The Barber of Natchez Reconsidered
Title | The Barber of Natchez Reconsidered PDF eBook |
Author | Timothy R. Buckner |
Publisher | LSU Press |
Total Pages | 260 |
Release | 2023-08-30 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0807180548 |
Winner of the Jules and Frances Landry Award Historians have long considered the diary of William Johnson, a wealthy free Black barber in Natchez, Mississippi, to be among the most significant sources on free African Americans living in the antebellum South. Timothy R. Buckner’s The Barber of Natchez Reconsidered reexamines Johnson’s life using recent scholarship on Black masculinity as an essential lens, demonstrating a complexity to Johnson previously overlooked in academic studies. While Johnson’s profession as a barber helped him gain acceptance and respectability, it also required his subservience to the needs of his all-white clientele. Buckner’s research counters earlier assumptions that suggested Johnson held himself apart from Natchez’s Black population, revealing instead a man balanced between deep connections to the broader African American community and the necessity to cater to white patrons for economic and social survival. Buckner also highlights Johnson’s participation in the southern performance of manliness to a degree rarely seen in recent studies of Black masculinity. Like many other free Black men, Johnson asserted his manhood in ways beyond simply rebelling against slavery; he also competed with other men, white and Black, free and enslaved, in various masculine pursuits, including gambling, hunting, and fishing. Buckner’s long-overdue reevaluation of the contents of Johnson’s diary serves as a corrective to earlier works and a fascinating new account of a free African American business owner residing in the prewar South.
Barber of Natchez
Title | Barber of Natchez PDF eBook |
Author | Edwin Adams Davis |
Publisher | LSU Press |
Total Pages | 292 |
Release | 1973-06-01 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 9780807102121 |
In The Barber of Natchez, Edwin Adams Davis and William Ransom Hogan tell the remarkable story of William Johnson, a slave who rose to freedom, business success, and high community standing in the heart of the South—all before 1850. Emancipated as a young boy in 1820, Johnson became a barber’s apprentice and later opened several profitable barber shops of his own. As his wealth grew, he expanded into real estate and acquired large tracts of nearby farm and timber land. The authors explore in detail Johnson’s family, work, and social life, including his friendships with people of both races. They also examine his wanton murder and the resulting trial of the man accused of shooting him. More than the story of one individual, the narrative also offers compelling insight into the southern code of honor, the apprentice system, and the ownership of slaves by free blacks. Based on Johnson’s two-thousand-page diary, letters, and business records, this extraordinary biography reveals the complicated life of a freedman in Mississippi and a new perspective on antebellum Natchez.
The Barber of Natchez, Wherein a Slave is Freed and Rises to a Very High Standing
Title | The Barber of Natchez, Wherein a Slave is Freed and Rises to a Very High Standing PDF eBook |
Author | Edwin Adams Davis |
Publisher | |
Total Pages | 306 |
Release | 1954 |
Genre | African Americans |
ISBN |
William Johnson's Natchez
Title | William Johnson's Natchez PDF eBook |
Author | William Johnson |
Publisher | |
Total Pages | 850 |
Release | 1951 |
Genre | African Americans |
ISBN |
The Barber of Natchez [i.e. William Johnson], Etc. [With Extracts from Johnson's Diary. With Plates, Including a Portrait.].
Title | The Barber of Natchez [i.e. William Johnson], Etc. [With Extracts from Johnson's Diary. With Plates, Including a Portrait.]. PDF eBook |
Author | Edwin Adams DAVIS (and HOGAN (William Ransom)) |
Publisher | |
Total Pages | 272 |
Release | 1954 |
Genre | |
ISBN |
Knights of the Razor
Title | Knights of the Razor PDF eBook |
Author | Douglas Walter Bristol |
Publisher | JHU Press |
Total Pages | 229 |
Release | 2009-11 |
Genre | Business & Economics |
ISBN | 080189283X |
They advocated economic independence from whites and founded insurance companies that became some of the largest black-owned corporations.--L. Diane Barnes "Alabama Review"
The Barber of Natchez Reconsidered
Title | The Barber of Natchez Reconsidered PDF eBook |
Author | Timothy R. Buckner |
Publisher | LSU Press |
Total Pages | 238 |
Release | 2023-08-30 |
Genre | Social Science |
ISBN | 080718053X |
Winner of the Jules and Frances Landry Award Historians have long considered the diary of William Johnson, a wealthy free Black barber in Natchez, Mississippi, to be among the most significant sources on free African Americans living in the antebellum South. Timothy R. Buckner’s The Barber of Natchez Reconsidered reexamines Johnson’s life using recent scholarship on Black masculinity as an essential lens, demonstrating a complexity to Johnson previously overlooked in academic studies. While Johnson’s profession as a barber helped him gain acceptance and respectability, it also required his subservience to the needs of his all-white clientele. Buckner’s research counters earlier assumptions that suggested Johnson held himself apart from Natchez’s Black population, revealing instead a man balanced between deep connections to the broader African American community and the necessity to cater to white patrons for economic and social survival. Buckner also highlights Johnson’s participation in the southern performance of manliness to a degree rarely seen in recent studies of Black masculinity. Like many other free Black men, Johnson asserted his manhood in ways beyond simply rebelling against slavery; he also competed with other men, white and Black, free and enslaved, in various masculine pursuits, including gambling, hunting, and fishing. Buckner’s long-overdue reevaluation of the contents of Johnson’s diary serves as a corrective to earlier works and a fascinating new account of a free African American business owner residing in the prewar South.