The Leota Plantation was a historic large forced-labor farm on the banks of the Mississippi River in Washington County, Mississippi. It was established in 1825 and destroyed by a flood in 1930.
| Leota Plantation | |
|---|---|
 | |
| General information | |
| Status | destroyed by flooding |
| Client | Isaac Worthington |
History
editThe plantation was established in 1825 by Isaac Worthington,[1][2] a Kentucky-born veteran of the War of 1812.[3] He named it after his daughter Annie's favorite fictional character in 1829.[1][3] Worthington lived here with his wife, Ann Taylor, their children (including future sheriff Thomas Worthington), and the Black people he enslaved.[3]
By 1858, Worthington built a mansion to serve as main residence and headquarters of the forced-labor farm,[1][3] which also acted as a town, partly due to its location on the shipping route between Memphis, Tennessee, and Vicksburg, Mississippi.[1] He also built "twelve stores, a post office", a school, and a church of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.[1] The mansion was destroyed in a flood in 1883.[1][3] In 1930, the entire plantation was taken over by another flood.[2] An old cemetery is still visible.[1]
An island on the Mississippi River called Worthington Island was named after the former plantation.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h Woods, Woody (2010). Delta Plantations: The Beginning. Olivewoods Press. pp. 75–82. ISBN 9780615383958. OCLC 701318669. Retrieved December 30, 2015.
- ^ a b Hall, Russell S.; Nowell, Princella W.; Childress, Stacy (2000). Washington County, Mississippi. Mount Pleasant, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing. p. 23. ISBN 9780738506555. Retrieved December 30, 2015.
- ^ a b c d e Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Mississippi. Chicago: The Goodspeed Publishing House. 1891. pp. 1072–1073. Retrieved December 30, 2015.
33°06′07″N 91°06′56″W / 33.101915°N 91.115536°W
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