Laflorya Gauthier

A Biography of Isaiah Thornton Montgomery Laflorya Gauthier

In all the annals of slavery in the United States of America, there is no other story like that of the Montgomerys, they were freed by taking refuge in Ohio during the Civil War. Then they returned to the place of their bondage, legally freed by the Thirteenth Amendment. They bought and operated the plantations of their bondage, plus an adjacent plantation, and won numerous prizes for their cotton. And although this experiment failed, the idea of a permanent home for blacks did not. For Isaiah carried out his father's lifelong plan of a permanent homeland for blacks and founded Mound Bayou, Mississippi in 1887.