C-SPAN Cities Tour - Jackson: Alan Huffman "Mississippi in Africa"

Hear the story of Prospect Hill Plantation and the slaves that migrated to Africa from Alan Huffman author of "Mississippi in Africa." Revolutionary War Veteran Isaac Ross moved to the Mississippi Territory in 1808 with a large group of slaves and free blacks and established Prospect Hill. Once there, he helped the free blacks purchase land and ran the plantation with an egalitarian mind set. As he approached the last few years of his life, Ross wanted to free all of his slaves, however, that was illegal under Mississippi law. So instead, Ross arranged it so that at the time of his daughter's death, Prospect Hill would be sold and the money was to be used to pay the way for the slaves to migrate to Liberia where a free colony was being established by the American Colonization Society during the 1840s. "Mississippi in Africa" tells the story of the group of slaves that migrated to Liberia, the life they lead while there and the connection to the civil war that broke out in Liberia during the 1990s.