge Louisiana in 1840 and took over management of the sugar cane plantation which already had over one-hundred enslaved people. 

In 10 years, Patrick became one of the largest plantation owners in both Louisiana and Mississippi. He moved from Woodville to West Baton Rouge but still maintained a house in Woodville. The Edgefield Plantation was run by overseers while Patrick lived in West Baton Rouge.

The January 1843 Wilkinson County Mississippi Probate Court for John Connell’s estate listed the property and the enslaved families now owned by his widow Eliza Connell Patrick and J. C. Patrick.

“A certain parcel of land in Wilkinson County Miss. containing 1200 acres more or less known as the Melville Tract being the same formerly purchased by John Connell (since died) of Nathaniel Ware $24,000.00.  A certain parcel of land lying in said County between Old River and Percy Creek containing 800 arpents more or less purchased by John Connell (since died) of said Ware … $4,000.00 … the above mentioned lands being subject to the dower of the widow of John Connell deceased and the following negro slaves…”

When the 1843 inventory of the enslaved people on the estate is compared to the 1819 inventory, it shows the growth and evolution of the families.

A comparison of the families in the 26 years since the 1819 inventory reveals a lot about the new families and the elders of the community.  Nat, now 65 years old, and Molly, now 65 years old, have separated and he has a new family with Sally, a granddaughter of Hamlet. Dick, a son of Hamlet, born in 1779, has died.  His wife Harriet, now 60 years old, and her children, are still there. Congo, born in 1782, whose family was brought from Natchez, has died. His wife Sally, now 60 years old, and her children, are still there.

Near the end of the Civil War, the Union Army advanced into Baton Rouge and Patrick fled to his home at Edgefield and died there in1865. After the war, his Louisiana holdings went into default, but the Edgefield Estate became the property of his wife and children. The exact location of the plantation was later described by his children.

Edgefield Plantation containing in the aggregate about two thousand acres, and bounded as follows, viz on the North by the Tilsit Plantation of the late Dr. J.C. Patrick, east by lands of L.L. Babers & the Woodstock Plantation of R S H Shepherd.  South by the Clermont plantation of Col. R Semple & said Woodstock Plantation & west by the Salisbury Plantation of R.R. H. Shepperd.

Many of the former enslaved families chose to stay and work as laborers on the Edgefield plantation after Emancipation, while others exercised their choices as free men and women and left Woodville or found other places in town to work. Patrick’s son, Dr. Robert Patrick, remained in Woodville and managed the plantation until his death in 1932.

Next: Part 9 The 1870 Census Reveals the Surnames of Black Edgefield Families