On February 7, 2024, Timothy R. Buckner presented “The Barber of Natchez Reconsidered” as part of the History Is Lunch series.
Before the Civil War, William Johnson was Natchez’s wealthiest and most well-respected Black resident. Born to an enslaved mother and white father, Johnson was released from bondage by the Mississippi legislature in 1820. He trained as a barber and became a prominent business owner and member of the community in Natchez.
“Previous scholarly works on Johnson suggested he aspired to belong to the class of white gentlemen who he served in his barbershop and that he held himself apart from Natchez’s Black population,” said Buckner, author of the new book The Barber of Natchez Reconsidered: William Johnson and Black Masculinity in the Antebellum South. “My research shows instead a man with deep connections to the broader African American community who also realized the economic necessity of catering to white patrons.”
David Stefan Doddington, author of Contesting Slave Masculinity in the American South, wrote that “Buckner skillfully examines William Johnson’s life and experiences with this rich case study, serving to illuminate vital issues surrounding race, politics, and power in Natchez, Mississippi, and the Lower South. Buckner’s emphasis on the multifaceted nature of Black manhood in and out of slavery, and on the structural forces that shaped actions and identities in the antebellum South, makes this a critical addition to the field.”
Timothy R. Buckner is associate professor of history at Troy University. He earned his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin. His book The Barber of Natchez Reconsidered was published by LSU Press in 2023 and won the Jules and Frances Landry Award for 2024. He is the coeditor of Fathers, Preachers, Rebels, Men: Black Masculinity in U.S. History and Literature, 1820–1945.
History Is Lunch is a weekly lecture series of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History that explores all aspects of the state’s past. The hour-long programs are held in the Craig H. Neilsen Auditorium of the Museum of Mississippi History and Mississippi Civil Rights Museum building at 222 North Street in Jackson and livestreamed on YouTube and Facebook.
