Revolutionary War veteran Isaac Ross arrived in Jefferson County from South Carolina in the 1790s, bringing hundreds of enslaved people to clear land and grow cotton. He built Prospect Hill into one of the wealthiest plantations in the Natchez District. But Ross did something almost no planter of his era did: he wrote a will, in 1834, ordering that his plantation be sold and the proceeds used to transport his 160 enslaved people to Liberia as free citizens. He stipulated that no families be separated, and that anyone who chose to stay would work for wages and be freed eventually. Ross died in 1836. His grandson, Isaac Ross Wade, immediately challenged the will — he wanted the people and the land. He blocked the manumission for over a decade. During that time, a revolt broke out on the plantation. The main house burned to the ground, almost certainly set by the enslaved people who were being denied their freedom. A few months later, the Mississippi Supreme Court upheld Ross's will. In 1849, approximately 120 of the original 160 enslaved people sailed for West Africa. They founded a settlement called Mississippi in Africa, which became part of Sinoe County, Liberia. Descendants still live there today. Mississippi State University archaeologists excavated the site in 2023, uncovering artifacts from the enslaved community — the other side of the plantation story that the big house never told. The Archaeological Conservancy acquired the property in 2011 and has worked to stabilize the deteriorating structures. The property is now privately owned and undergoing restoration. Portage does not pin private residences — this story is told at the county level because the site is not open to the public.