Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

NATCHEZ — What are the connections between wealthy plantation owner Adam Bingaman, barber and diarist William Johnson, trainer Ben Pryor, and the magnificent thoroughbred named Lexington?

Kathleen Bond will provide these answers and more at a presentation entitled, “The Sporting Life of William Johnson,” at 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 1, at the Historic Natchez Foundation at 108 S. Commerce St.

This talk marks the launch of the first “Natchez Reads” series – an annual program featuring community book readings, discussions, tours, and author talks that will focus on a book related to Natchez each year.

Partners in this year’s “Natchez Reads” endeavor include Natchez National Historical Park, the Historic Natchez Foundation, the George Armstrong Library, the City of Natchez, and the Mississippi Book Festival.

The inaugural book in this series is “Horse,” by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks. This historical novel follows the life and racing career of Lexington, the greatest of American thoroughbred racehorses and father to many generations of prominent racers, including several of the colts contending in this year’s Kentucky Derby.

Brooks highlights many of the historical figures associated with the legendary horse and imaginatively recreates others about whom less is known – including the many Black free and enslaved jockeys, grooms, and trainers who were foundational to the horse racing industry during the antebellum period – who are often depicted but not named in artwork of the time.

The Natchez tie comes when Lexington is sent from Kentucky to Adam Bingaman’s Fatherland plantation (which predated the town of Natchez and stretched from the site of the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians all the way up to Parkway Baptist Church) to have his racing skills honed by Bingaman’s noted trainer, Ben Pryor. Lexington then is taken to New Orleans to run at the Metairie racetrack before returning to Kentucky.

Author Brooks sets part of her novel inside William Johnson’s Natchez barber shop.

Prior to the Civil War, all the river towns along the Mississippi teemed with horses – and horse-racing enthusiasts. The Natchez Pharsalia track along Saint Catherine Creek north of town competed for great horses with tracks at Vicksburg and St. Francisville as well as New Orleans.

In his younger days, William Johnson was a frequent attendee (and participant) at the Pharsalia track, and he had a close friendship with Adam Bingaman – who let him breed nags to his blooded stallions. In addition to training for Bingaman, Pryor managed the Pharsalia track and also married one of Bingaman’s daughters by an enslaved woman.

William Johnson’s house at 210 State Street is now preserved and open to the public free of charge as one unit of Natchez National Historical Park. It is open seven days a week from 8:30 am to 5 p.m.

The visitor contact station at the William Johnson House includes a retail shop that sells William Johnson’s diary, his books, and other books associated with this year’s “Natchez Reads” series of events.

A direct descendant of Bingaman’s trainer Ben Pryor, M.B. Gibson has also written a historical novel about this era, entitled “Pryor Knowledge.” Just released this spring, it will also be on sale at the William Johnson House and at a pop-up bookstore located at each of the events at the Historic Natchez Foundation.

This is the full slate of “Natchez Reads” events for 2025 (all are free and open to the public):

May 1 – “The  Sporting Life of William Johnson,” by Kathleen Bond & book signing by M. B. Gibson, author of “Pryor Knowledge,” 6:00 pm, Historic Natchez Foundation.

May 8 & 22, June 5 & 19 – “William Johnson’s Natchez” downtown walking tour by David Slay, Chief of Interpretation at Natchez National Historical Park. Meet at the William Johnson House at 10 a.m.

July 22 – Book Discussion of “Horse” led by Betty Jo Harris, 6:00 pm, Historic Natchez Foundation.

August 26 – M.B. Gibson, author of “Pryor Knowledge,” in conversation with Kathleen Bond about writing historical fiction, 6:00 pm, Historic Natchez Foundation.

September 12 – Pulitzer-prize winner Geraldine Brooks, author of “Horse,” in conversation with historian Alan Huffman, author of “Mississippi in Africa,” 6:30 pm, Natchez Grand Hotel.

September 13 – “Horse” author Geraldine Brooks speaks at Mississippi Book Festival on the State Capitol grounds in Jackson.

For more information, you may call the Historic Natchez Foundation at 601-442-2500 or visit https://natchez.org/news/natchez-reads-2025.

Kathleen Bond is the Superintendent of Natchez National Historical Park.