In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

50 ChapterThree Mississippi Territory In 1798 the newly created Mississippi Territory encompassed the northern portions of the current states of Alabama and Mississippi. The Natchez district consisted of a triangular-shaped piece of land bordered by the thirtyfirst latitude on the south,the Mississippi River on the west,and a vague line on the east stretching from the southern boundary line northwest to the Walnut Hills at the northern point of the triangle. The Spanish still held all of the outlets to the Gulf of Mexico,including the southern portions of what would become the states of Alabama and Mississippi as well as all of the current state of Florida. The Choctaw wandered through the Natchez district, which sat across their route to the west, where they hunted and warred with their Indian neighbors. The only connections for the Natchez district to its latest mother country required polling or rowing a vessel up the Mississippi , which was almost never attempted, or floating through Spanish territory to take a ship in New Orleans, or alternatively walking or riding Indian trails east to Georgia or north to Tennessee for hundreds of miles. Reaching Georgia meant traversing the Choctaw and Creek nations, while going northeast took a traveler through the Choctaw and Chickasaw countries. Those Indian nations with treaties guaranteeing their sovereignty occupied and controlled almost all the land in the new territory. An unknown number of white squatters and runaway slaves lurked illegally within their lands. The population in the Natchez district numbered 4,500 whites and 2,400 black slaves. Approximately 200 miles east of Natchez, just over 1,000 free and slave inhabitants perched northwest of Spanish Mobile in the Tombigbee settlements accessible only by Indian trails to either Natchez or Georgia overland or down the Tombigbee River through Spanish Florida. When two land commissioners who were appointed to settle land titles in the eastern portion of the territory tried to reach the Tombigbee settlements in order to hold hearings under congressional legislation of 1803,they left their homes in Connecticut and Kentucky in late September 1803 to take the water route down the Ohio to the Mississippi. Unfortunately, the Ohio River lacked enough water, so they proceeded by horseback to Louisville, 51 Mississippi Territory | where they sold their horses and bought a flatboat. They reached Natchez in December, two weeks after they were scheduled to be in Fort Stoddert on the Tombigbee, because they experienced a slow float south impeded by many sandbars along their way. They continued by boat to New Orleans on Christmas Eve.From the Crescent City,they took a ship to Mobile and,with the permission of the Spanish governor, ascended the river to their destination , arriving January 24, 1804, two months late. Natchez planters built mansions, such as Stanton Hall, as symbols of their wealth and the lifestyle their cotton and slaves enabled them to enjoy. Courtesy of the Library of Congress. Black workers returning home after picking cotton. Courtesy of the Library of Congress. .188.61.223] Project MUSE (2024-04-23 07:06 GMT) 52 | Mississippi Territory The year Mississippi became a territory, the Natchez district produced 1,200,000 pounds of cotton, which constituted a harvest thirty-three times its cotton exports four years earlier. One large planter, Stephen Minor, accounted for the lion’s share from his plantations alone. Planters had much more in the pipeline. For example, longtime resident Anthony Hutchins had produced his first large cotton crop,but he had been unable to transport it the few miles to the river because he lacked roads and heavy-duty wagons. The next year Hutchins sawed solid wooden wheels out of large trees and had a wagon body woven of canes to transport his accumulated cotton harvests to a gin.Most settlers still herded cattle and grew subsistence fields of corn.The wealth earned from cotton marked it as the future for agriculture in Natchez, but while the large cattle herders adopted it as their new cash crop quickly, many smaller farmers persisted with a mix of planting,herding,and hunting. The nabobs of Natchez,as the rich planters were called,imported wines,silks, playing cards, scientific instruments, books, and more slaves, setting the tone and serving as an inspiration for the ambitious man-on-the-make to emulate , but frontiersmen also criticized the nabobs’ lifestyles and challenged their right to leadership. The town of Natchez contained approximately 100 houses in 1798 and a dozen taverns. The nabobs had just...

Share