"I denounce before high heaven and the civilized world this unparalleled act of tyranny and usurpation.
I only yield obedience because I have no power to resist."
~Charles Clark while bieng arrested June 3, 1865
Before the Civil War began and Clark was elected Governor of Mississippi, he was working as a lawyer. His most prominent case was the case he worked on during the 1830's and 1840's. He worked representing a settler in the Mississippi Delta who was in a dispute over land with a Choctaw Native American. The dispute went to court before the Mississippi supreme court and the settler ultimately won the land. To pay his legal fee to Clark, the settler gave Clark a portion of the land they had just obtained between the Mississippi river and Beulah Mississippi.
In the late 1840's Clark decided to build a plantation on his new land and named it Doe-Roe. Sir William Blackstone came up with the names Doe and Roe to illustrate unknown litigants in court cases (ex. John Doe, Roe v. Wade, etc.). Since Clark was a litigator he thought the name was clever and fit the land. Over time the name was shortened to its phonic sounding of Doro. The house became to social center of the county and every holiday was celebrated extravagantly. The house was simple with wide galleries, a broad entrance and cedar trees lining the driveway. There is a family cemetery located on the land where Charles Clarke and his wife are both buried.
The plantation had to be moved twice before being built on its final resting place due to the banks of the Mississippi river collapsing. According to the archives at Delta State University in Mississippi, Doro Plantation grew to more than 5,000 acres and became one of the most prosperous plantations along the Mississippi river with over 200 slaves. The plantation miraculously survived the war and was in operation producing cotton until 1913.
The plantation site was excavated in the 1970's and determined to be historical by the state. The land today still has three remains sitting on it: Jacobs Store, owned by Clark's son-in-law, the "big house", which was the Clark family home, and the Doro Gin, one of the many cotton gins on the plantation. Some artifacts found include ceramic and glass pieces, bone pieces, coal, wood, stone, and some intact bricks from the Clark family home.