The Barber of Natchez
Tupelo, Mississippi

Mr. Robert Bruce Smith will present two history programs on "William Johnson," (the Barber of Natchez) on Saturday, February 13, 2010, in the Natchez Trace Parkway Visitor Center at milepost 266, near Tupelo.

At 10:00 a.m., Mr. Smith`s program is titled "William Johnson: Witness to a Vanished Natchez World."
At 1:00 pm, he will present readings directly from the diary of William Johnson.

Mr. Smith will focus on William Johnson examining his life as a free black barber and diarist living in Natchez during the antebellum period. William Johnson was a free man of color, born a slave, in a town cosmopolitan enough to admire his business smarts and rocklike integrity, but unable to grant him full citizenship or social equality. As a result, Johnson made the best of his half-world in between, unburdening himself in page after page of priceless Old South observations while graciously passing his days with family, servants, and trusty violin, in a comfortable Natchez townhouse.

Saturday`s talks by Robert Bruce Smith will combine authentic images from the 1800s with William Johnson`s own lively words to revive-however briefly-the very human side of life in this famous African American Mississippian`s vanished Natchez world.

Both programs are free to the public.