Margaret Johnson Erwin Dudley

Margaret Johnson Erwin Dudley
Born	Margaret Johnson March 4, 1821
Died	August 28, 1863
Resting place	Lexington Cemetery
Residence	Mount Holly, Foote, Mississippi, U.S.
Occupation	Planter, writer
Spouse(s)	James Erwin Charles William Dudley
Children	Charles Wilkins Dudley, Jr.
Parent(s)	Henry Johnson Elizabeth Julia Flournoy
Relatives	Richard Mentor Johnson (paternal uncle) John Patton Erwin (brother-in-law, first marriage) Benjamin Winslow Dudley (father-in-law, second marriage)

Margaret Johnson Erwin Dudley (1821-1863) was a Southern belle, planter and letter writer in the Antebellum South. The owner of Mount Holly from 1854 to 1863, she was one of the largest slaveholders in Mississippi. She freed her slaves in 1858, prior to the American Civil War.

Margaret Johnson was born on March 4, 1821. Her father, Captain Henry Johnson, was a large landowner and slaveholder in Washington County, Mississippi. Her mother was Elizabeth Julia Flournoy.

Her paternal grandfather, Robert Johnson, was a Kentucky pioneer and surveyor. One of her paternal uncle, Richard Mentor Johnson, served as the ninth Vice President of the United States from 1837 to 1841, under President Martin Van Buren.

Her maternal grandfather, Major Matthew Flournoy, served in the Indian wars.

Like all Southern belles, Margaret learned to speak French fluently and studied French culture. She disapproved of the French Revolution of 1848, which overthrew King Louis Philippe's July Monarchy and established the Second French Empire led by Emperor Napoleon III.

In 1854, she acquired Mount Holly, a 1,699-acre Southern plantation on Lake Washington with outbuildings, livestock and 100 African slaves, from her father. She paid US$100,000 for it. With 100 slaves, she became "among the top 1 per cent of all slaveholders in Mississippi" according to Civil War historian John Y. Simon. After she remarried in 1855, an Italianate mansion was erected on the land.

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