William Johnson’s diary, published as William Johnson’s Natchez: The Antebellum Diary of a Free Negro (1951), documents his role as contractor in the construction of his family home, whose first story was rented commercially. It also chronicles his rise from bondage to freedom to businessman. Johnson used brick and double-leaf front doors from the ruins of nearby Parker’s Hotel, destroyed in an 1840 tornado. The side-gabled, two-and-a-half-story brick building is one of only a few surviving buildings in town with the typical form of antebellum Natchez commercial architecture. The National Park Service acquired the property in 1991.
William Johnson was murdered in 1851, and despite public outcry, legal restrictions of race prevented the conviction of his assassin, who maintained he was white. He was found to be of mixed race after he was acquitted.