|
Jackson, Meridian, Biloxi, Columbus, Gulfport, Hattiesburg, Pascagoula, Greenville, Laurel, Tupelo, Vicksburg, Brandon, Brookhaven, Clinton, Natchez, Ocean Springs, Bay Saint Louis, Cleveland, Corinth, Greenwood, Grenada, Madison, McComb, Moss Point, Ridgeland, Starkville, Stennis Space Center, Bogue Chitto, Blue Springs, Big Creek
|
|
Three major
groups of Native Americans lived in the Mississippi region
when European exploration of the area began. The Chickasaw
lived in the north and east, the Choctaw in the central
part, and the Natchez in the southwest.
First explored for Spain by Hernando De Soto, who discovered
the Mississippi River in 1540, the region was later claimed
by France. Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, traveled down
the Mississippi River in 1682. He claimed the entire
Mississippi Valley, including present-day Mississippi, for
France and named it Louisiana in honor of King Louis XIV.
In 1699 a French expedition led by Pierre le Moyne
d'Iberville established France's claim to the lower
Mississippi valley with the first permanent settlement, Old
Biloxi, near present-day Ocean Springs. They saw it as a
strategically-located area ripe for settlement and
commercial value. French settlements were soon established
at Fort Maurepas, Mobile, Biloxi, Fort Rosalie, and New
Orleans.
During the early 1700s, thousands of settlers moved to
Mississippi.
When the Natchez rose up against the colonists in 1729,
France rallied to destroy most of the Indian tribe the
following year. In 1736, the Chickasaw and British soldiers
defeated the French in northeast Mississippi. This led to
the French and Indian War (1754-1763). The Treaty of Paris,
signed after the war, gave England all the land east of the
Mississippi River. Mississippi was divided into two main
parts; the southern section to a British province called
West Florida and the remaining portion to the Georgia
colony.
Following the French and Indian War, which ended in 1763,
France ceded its possessions in the lower Mississippi
valley, except New Orleans, to Great Britain, which also
gained possession of Spanish Florida and divided that
territory into two colonies. One of those was West Florida,
which included the area between the Apalachicola and
Mississippi rivers. The original northern boundary of West
Florida was the 31 parallel, but it was extended in 1764 to
the 3228' parallel. Fort Rosalie was renamed Fort Panmure,
and the Natchez District was established as a subdivision of
West Florida. Natchez flourished during the early 1770s.
After the outbreak of the U.S. War of Independence, Spain
regained possession of Florida and occupied Natchez.
This gave the Brits a huge presence in the area. To better
govern such a large geographic area, the Brits divided the
territory into two colonies. One colony was West Florida,
which included the area between the Apalachicola and
Mississippi rivers. The original northern boundary of West
Florida was the 31st parallel, but in 1764 this moved north
to the 32.28' parallel. The Brits renamed Fort Rosalie Fort
Panmure. They made the Natchez District a subdivision of
West Florida. After the U.S. War of Independence broke out,
Spain regained possession of Florida and occupied Natchez.
In 1783, the Treaty of Paris made the 31st parallel as the
northern boundary between Spanish Florida and the United
States. Despite this, Spain continued to occupy Natchez. The
two countries settled the occupation dispute in 1798.
The original Mississippi Territory created by the U.S.
Congress in1798 was a strip of land extending about 100
miles north to south and from the Mississippi River to the
Chattahoochee on the Georgia border. The territory was
increased in 1804 and 1812 to reach from Tennessee to the
Gulf. In 1817 the western part achieved statehood as
Mississippi (the eastern part became the state of Alabama in
1819). Natchez, the first territorial capital, was replaced
in 1802 by nearby Washington, which in turn was replaced by
Jackson in 1822. This encouraged growth of the newly formed
territory, because the river allowed Mississippi trading
ships to sail to the Gulf of Mexico.
In 1817, Congress divided the Mississippi Territory into the
state of Mississippi and the Alabama Territory. On Dec. 10,
1817, Mississippi joined the Union and became the 20th
state. Its population had almost reached 60,000 people.
The 1820s and '30s were marked by the decline of the
Jeffersonian Republicans, the ascendancy of the Jacksonian
Democrats, and the removal of the Indians to Oklahoma and
set the stage for the Civil War. Cotton continued to grow in
importance with the invention of the cotton gin in 1793. The
farmers used slave labor to operate the large cotton
plantations. By 1860, Mississippi's black slaves outnumbered
white people 437,000 to 354,000. Slavery had become an
intense debate between the Northern and Southern states.
When Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the U.S. in
1860, many southerners feared he would end slavery in the
South. Mississippi seceded on Jan. 9, 1861, the second of
eleven to secede and within a year the state was in the
midst of war. . These states formed the Confederate States
of America. Mississippian Jefferson Davis became the
Confederacy's first and only president.
Many important battles were fought in or on the borders of
Mississippi. The Battle of Vicksburg became a turning point
in the war. For 47 days, Union forces fought the Confederate
Army, both sides suffering many casualties. Food became
scarce. Finally, the Confederates surrendered the city on
July 4, 1863. This Union victory gave the North control of
the Mississippi River. Two years later the war ended and all
slaves were freed at the end of the war. Mississippi was
placed under military control. In Dec. 1869, the state
passed a new constitution granting black people the right to
vote. On Feb. 23, 1870, Mississippi was allowed to return to
the Union. For a time, blacks in the state voted and some
held government positions.
The people suffered much privation, and the land underwent
great devastation; by 1865 the state was in economic ruin.
For 25 years following the Civil War, Mississippi's former
slaves and their former owners grappled with the political,
social, and economic consequences of emancipation. In Dec.
1869, the state passed a new constitution granting black
people the right to vote. On Feb. 23, 1870, Mississippi was
allowed to return to the Union. For a time, blacks in the
state voted and some held government positions. The white
minority could not or would not accept a biracial society
based on equality of opportunity. And in 1890, a new state
constitution was written that took away voting rights from
most black people. Segregation began within schools, buses,
and many public places. Groups like the Ku Klux Klan were
organized to terrorize black people.
Although many suffered from poverty following the war, the
early 1900s brought great progress in industry, agriculture,
and education in Mississippi. The construction of railroads
allowed access to forests in southeast Mississippi, creating
a boom in the lumber industry. State projects to drain many
of the swampy areas in Mississippi provided more suitable
land for farming. An illiteracy commission, established in
1916, started education programs for adults who could not
read or write.
During the 1920s, several legislative actions established a
state commission of education, a state library commission,
and a highway-building program. In 1927, a huge flood on the
Mississippi River totaled over $204 million in damage and
left thousands homeless. Congress then established the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers responsible for controlling floods
on the Mississippi River.
During the Great Depression (1929-1939), thousands lost
their farms in Mississippi. The price of cotton fell from
twenty cents a pound in the 1920s, to five cents by 1931.
State legislature created a program called Balancing
Agriculture With Industry (BAWI) in 1936. These laws freed
new businesses from paying certain taxes and provided bond
money to build factories for new industries. The discovery
of petroleum at Tinsley in 1939 and Vaughan in 1940 also
helped the economy in Mississippi.
During World War II (1939-1945), several war plants opened
in Mississippi. As machines replaced farm workers,
industrial development was encouraged during the 1960s. In
1963, a huge oil refinery opened in Pascagoula. The
following year, the Mississippi Research and Development
Center was established. The center encourages new industries
to come to the state, and helps those already established to
expand. By 1966, more Mississippians worked in manufacturing
than in agriculture.
Like other states, Mississippi had severe racial problems.
But in 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregated
public schools to be unconstitutional. James Meredith was
the first black student to enroll in the University of
Mississippi in 1962. The fight for civil rights was long and
often met with violence. Two demonstrators were killed in
1962. Medgar Evers of the NAACP was shot and killed in 1963
and three civil rights workers were murdered near
Philadelphia, Miss in 1964. Other schools, restaurants, and
public places throughout the state did not begin integration
until 1964. In 1969, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered an
immediate end to all segregated public schools.
Since the 1980s, Mississippians have turned to industries
other than agriculture. Catfish farming has boomed in Delta,
one of the country's poorest regions. Furniture production
has become a great Mississippi industry. In 1990, state
lawmakers voted to allow dockside gambling, now found on the
Gulf Coast and the Mississippi River. More than 30,000 now
work in this new industry. Money spent in tourism doubled
between 1990 and 1994. However, many high school and college
graduates leave Mississippi to find better jobs. State
leaders are still striving to attract industries that
require greater skills and pay higher wages.
Today, Mississippi—like many other southern states—is an
economic and, to and extent, cultural backwater struggling
to remake itself. In the last quarter of the 20th Century,
manufacturing plants located to small towns in the south to
take advantage of cheap labor. Many such companies did so
with a negative attitude toward southerners, and have
further hurt the region. The “trailer trash” antics of the
Clintons (one of whom was from Illinois, not the south) has
further hurt the image—and the economies—of southern states.
Yet, there are bright spots on the horizon. Southern
universities, free of some of the political baggage
associated with other universities, have attracted
outstanding researchers. Innovative companies, drawn by the
favorable social and tax climate, have moved to the
south—not to pillage it, but to embrace it and help it grow.
Mississippi has much to offer. A strategic location, quality
of life, modernized cities, and low tax rates are among the
factors that draw people. However, what makes them stay is
something more valuable: the people. After 150 years of
coping with adversity, strife, and political machinations
designed to put them at a disadvantage, the people have
developed a toughness of character combined with a sweetness
of spirit. As they move forward into the 21st Century, this
is a strength that gives them a competitive advantage.
|
