William Prince Ford

Common card · No. 259513

William Prince Ford (January 15, 1803 – August 23, 1866) was an American Baptist minister, preacher, and slaveholder in pre–Civil War Louisiana. Ford was the enslaver who first bought Solomon Northup, a free African-American, after Northup was kidnapped in the District of Columbia, and sold in New Orleans in 1841. Ford resided in the "Great Pine Woods", Avoyelles, Red River Parish, Louisiana, and ran a farm there. At the same year, Ezra Bennett, a Bayou Boeuf storekeeper and planter, lived near the plantation of Prince Ford and gave him instructions to his factors. After selling Northup to another enslaver, Ford, in 1843, converted with most of his Baptist congregation to the Disciples of Christ, to which Ford had become influenced by the writings of Alexander Campbell. Campbell visited the congregation in 1857 and was impressed by the fellowship between blacks and whites. As of 2014, the congregation continued as the Cheneyville Christian Church. It is the oldest congregation associated...

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