William Ellison
William Ellison Jr. (April 1790 – December 5, 1861) was an American cotton gin maker, blacksmith, and one of the most successful slave owners in South Carolina before the Civil War. He began life as a slave named April Ellison and later became a free man who built a large plantation and owned many slaves.
April Ellison was born on a plantation near Winnsboro, South Carolina. At about age 10 he was sent to learn how to make and repair cotton gins, a valuable trade. He was freed by his master in 1816, when he was 26, and took the name William Ellison, Jr. He used his earnings to buy the freedom of his wife and their children so they would not be sold. Freedom for family members was difficult to achieve under the laws of the time, and manumission became harder after new laws were passed in the early 1800s.
Ellison moved his family to Sumter County, in the High Hills of Santee, and started a cotton gin shop. He began by hiring out slave artisans, then bought enslaved workers to help run the business. Over the years his work and business grew. By 1830 he owned four artisan slaves; by 1840 eight; by the 1850s he also ran a blacksmith shop. As his business expanded, he bought land, growing from over 50 acres to several hundred acres, and by the early 1850s he owned dozens of slaves who worked on his machines and on his land.
Ellison and his family joined the Episcopal Church of the Holy Cross in Stateburg, and he became a prominent member of the community. In 1824 he was the first free person of color in the area to install a family bench on the church’s first floor, a sign of his rising status. He also set up a family cemetery on his plantation for generations of his family.
By 1860, the census records show that Ellison owned up to 171 slaves in South Carolina and Georgia, making him one of the region’s largest slaveholders. He also owned more than 900 acres of land. He and his sons were among the few free people of color in Sumter County who owned slaves during these years. He and his family lived as a successful, influential, and controversial part of a slave society.
When the Civil War began, Ellison supported the Confederate cause. He offered labor from his 53 slaves to help the Confederate Army and converted his plantation to supply food for the war effort. His sons tried to enlist but were not allowed to serve because of their race. They donated money and bought Confederate bonds, which were ruined after the war’s end, leaving the family financially ruined along with many others who had once been prosperous.
Ellison’s family connections continued after his death. His daughter Eliza Ann had two marriages, and his son William Ellison Jr. carried on the family name. One of Ellison’s grandsons, John Wilson Buckner, served in the Confederate Army. In Ellison’s will, he left money and property to his surviving children, including a bequest to a slave daughter he had previously sold.
William Ellison’s life shows a striking rise from enslavement to wealth and property, and also exposes the complicated and painful history of slavery in the American South.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 18:01 (CET).