Washington

Around Washington, enslaved people were the majority. In 1820 Adams County counted 4,005 whites, 118 free Black residents and 7,953 enslaved people, and the town's institutions grew in that world. Tobias Gibson formed Washington's first Methodist church in 1799, Jefferson College opened in 1802, and Elizabeth Female Academy followed in 1818. James Smylie, who taught and preached here, helped start Mississippi's first Presbyterian group in 1807. As the town declined in population and importance, so did its college, which closed from 1863 to 1866.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Emerald Mound — 5.0 mi
  The second-largest Mississippian ceremonial mound in the country, beside the Natchez Trace Parkway, built by ancestors of the Natchez and kept from climbing at the request of tribes.
• Forks of the Road — 5.2 mi
  The 1832-1863 slave market a mile east of downtown Natchez, the second busiest in the Deep South, now a Natchez National Historical Park site with exhibit panels.
• Melrose Estate — 5.5 mi
  A Greek Revival estate in Natchez, now a National Park Service site, interpreted through the people who were enslaved there as well as the McMurran family.
• Grand Village of the Natchez Indians — 6.0 mi
  The Natchez capital on St. Catherine Creek, where the Great Sun lived, with two mounds rebuilt to the shape the French recorded in 1723.

More markers nearby

• Dr. John W. Monette — steps away
• Prince Ibrahima — steps away
• St. Catherine Creek Italian Colony — 3.1 mi
• Richard Wright — 5.4 mi