Early on a torpid Sunday morning in August, you can walk the streets of downtown Natchez and barely encounter another soul.
But here on the sidewalk ahead was a small sandwich board pointing to a doorway I’d otherwise have walked by unaware.
Seated just inside the door was a National Park Ranger, who put down the large tome on which he obviously was fully expecting to make significant headway this quiet morning, to greet his only guests at the townhome once owned by William Johnson, known by many in his time as “The Barber of Natchez.”
William Johnson began his life as a slave. His freedom at age eleven followed that of his mother Amy and his sister Adelia. After working as an apprentice to his brother-in-law James Miller, Johnson bought the barbershop in 1830 for three hundred dollars. It was shortly after that he began to keep a diary.
And in his diaries, Johnson records the daily life of Natchez in minute detail. From the profoundly prosaic daily observations: “Business Tolerable fair. Mr Raily paid me the full amount of his shaving Bill $4.50 up to the 1st of January inst.”
To the trials and tribulations of married life: “The Old woman is on a regular spree for quarrelling to day all day—oh Lord, was any One on this Earth So perpetually tormented as I am.”
Williams’ meticulous diaries not only paint a vivid word picture of the intricacies of daily life in the Natchez, but also included illustrations like the one on the page shown here, of a duel that took place on the day in question.
The actual diaries are now carefully preserved at LSU’s Hill Memorial Library in Baton Rouge.
Details. Details. Details.
The William Johnson House
210 State Street
Natchez, MS
(601) 445-5345
http://www.nps.gov/natc/historyculture/williamjohnson.htm
9 am to 5 pm every day except Thanksgiving.
