Our History

The Fort family lineage descends from the colonizers of Edgecombe County, North Carolina. They were settlers from England. The man in this photo is William Johnston Fort, a slave master from St. Feliciana Parish in Louisiana. He owned a sugar plantation that amassed a decent amount of wealth before the reconstruction era that preceded the Civil War. He impregnated an enslaved woman from the Veal plantation, becoming the great-grandfather of both Virginia and Ella.