Who was the first European to settle in Mississippi?
The first major European expedition into the territory that became Mississippi was Spanish, led by Hernando de Soto, which passed through in the early 1540s. The French claimed the territory that included Mississippi as part of their colony of New France and started settlement along the Gulf Coast.
Where did the French settle in the Mississippi Valley?
The Mississippi valley was now opened to French settlement in two principal areas: Illinois country ( le pays des Illinois) around the Great Lakes and Louisiana on the Gulf of Mexico.
What is the oldest surviving French settlement in Missouri?
Genevieve County, Missouri, Ste. Genevieve is one of the oldest surviving French settlements in Missouri and is the only place in the upper Mississippi Valley where several buildings of the pre-American period have survived.
When did the French settle in Louisiana?
The French also began settling Louisiana in 1699, under the leadership of Pierre Le Moyne, sieur d'Iberville (1661–1706) and his brother Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, sieur de Bienville (1680–1747). Along with two hundred French colonists, they established Old Biloxi on the site of present-day Ocean Springs, Mississippi.
What was the first French settlement in Mississippi?
Fort Maurepas1699: First European settlement in Mississippi established Fort Maurepas was built in present day Ocean Springs by Frenchmen Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and his brother, Jean Baptiste de Bienville, among the Biloxi, Pascagoula, Acolapissa, Quinipissa, Mugulasha, and other coastal groups.
What were the first two permanent French settlements along the Mississippi river?
The First French Settlements, 1699–1713 Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville et d'Ardillières led the first French expedition to the vicinity of present-day Biloxi in 1699, followed by a year of exploring the Mississippi and Red River Valleys and making contact with the Natchez and other petites nations.
What was the first settlement in Mississippi?
1699 - Frenchman Pierre d'Iberville builds Fort Maurepas, the first permanent settlement in Mississippi.
What was the major French outpost in Mississippi?
In 1716, Bienville established a fort and trading post at the Natchez Indian village up the Mississippi from the site of New Orleans. Named Fort Rosalie, the post became the center of a significant settlement and was a key French post between 1716 and 1763.
Who were the first settlers in Mississippi?
Early inhabitants of the area that became Mississippi included the Choctaw, Natchez and Chickasaw. Spanish explorers arrived in the region in 1540 but it was the French who established the first permanent settlement in present-day Mississippi in 1699.
Which French settlement is shown on the Mississippi River?
CahokiaFRENCH SETTLEMENT IN THE ILLINOIS COUNTRY. Cahokia is the oldest permanent settlement on the Mississippi River, first established in 1699 by a small group of Frenchmen from Montreal and Quebec.
Was Mississippi a French colony?
Louis, French Camp, LeFleur's Bluff, Rosalie in Natchez, Cat Island, Ship Island, the coastal town of D'Iberville, and Bienville National Forest are just a handful of the many places named by the French people who colonized the land that later became the state of Mississippi.
What was the first permanent European settlement on the Mississippi river?
Henri de Tonti helped establish the first permanent European settlement in the lower Mississippi River Valley in 1686. It was called the Poste aux Arkansas, or Arkansas Post (Arkansas County).
What is the oldest plantation in Mississippi?
Destrehan PlantationJust 20 miles outside of New Orleans, Destrehan Plantation dates to 1787 and is the oldest documented plantation in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Once stretching over 6,000 acres to the shores of Lake Pontchartrain, Destrehan was actually a small community that supported several households.
Why did the French want a colony near the mouth of the Mississippi?
In order to sustain what tenuous hold La Salle and France had on the lower Mississippi Valley, a fort and colony needed to be established at the river's mouth to guard against English or Spanish intrusion.
Why did the French build Fort Rosalie?
Fort Rosalie was established in 1716 at present Natchez by the French, 3 years after a trading post was opened, for protection against the Indians.
Who were the first settlers in New Orleans?
The first known residents of the New Orleans area were the Native Americans of the Woodland and Mississippian cultures.
What city did the French find at the mouth of the Mississippi river?
Natchez, MississippiOne example of the area's French cultural legacy may be seen in the book by William Bartram, an American naturalist who explored the lower Mississippi River in 1777, when he visited a French planter who helped establish a settlement at the site of Natchez, Mississippi.
Was Mississippi a French colony?
Louis, French Camp, LeFleur's Bluff, Rosalie in Natchez, Cat Island, Ship Island, the coastal town of D'Iberville, and Bienville National Forest are just a handful of the many places named by the French people who colonized the land that later became the state of Mississippi.
When did the French explore the Mississippi river?
1673Professor Laura Chmielewski spoke about the 1673 French expedition led by Jesuit missionary Jacques Marquette and fur trapper Louis Jolliet, who became the first Europeans to explore the Mississippi River.
Who discovered the Mississippi river and claimed it for France?
Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle Inspired by Jolliet and Marquette's travels, La Salle explored the Mississippi with a team of 22 men. He reached the Gulf of Mexico on April 17, 1682, claiming the entire Mississippi River basin for the King of France.
Who was the first European to settle in Mississippi?
The first major European expedition into the territory that became Mississippi was Spanish, led by Hernando de Soto, which passed through in the early 1540s. The French claimed the territory that included Mississippi as part of their colony of New France and started settlement along the Gulf Coast. They created the first Fort Maurepas under Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville on the site of modern Ocean Springs (or Old Biloxi) in 1699.
Who was the territorial governor of Mississippi in 1798?
Winthrop Sargent, territorial governor in 1798, proved unable to impose a code of laws. Not until the emergence of cotton as a profitable staple crop in the nineteenth century, after the invention of the cotton gin, were the riverfront areas of Mississippi developed as cotton plantations.
Where did the Plaquemine culture originate?
The successive mound building Troyville, Coles Creek, and Plaquemine cultures occupied western Mississippi bordering the Mississippi River during the Late Woodland period. During the Terminal Coles Creek period (1150 to 1250 CE) contact increased with Mississippian cultures centered upriver near St. Louis, Missouri. This led to the adaption of new pottery techniques, as well as new ceremonial objects and possibly new forms of social structuring. As more Mississippian culture influences were absorbed the Plaquemine area as a distinct culture began to shrink after 1350 CE. Eventually the last enclave of purely Plaquemine culture was the Natchez Bluffs area, while the Yazoo Basin and adjacent areas of Louisiana became a hybrid Plaquemine-Mississippian culture. Historic groups in the area during first European contact bear out this division. In the Natchez Bluffs, the Taensa and Natchez had held out against Mississippian influence and continued to use the same sites as their ancestors and carry on the Plaquemine culture. Groups who appear to have absorbed more Mississippian influence were identified at the time of European contact as those tribes speaking the Tunican, Chitimachan, and Muskogean languages.
What was the economy of the 1830s?
American planters developed an economy based on the export of cotton produced by slave labor along the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers.
What was the Mississippi Delta's impact on the Civil War?
During the Civil War, its river cities particularly were sites of extended battles and widespread destruction. The bottomlands of the Mississippi Delta were still 90% undeveloped after the Civil War. Thousands of migrants, both black and white, entered this area for a chance at land ownership.
Where did free people of color migrate to?
Free people of color often migrated to New Orleans, where there was more opportunity for work and a bigger community of their class. As part of New France, Mississippi was also ruled by the Spanish after France's defeat in the Seven Years' War (1756–63). Later it was briefly part of West Florida under the British.
Which area of Mississippi was the most anti-Confederate?
The most vehemently anti-Confederate areas in Mississippi were Jones County in the southeastern corner of the state, and Itawamba County and Tishomingo County in the northeastern corner. Among the most influential Mississippi Unionists were Newton Knight, who helped form the "Free State of Jones", and Presbyterian minister John Aughey, whose sermons and book The Iron Furnace or Slavery and Secession (1863) became hallmarks of the anti-secessionist cause in the state. Mississippi would furnish around 545 white troops for the Union Army.
When was Biloxi inhabited?
Biloxi. Brent Moore/Flickr. Artifacts found in Biloxi tell us that the city was inhabited by Native Americans as early as 8,000 B.C. all the way up to the 1700s. In 1699, Sieur d’Iberville and 14 men arrived in present-day Biloxi and quickly became acquainted with the Biloxi Indians.
When did Biloxi become a city?
Finally in 1817, Biloxi officially became a city, and continued to develop throughout the years.
What is the name of the town in the Natchez Trace?
The town of Raymond is located along the Natchez Trace Parkway. Soon after the formation of Hinds County in the early 1800s, the town became the county seat. Turning into quite the prosperous little city, Raymond served as a trading community for farmers and played an important role in both government and economics. Visitors to the quaint town can visit the historic square, the Hinds County Courthouse, numerous preserved antebellum buildings, a Confederate cemetery, and Raymond Military Park, the site of the Battle of Raymond.
When was Natchez established?
The charming city on the Mississippi River was established in the early 1700s, making it one of the oldest European settlements in the area. Because of its location, Natchez attracted a great deal of wealthy farmers during the 19th century and, in turn, resulted in a plethora of mansions being constructed.
When was Vicksburg established?
By far one of the most historic cities in the nation, Vicksburg is a must-see for the young and old alike. While modern Vicksburg was established in 1811, the city actually dates back to Colonial times when the French built Fort Saint-Pierre nearby.
Who settled Crooked Letter?
The town was first settled by Dr. John Taylor and his wife Nancy in 1832.
When did Columbia become the capital of South Carolina?
In 1819, Columbia became the state’s fourth city and took on its present name, which was derived from Columbia, South Carolina since that’s where most of the town’s residents were from. Between 1821 and 1822, Columbia served as the state’s capital.
What is the oldest French settlement in Missouri?
The county seat of Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri, Ste. Genevieve is one of the oldest surviving French settlements in Missouri and is the only place in the upper Mississippi Valley where several buildings of the pre-American period have survived. Today it is one of the newest National Parks.
When was the Mississippi River first granted?
The earliest known grants of land were made in 1752 when 27 inhabitants owned about three miles of Mississippi River frontage. It was named for Saint Genevieve (who lived in the fifth century AD), the patron saint of Paris.
What was the oldest settlement in the world?
The oldest European settlement in the region, Cahokia (1699), suffered heavily from floods; Kaskaskia (1703) was entirely washed away by a change in the course of the Mississippi River; the remnants of colonial St. Louis were destroyed either by a fire in 1849 or by urban riverfront development.
What were the slaves used for in the 1780s?
These slaves were used for a wide variety of tasks including fieldwork, clearing land, cutting wood, mining lead, rowing batteaux, salt making, domestic help, and some skilled labor.
What were the first settlements in Illinois?
The earliest settlers of the community moved there from other settlements in Illinois including Kaskaskia, Cahokia, Post Vincennes, Prairie du Rocher, and Nouvelle Chartres. Salt springs on Saline Creek, as well as the lead resources, were probably an important factor in the expansion of the settlement, from which shipments were made upstream to St. Louis or downstream to New Orleans. The settlers also grew foodstuffs for export. Ste. Genevieve was the last community established during the French Regime in the Illinois Country.
Why did the population increase in the Mississippi River?
The population increase is attributed, in part, to the influx of French Catholics from the east bank of the Mississippi River who feared religious and political persecution at the hands of British following France’s loss of that territory to England.
When was lead discovered in Missouri?
Genevieve cannot be determined, it is known that lead was discovered about 30 miles to the southwest of the townsite in 1715. During the first portion of the eighteenth century, no urgent need existed to extend the line of French settlement across the Mississippi River into present-day Missouri. For several decades, the French considered the trans-Mississippi West to be the domain of Native Americans. As the century progressed, however, farming practices resulted in the depletion of soil on the east side of the river, and some inhabitants decided to plant crops on the opposite side about three miles below present-day Ste. Genevieve.
When did the French colonize North America?
French efforts at colonizing North America began in the early sixteenth century. In 1523 a group of Italian merchants in the French cities of Lyons and Rouen persuaded the king of France, Francis I, to sponsor a voyage by Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazano (also spelled Verrazzano; c. 1485–1528) to North America.
What was the French presence in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries?
The French presence became an obstacle to English expansion in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Tensions came to a head during the French and Indian War (1754–63), which marked the end of French power in North America.
What did Cartier bring to Saint Malo?
Upon arriving in Saint-Malo in September 1534, Cartier received a grand welcome. Although he had not found gold, he brought reports of a warm climate and fertile land in New Brunswick and the Gaspé Peninsula. The region had previously been considered suitable for fishing but certainly not for settlement or commercial trade. Intrigued by Cartier's report, the king began planning a second voyage. The following year he provided Cartier with three ships for a return trip to North America. Cartier left Saint-Malo in 1535, taking with him Donnacona's two sons, who had learned French in order to serve as translators.
Why did Champlain travel to New France?
Now considered the father of New France and the founder of Quebec, Champlain made twelve journeys to New France to explore and consolidate French holdings in the New World.
Where did Verrazano anchor La Dauphine?
Verrazano could not find a passage to the mainland, so he continued north to the upper reaches of present-day New York Harbor. He anchored La Dauphine at the narrows, which was later named in his honor. (Today the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge spans the entrance of New York Harbor from Brooklyn to Staten Island.)
Who was the first person to describe the coast of France?
Immediately after landing in France, Verrazano wrote a report on his expedition for King Francis I, in which he gave one of the earliest firsthand descriptions of the eastern coast of
Who was the king who charted the Atlantic coast of North America?
The king commissioned Verrazano to chart (to make a map of) the entire Atlantic coast of North America, from modern-day Florida to Newfoundland (an island off the coast of Canada). Accompanied by his younger brother Girolamo, a mapmaker, Verrazano set sail aboard the ship La Dauphine in early 1524.
Where did the French colonize?
The French colonial empire in the New World also included New France (Nouvelle France) in North America, particularly in what is today the province of Quebec, Canada, and for a very short period (12 years) also Antarctic France (France Antarctique, in French), in present-day Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
What did the French do to establish colonies in North America?
He founded New France by planting a cross on the shore of the Gaspé Peninsula. The French subsequently tried to establish several colonies throughout North America that failed, due to weather, disease, or conflict with other European powers. Cartier attempted to create the first permanent European settlement in North America at Cap-Rouge (Quebec City) in 1541 with 400 settlers but the settlement was abandoned the next year after bad weather and attacks from Native Americans in the area. A small group of French troops were left on Parris Island, South Carolina in 1562 to build Charlesfort, but left after a year when they were not resupplied by France. Fort Caroline established in present-day Jacksonville, Florida, in 1564, lasted only a year before being destroyed by the Spanish from St. Augustine. An attempt to settle convicts on Sable Island off Nova Scotia in 1598 failed after a short time. In 1599, a sixteen-person trading post was established in Tadoussac (in present-day Quebec ), of which only five men survived the first winter. In 1604 Pierre Du Gua de Monts and Samuel de Champlain founded a short-lived French colony, the first in Acadia, on Saint Croix Island, presently part of the state of Maine, which was much plagued by illness, perhaps scurvy. The following year the settlement was moved to Port Royal, located in present-day Nova Scotia.
How did Villegaignon expand the colony?
Unchallenged by the Portuguese, who initially took little notice of his landing, Villegaignon endeavoured to expand the colony by calling for more colonists in 1556. He sent one of his ships, the Grande Roberge, to Honfleur, entrusted with letters to King Henry II, Gaspard de Coligny and according to some accounts, the Protestant leader John Calvin. After one ship was sent to France to ask for additional support, three ships were financed and prepared by the king of France and put under the command of Sieur De Bois le Comte, a nephew of Villegagnon. They were joined by 14 Calvinists from Geneva, led by Philippe de Corguilleray, including theologians Pierre Richier and Guillaume Chartrier. The new colonists, numbering around 300, included 5 young women to be wed, 10 boys to be trained as translators, as well as 14 Calvinists sent by Calvin, and also Jean de Léry, who would later write an account of the colony. They arrived in March 1557. The relief fleet was composed of: The Petite Roberge, with 80 soldiers and sailors was led by Vice Admiral Sieur De Bois le Comte. The Grande Roberge, with about 120 on board, captained by Sieur de Sainte-Marie dit l'Espine. The Rosée, with about 90 people, led by Captain Rosée. Doctrinal disputes arose between Villegagnon and the Calvinists, especially in relation to the Eucharist, and in October 1557 the Calvinists were banished from Coligny island as a result. They settled among the Tupinamba until January 1558, when some of them managed to return to France by ship together with Jean de Léry, and five others chose to return to Coligny island where three of them were drowned by Villegagnon for refusing to recant.
What colony did Champlain establish?
The expedition then founded the colony of Port-Royal . In 1608, Champlain founded a fur post that would become the city of Quebec, which would become the capital of New France. In Quebec, Champlain forged alliances between France and the Huron and Ottawa against their traditional enemies, the Iroquois.
How many wives did Louis XIV send to New France?
That year, to increase the population, Louis XIV sent between 800 and 900 ' King's Daughters ' to become the wives of French settlers. The population of New France reached subsequently 7000 in 1674 and 15000 in 1689.
What was the French interest in Canada in 1664?
Political map of the Northeastern part of North America in 1664. The French interest in Canada focused first on fishing off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. However, at the beginning of the 17th century, France was more interested in fur from North America.
How many colonial wars did France have?
At the beginning of the French and Indian War (1754–1763), the British population in North America outnumbered the French 20 to 1. France fought a total of six colonial wars in North America (see the four French and Indian Wars as well as Father Rale's War and Father Le Loutre's War ). See also: Franco-Indian alliance.
What tribes lived in Mississippi?
The Natchez, speakers of a Muskhogean dialect, were one the best known tribes in Mississippi due to French settlement in their territory around St. Catherine Creek in the southwestern part of the present state. They were considered relatively peaceful, sedentary agriculturalists, with an extreme form of exogamous social class distinction, nobility and commoners, with subclasses in the latter, as well as sun worship. Their chief, the Great Sun, had absolute power over his land and subjects. They built temple mounds, were skilled pottery and mulberry bark cloth makers, and practiced head flattening.
How many Indian tribes were there in Mississippi?
There were twenty-one known Indian tribes in the area of present day Mississippi between the years 1500 and 1800. Most were small, numbering only a few hundred, and many did not survive the territorial conflicts between French and English allied groups of the 18th century. There is some mystery concerning what became of the earlier chiefdoms ...
Where did the Pascagoula tribe live?
The Pascagoula, Muskhogean speakers whose name means “bread people,” were a marginal tribe visited by Bienville in 1699 and Iberville in 1700, living 16-20 leagues up the Pascagoula River, moving later to the Gulf coast. In 1764 they and the Biloxi left the Gulf coast area. In 1784 they were reported living on the east side of the Mississippi about 10 miles above the Tunica, and before 1791 they moved up the Red River into Louisiana and by 1795 had settled near the Biloxi. In 1699 their village had less than 20 cabins and 120 warriors, or about 100 families. In 1700 Iberville reported 20 families, but Du Pratz lists 30 cabins a few years later. Their numbers declined over the years after they moved west of the Mississippi, eventually probably being incorporated into the Biloxi and Choctaw tribes.
How many cabins were there in the Biloxi Bay area?
They were originally associated with the Pascagoula and Moctobi in the Biloxi Bay and Pascagoula River areas, together numbering around 20 to 40 cabins, or around 100 families in 1702. Estimates range up to 1,000 in 1650, probably too high, 420 with the Moctobi in 1698 and declining to 105 in 1805.
What tribes lived in Arkansas?
The Quapaw, a large marginal tribe of Siouan speaker s whose name means “people living downstream” from their apparent movement into the Arkansas area from the Ohio River area, were also variously known as the Akansa, Arkansas, Capa, Pacaha, and numerous other pronunciations, and were the primary occupants of the lower Arkansas River area prior to 1673 when Marquette encountered them near the mouth of the Arkansas River. They are thought to possibly be the Pacaha or Capaha whom De Soto met when he crossed the Mississippi. At any rate, they only incidentally occupied part of Mississippi, with one of their villages reported by Marquette in 1673 on the east side of the river north of the Arkansas mouth, also noted by LaSalle in 1682. It is estimated by Mooney that their population in 1650 was around 2,500, although there never were many east of the river except in warfare parties. They were accomplished artists of pottery and painted animal skins, built mounds, were agriculturalists, and lived in long domed houses.
Where did the Chickasaw tribe live?
The Chickasaw, a Muskhogean name meaning “to sit,” were a large, strong, warlike tribe occupying the area of northeast Mississippi around the heads of the Tombigbee and Tallahatchie rivers. They claimed territories as far north as the confluence of the Ohio and Tennessee rivers and north of that to the area between the Duck and Cumberland rivers, and east as far as the Savannah River in Georgia and west to the Mississippi in the Memphis area. They were continuously fighting with adjacent tribes as well as the French, sheltering the remnants of the Natchez after they were decimated by the French by 1731. They were never defeated as a tribe and only by treaty in 1832 did they give up their Mississippi lands and move to Indian Territory in Oklahoma between 1837 and 1847.
When did the De Soto period begin?
There is some mystery concerning what became of the earlier chiefdoms of the De Soto period in the early 1500s during the hiatus of exploration between then and the later French and English intrusions into the area in the late 1600s. Some remnants may have joined or given rise to some of the tribes described below.
Overview
European colonial period
The first major European expedition into the territory that became Mississippi was Spanish, led by Hernando de Soto, which passed through in the early 1540s. The French claimed the territory that included Mississippi as part of their colony of New France and started settlement along the Gulf Coast. They created the first Fort Maurepas under Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville on the site of modern Ocean Springs (or Old Biloxi) in 1699.
Native Americans
At the end of the last Ice Age, Native Americans or Paleo-Indians appeared in what today is the Southern United States. Paleo-Indians in the South were hunter-gatherers who pursued the megafauna that became extinct following the end of the Pleistocene age. A variety of indigenous cultures arose in the region, including some that built great earthwork mounds more than 2,000 years ago.
Territory and statehood
Before 1798 the state of Georgia claimed the entire region extending west from the Chattahoochee to the Mississippi River and tried to sell lands there, most notoriously in the Yazoo land scandal of 1795. Georgia finally ceded the disputed area in 1802 to the United States national government for its management. In 1804, after the Louisiana Purchase, the government assigned the northern part of this cession to Mississippi Territory. The southern part became the Louisiana Territory.
Antebellum period
The exit of most of the Native Americans meant that vast new lands were open to settlement, and tens of thousands of immigrant Americans poured in. Men with money brought slaves and purchased the best cotton lands in the Delta region along the Mississippi River. Poor men took up poor lands in the rest of the state, but the vast majority of the state was still undeveloped at the time of the Civil War.
Civil War
More than 80,000 Mississippians fought in the American Civil War. Fear that white supremacy might be lost were among the reasons that men joined the Confederate Army. Men who owned more property, including slaves, were more likely to volunteer. Men in Mississippi's river counties, regardless of their wealth or other characteristics, joined at lower rates than those living in the state's int…
Reconstruction
After the defeat of the Confederacy, President Andrew Johnson appointed a temporary state government under provisional governor Judge William Lewis Sharkey (1798–1873). It repealed the 1861 Ordinance of Secession and wrote new "Black Codes", defining and limiting the civil rights of freedmen, the former slaves. The whites tried to restrict the African Americans to a second-class status without citizenship or voting rights. Johnson was following the previously expressed polici…
Gilded Age (1877–1900)
There was steady economic and social progress among some classes in Mississippi after the Reconstruction era, despite the low prices for cotton and reliance on agriculture. Politically the state was controlled by the conservative elite whites, known as "Bourbon Democrats" by their critics. The Bourbons represented the planters, landowners and merchants. They used violence, inti…