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It begins with Captain Isaac Ross (1760 – 1836), a planter and a veteran of the American Revolutionary War of South Carolina. When he came to the Mississippi Territory in 1808, he brought with him over 100 enslaved people as well as the freed Blacks who had fought with him in the military. A man of wealth, he bought thousands of acres of land in Jefferson County near Port Gibson and developed what became Prospect Hill Plantation.
Ross, according to some historical accounts, allowed some of the enslaved people to learn to read and write, even though such practice was unusual and illegal in Mississippi at the time.
Given his interest in educating those he enslaved, it is not surprising that he would invest in a college. In 1830, he used his wealth – becoming a major donor -- to support the founding of Oakland College, a private, white men’s-only school near Rodney that was affiliated with the Presbyterian denomination. Its mission, initially, was to prepare men for ministry.
Ross and other contributors were joined by the Rev. Jeremiah Chamberlain (1794 – 1851), who served as the school’s president from 1830 to 1851. Chamberlain was murdered in 1851 in front of his home at the college. He was killed by George Briscoe, a local planter, who beat him and stabbed him in his chest. Briscoe killed him reportedly because Chamberlain opposed slavery and did not support southern rights, according to historical accounts. Other accounts suggest he and the faculty had expelled a student for giving a pro-states' rights or pro-secession speech on campus.
When the Civil War broke out in 1861, the school began to struggle as its students and faculty joined the military to fight in the war. In 1862, the school closed, with the Union Army occupying its campus during the war.
In 1871, the state of Mississippi purchased the campus for the purpose of establishing a new educational institution. This marked the formal end of Oakland College as an entity.
The state reopened the school as Alcorn University. It was founded specifically to educate the descendants of formerly enslaved African Americans, making it the first Black land‑grant college in the United States. The school was named in honor of Mississippi State Governor James Lusk Alcorn (1816-1894).
In 1871, Hiram Rhodes Revels became the first president of the school. He took the position after becoming the first African American to serve in the U.S. Congress. Revels served as president until 1873. He was reappointed in 1876 and remained in the position until 1882.
In 1878, the school was named Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College, which reflected its new mission as a federally recognized land‑grant college. Alcorn A&M College remained the name until 1974, when Mississippi officially granted the institution university status and renamed it Alcorn State University. This change reflected its growth in academic offerings, infrastructure, and statewide significance.
When we talk about Prospect Hill and its connection to Alcorn, it’s important to confront the full picture. Slavery remains a dark and indelible chapter in Mississippi's history. The story of Isaac Ross and the Prospect Hill Plantation delivers hard facts and painful truths about that era.
The wealth extracted through the forced labor of enslaved people at Prospect Hill helped fund Oakland College, which, over time, became the site of a historically Black land-grant university.
That transformation, however, does not soften or erase the cruelty of slavery or the profound suffering endured at Prospect Hill. That reality remains painful and unchangeable.
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ROSCOE BARNES III, Ph.D., is the cultural heritage tourism manager at Visit Natchez.
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