The Plantation Owner Who Left Everything to His Slave… and Nothing to His Wife

In South Carolina, a will was revealed that shook the foundations of Charleston’s elite, exposed a family’s darkest secrets, and forced society to confront its most uncomfortable truths. Augustus Fairmont, a respected plantation owner, did the unthinkable: he disinherited his white family, leaving everything to his enslaved mistress and their children. This is the story of a legal battle that would consume Charleston and forever change the way history remembers the South’s complicated legacy.

South Carolina’s probate records contain a document so controversial that it remained sealed for 83 years. The last will and testament of Colonel Augustus Fairmont, dated March 1857, distributed his entire estate, valued at millions today, to a single beneficiary. Not his wife of 26 years, not his three legitimate children, and not his brother who had fought beside him in the Mexican War. The sole heir to Fairmont’s 1,400-acre plantation, his Charleston townhouse, his cotton business, and all his wealth was a woman who had been legally categorized as property.

The reading of this will sparked a legal battle that would divide Charleston society and expose the dark underbelly of Southern aristocracy. Augustus Fairmont’s decision to leave everything to his enslaved mistress, Celia Rouso, would have profound implications—both legally and morally—and unravel everything the Fairmont family thought they knew about their future.

Charleston’s Illusion of Perfection

Charleston in the 1850s epitomized Southern gentility, its streets lined with grand mansions, its churches ringing on Sunday mornings, and its men and women living lives steeped in privilege. But beneath the genteel façade, the truth was far darker. Charleston’s wealth came from the labor of enslaved people, whose sweat and blood sustained the cotton economy and powered the plantations that dotted the surrounding Low Country.

Augustus Fairmont, a plantation owner in St. Landry Parish, was a prominent figure in this society. A war hero, a member of the elite, and a successful businessman, Fairmont’s reputation was untouchable. His plantation, Riverside, sat along the Ashley River, and the grand estate reflected his wealth and social status. The estate was complete with a stately Georgian house, slave quarters, a kitchen house, and a sprawling garden. But it was the power dynamics within the walls of his home that would soon be exposed as the most shocking of all.

The Mistress in the Shadows

Celia Rouso was an enslaved woman who had been purchased by Fairmont in 1843. Though her official title was “property,” Celia’s presence in the household was far from ordinary. Unlike many of the other enslaved people on the plantation, Celia was literate and had been educated by her previous mistress. She controlled Fairmont’s correspondence, oversaw much of the household management, and wielded authority in a way that was both unusual and dangerous in a society built on slavery.

Fairmont’s marriage to Margaret Louisa Fairmont, who came from one of Charleston’s oldest families, was one of status, not love. Together, they had three children—Catherine, Augustus Jr., and Margaret (known as Meg). By all outward appearances, the Fairmont family was the epitome of Southern respectability. Yet, beneath the surface, Augustus and Celia’s relationship had been going on for years.

Celia had borne Augustus two children, Daniel (born in 1844) and Ruth (born in 1847). Though society expected such affairs to remain hidden, everyone on the plantation knew of the children’s parentage. However, the family maintained the fiction that Celia remained nothing more than property, and her children were not acknowledged.

A Will That Changed Everything

In the spring of 1857, Augustus Fairmont, who was in the advanced stages of cancer, called his attorney, Josiah Prescott, to his plantation. Prescott was a longtime family lawyer and had helped with many of Fairmont’s business dealings. What he didn’t expect was a will that would forever alter the lives of everyone involved.

Fairmont dictated his will to Prescott over the course of two hours, in a room where Celia sat as a witness. To Prescott’s astonishment, the will bequeathed Fairmont’s entire estate to Celia and her children. In the document, Fairmont acknowledged his children by Celia as his “natural” children and made arrangements to ensure they would inherit the wealth that had once been promised to his legitimate family.

The will also granted Celia her immediate and unconditional freedom, despite the fact that South Carolina law severely restricted the rights of free people of color. Fairmont acknowledged that Celia had been the “instrument” of his redemption, and he sought to correct the injustices he had allowed to persist during his life. He made it clear that he did not want his legitimate children to inherit anything. Instead, he transferred everything, from the land to the business to the slaves, to Celia.

The Family’s Reaction

When Prescott delivered the will to Margaret and the family, the reaction was one of disbelief and rage. Margaret, who had borne her husband three children, was stunned to learn that her family was to inherit nothing. Augustus Jr., her son, stood to lose not only the family estate but also the future he had envisioned in Charleston society. The legal challenge that followed would split Charleston’s elite.

Margaret’s attorney argued that Fairmont’s will violated the laws of South Carolina. It was inconceivable, they argued, that a woman of color could own property, let alone inherit such a vast estate. They claimed that Fairmont had been legally insane when he wrote the will, citing his deteriorating health and the influence Celia must have had over him.

But Celia, with the legal support of an abolitionist lawyer named Thomas Grimble, fought back. She argued that her children had been born free under the law and that the will was simply a legitimate transfer of property from one free person to another. Celia’s defense centered around the fact that Fairmont had, in fact, manumitted her in 1847, several years before his death. Thus, Celia had been a free woman for over a decade, and her children were not bound by the status of slavery.

The Legal Battle and Its Fallout

The case of Fairmont v. Fairmont Estate became a public spectacle, with the city of Charleston divided along racial and social lines. The trial exposed not only the personal failings of a prominent family but also the systemic racism and contradictions inherent in the South’s social and legal systems. Celia’s lawyers argued that Fairmont’s actions—though unconventional—were simply a reflection of the moral clarity he sought in the final days of his life. On the other hand, Margaret’s lawyers contended that the will was an act of madness, driven by guilt and a desire to atone for a lifetime of sins.

But the trial took an unexpected turn when a legal document surfaced, one that had been hidden for years—a manumission certificate that proved Celia and her children had been free since 1847. This revelation fundamentally changed the case. If Celia had been free, then she was not bound by the legal restrictions placed on enslaved people, and she could legally inherit the property that Fairmont had left her.

Judge Hamilton Pinkney ruled in Celia’s favor, acknowledging her legal freedom and her right to inherit the estate. The court’s decision shocked Charleston’s elite, forcing them to confront the contradictions that had underpinned their entire society. The case raised uncomfortable questions about the institution of slavery and the hypocrisy of those who participated in it while condemning it publicly.

The Aftermath

In the years following the trial, Celia and her children were able to rebuild their lives, though not without hardship. Margaret, meanwhile, struggled with the loss of everything she had built and her place in Charleston society. Her children, too, faced the consequences of their father’s betrayal.

Celia, who had once been an enslaved woman, became a wealthy landowner, controlling the estate that Augustus Fairmont had once dominated. She moved to Philadelphia, where she lived the remainder of her life as a free woman, maintaining the legacy her husband had tried to secure for her.

Legacy of the Fairmont Case

The Fairmont case became a symbol of the unsustainability of the South’s social order. A system that relied on the subjugation of others to maintain its power could not last. The legal battle exposed the deep flaws in a society that allowed men to father children with enslaved women but forbade those children from inheriting the wealth that should have been theirs by right. The case also revealed the personal toll of such a system—how it distorted relationships, eroded family bonds, and forced individuals to navigate a morally bankrupt landscape.

Today, the Fairmont Plantation House stands as a museum, but the true story of Augustus Fairmont, Celia Rouso, and their children remains hidden beneath the layers of history, waiting to be uncovered by those who are willing to confront the uncomfortable truths of the past.