Prospect Hill is nationally significant for its association with the Wade and Ross families and a will contest regarding the emancipation and repatriation on the plantation’s enslaved people. Colonel Isaac Ross came to Mississippi from South Carolina in 1805 and established Prospect Hill. When Ross died in 1836, his will directed that many of the enslaved people be freed and offered transportation to Liberia. His grandson, Isaac Ross Wade challenged the will and a lengthy legal battle ensued. In 1845, some of the slaves set fire to the house, resulting in the death of one resident, and resulted in the hanging of X number of conspirators. Ross rebuilt Prospect Hill in 1854, likely on the foundations of the earlier house. Wade’s executors ultimately prevailed in the will contest and in 1849, somewhere between 250 and 300 freed slaves settled in Liberia. The story of Prospect Hill encompasses the antebellum world of slavery, emancipation, the cotton economy, violence and lynchings. Designated a Mississippi Landmark on January 24, 2914.