MISSISSIPPI IN AFRICA
The Saga of the Slaves of Prospect Hill Plantation and Their Legacy in Liberia Today
Chapter One
NEKISHA ELLIS WATCHES AS I hoist the massive old record book
onto the Xerox machine, unable to prevent it from pulling apart at the
seams. With each turn of a page, bits of parchment break away and
rain down upon the floor. I look up at her and wince.
"Don't worry," she says, and smiles apologetically. "It's just old."
Nekisha is a deputy court clerk in Jefferson County, where the surviving
documents chronicling the Prospect Hill litigation are housed.
A smile comes naturally to her face. She watches brightly as one irreplaceable
record after another crumbles in my hands.
This particular book, which contains county probate records for the
1840s, has been sheltered at the back of a dusty, unopened box for decades,
and represents one of our first major finds. Nekisha is happy to
have unearthed it, although this is more due to her desire to help than
her interest in what the book contains. Irreplaceable though it may be,
the book is just one more piece of moldering detritus in one of the
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