Edward McGehee | |
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Born | November 8, 1786 |
Died | October 1, 1880 Woodville, Mississippi | (aged 93)
Resting place | Bowling Green Cemetery, Woodville, Mississippi |
Occupation | Planter |
Title | Judge |
Spouse | Mary (Burruss) McGehee |
Children | Charles Goodrich McGehee Francis William McGehee John Burruss McGehee Harriett Lucinda McGehee Augusta Eugenia McGehee |
Parent(s) | Micajah McGehee Ann (Scott) McGehee |
Relatives | Stark Young (nephew) |
Edward McGehee (November 8, 1786 – October 1, 1880) was an American judge and major planter in Wilkinson County, Mississippi. He owned nearly 1,000 slaves to work his thousands of acres of cotton land at his Bowling Green Plantation.
In the 1830s, McGehee was among a group of major planters who founded the Mississippi Colonization Society to transport free people of color from the state to West Africa. They intended to remove what they considered the destabilizing threat of free people of color in a slave society. In 1838, they created a settlement known as Mississippi-in-Africa, which became part of the Commonwealth of Liberia in 1841.