The Vote for Freedom to Liberia from Prospect Hill Plantation

The first dataset was extracted from the list of passengers on the barque Nehemiah Rich, departing from New Orleans, Louisiana on January 7, 1848, published in the African Repository and Colonial Journal. The dataset includes headings from the Nehemiah Rich passenger list—number, names, ages, where from, and remarks, as well as additional fields documenting alternative spellings of names. Captain Isaac Ross, owner of the Prospect Hill plantation near Lorman, Mississippi, wrote his will allowing the majority of the enslaved adults at the Prospect Hill plantation to vote for one of two choices after his death: freedom to Liberia or be sold. The people freed from the Ridges and Prospect Hill plantations comprised more than half of the estimated 571 emigrants from Mississippi to Liberia. The second dataset was primarily extracted from the passenger list of the barque Laura for the second group of people freed through the will of Captain Isaac Ross from the Prospect Hill plantation in Mississippi in 1849. The passenger list includes a total of one hundred and fifty-one emigrants who departed from New Orleans, Louisiana for Liberia on January 22, 1849. The one hundred and forty-one passengers freed through the will of Captain Isaac Ross at Prospect Hill, Mississippi were listed as passengers No. 1 to No. 141, with one passenger listed as No. 142 freed by Mrs. Margaret Reed in Mississippi, Captain Ross’ daughter. The other column headings of the Laura passenger list included names, ages, profession, where from, and relationships, emancipated by will of Capt. Ross, and passengers who died in New Orleans or on board ship under a remarks column.