Natchez, Mississippi
Encyclopedia
Natchez is the county seat
of Adams County
, Mississippi
, United States
. With a total population of 18,464 (according to the 2000 census), it is the largest community and the only incorporated municipality
within Adams County. Located on the Mississippi River, some 90 miles southwest of Jackson
, the capital of Mississippi, and 85 miles north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana
, it is the eighteenth-largest city in the state. It is named for the Natchez tribe
of Native Americans
who lived in the vicinity through the arrival of Europeans in the eighteenth century.
Established by French colonists
in 1716, Natchez is one of the oldest and most important European settlements in the lower Mississippi River Valley, and served as the capital of the Mississippi Territory and then the state of Mississippi. It predates Jackson, which replaced Natchez as the capital in 1822, by more than a century. The strategic location of Natchez, on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River
, ensured that it would become a pivotal center of trade, commerce, and the interchange of Native American, European, and African-American cultures in the region for the first two centuries of its existence. In U. S. history
, it is recognized particularly for its role in the development of the Old Southwest
during the first half of the nineteenth century. It was the southern terminus of the historic Natchez Trace
, which provided many pilots of flatboats and keelboats a road back to their homes in the Ohio River Valley after unloading their cargo in the city. Today Natchez serves in the same capacity for the modern Natchez Trace Parkway
, which commemorates this route.
In the middle of the nineteenth century, the city became the home of a collection of extremely wealthy Southern planters, who owned vast tracts of land in the surrounding lowlands of Mississippi and Louisiana where they grew huge crops of cotton and sugar cane using slave labor. Natchez became the principal port from which these crops were exported, both upriver to Northern cities and downriver to New Orleans, where much of the cargo was exported to Europe. The planters' fortunes allowed them to build huge mansions in Natchez before 1860, many of which survive to this day and form a major part of the city's architecture and identity. Agriculture remained the primary economic sustenance for the region until well into the twentieth century.
During the twentieth century the city's economy experienced a downturn, first due to the replacement of steamboat traffic on the Mississippi River by railroads in the early 1900s, and later due to the exodus of many local industries that had provided a large number of jobs in the area. Despite its status as a popular tourist destination for much of its preserved aspects of antebellum culture, Natchez has experienced a general decline in population since 1960. It remains the principal city of the Natchez, MS–LA
Micropolitan Statistical Area
.
since the 8th century CE The original site of Natchez was developed as a major village with ceremonial platform mound
, built by people of the prehistoric Plaquemine culture
, part of the Mississippian culture
. Archaeological evidence shows they began construction of the three mounds by 1200. Additional work was done in the mid-15th century.
By the late 17th and early 18th century, the historical Natchez
, descendants of the Plaquemine culture, occupied the site, which they used for their major ceremonial center, replacing Emerald Mound. They added to the mounds, including a residence for their chief, the "Great Sun", on Mound B, and a combined temple
and charnel house
for the elite on Mound C. Many early European explorers, including Hernando De Soto, La Salle
and Bienville, made contact with the Natchez at this site, called the Grand Village of the Natchez. Their accounts provided descriptions of the society and village. The Natchez maintained a hierarchical society, divided into nobles and commoners, with people affiliated according to matrilineal descent. The paramount chief
, the "Great Sun", owed his position to the rank of his mother.
The 128 acre (0.51799808 km²) site of the Grand Village of the Natchez
is preserved as a National Historic Landmark
and is maintained by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. The site includes a museum with artifacts
from the mounds and village, picnic pavilion, and walking trails. Nearby Emerald Mound is also a National Historic Landmark. The historic Natchez occupied it as well before moving in the late 17th century to the Natchez bluffs area.
to protect the trading post
established in the Natchez territory in 1714. Permanent French settlements and plantations were subsequently established. The French inhabitants of the "Natchez colony" often came into conflict over land use and resources with the Natchez, who were increasingly split into pro-French and pro-English factions.
After several smaller wars, the Natchez (together with the Chickasaw
and Yazoo
) launched a war to eliminate the French in November 1729. It became known by the Europeans as the "Natchez War" or Natchez Massacre. The Indians destroyed the French colony at Natchez and other settlements in the area. On November 28, 1729, the Natchez Indians killed a total of 229 French colonists: 138 men, 35 women, and 56 children (the largest death toll by an Indian attack in Mississippi's history). Counterattacks by the French and their Indian allies over the next two years resulted in most of the Natchez Indians' being killed, enslaved, or forced to flee as refugees. After surrender of the leader and several hundred Natchez in 1731, the French took their prisoners to New Orleans, where they were sold as slaves and shipped as laborers to the plantations of Saint-Domingue
, as ordered by the French prime minister Maurepas.
Many of the refugees who escaped enslavement ultimately became part of the Creek
and Cherokee
nations. Descendants of the Natchez diaspora
survive as the Natchez Nation, a treaty tribe and confederate of the federally recognized Muscogee (Creek) Nation
, with a sovereign traditional government.
Subsequently, Fort Rosalie and the surrounding town, which was renamed after the extinguished tribe, spent periods under British
and then Spanish
colonial rule. After defeat in the American Revolutionary War
, the British ceded the territory to the United States
under the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1783)
.
Spain was not a party to the treaty, and it was Spanish forces that had taken Natchez from the British. Although the Spanish were loosely allied with the American colonists, they were more interested in advancing their power at the expense of the British. Once the war was over, the Spanish were not inclined to give up that which they had taken by force. The Spanish retained control of Natchez for a time. A census of the Natchez district taken in 1784 counted 1,619 people, including 498 African-American slaves.
overland route, based on a Native American trail, which ran from Natchez to Nashville
through what is now Mississippi
, Alabama
, and Tennessee
. Produce and goods were transported on the Mississippi River by the flatboatmen and keelboat
men, who usually sold their wares at Natchez or New Orleans, including their boats (as lumber). They made the long trek back north overland on the Natchez Trace to their homes. The boatmen were locally called "Kaintucks" because they were usually from Kentucky
, although the entire Ohio River Valley was well represented among their numbers.
On October 27, 1795, the U.S. and Spanish signed the Treaty of San Lorenzo, settling their decade-long boundary dispute. All Spanish claims to Natchez were formally surrendered to the United States. More than two years passed before official orders reached the Spanish garrison there. It surrendered the fort and possession of Natchez to United States forces led by Captain Isaac Guion on March 30, 1798.
A week later, Natchez became the first capital of the new Mississippi Territory
, created by the Adams
administration. After it served for several years as the territorial capital, the territory built a new capital, named Washington, six miles (10 km) to the east and also in Adams County. After roughly 15 years, the legislature transferred the capital back to Natchez at the end of 1817, when the territory became a state. Later the capital was returned to Washington. As the state's population center shifted to the north and east as more settlers entered the area, the legislature voted to move the capital to the more centrally located city of Jackson
in 1822.
Throughout the course of the early nineteenth century, Natchez was the center of economic activity for the young state. Its strategic location on the high bluffs on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River
enabled it to develop into a bustling port. At Natchez, many local plantation
owners had their cotton
loaded onto steamboat
s at the landing known as Natchez-Under-the-Hill to be transported downriver to New Orleans or, sometimes, upriver to St. Louis, Missouri
or Cincinnati, Ohio
. The cotton was sold and shipped to New England and European spinning mills.
The Natchez District
, along with the Sea Islands
of South Carolina
and Georgia
, pioneered cotton agriculture in the United States. Until new hybridized breeds of cotton were created in the early nineteenth century, it was unprofitable to grow cotton in the United States anywhere other than those latter two areas. Although South Carolina
came to dominate the cotton plantation culture of much of the Antebellum South, it was the Natchez District that first experimented with hybridization, making the cotton boom possible.
The growth of the cotton industry attracted many new settlers to Mississippi, who competed with the Choctaw
for their land. Despite land cessions, the settlers continued to encroach on Choctaw territory, leading to conflict. With the election of President Andrew Jackson in 1828, he pressed for Indian removal, gaining Congressional passage of an act authorizing that in 1830. Starting with the Choctaw, the government began Indian Removal in 1831 to lands west of the Mississippi River. Nearly 15,000 Choctaw left their traditional homeland over the next two years.
On May 7, 1840, an intense tornado
struck Natchez. It killed 269 people, most of whom were on flatboat
s in the Mississippi River
. The tornado killed 317 persons in all, making it the second-deadliest tornado in United States
history. Today the event is called the "Great Natchez Tornado
".
The terrain around Natchez on the Mississippi side of the river is hilly. The city sits on a high bluff above the Mississippi River; to reach the riverbank, one must travel down a steep road to the landing called Silver Street, which is in marked contrast to the flat "delta" lowland found across the river surrounding the city of Vidalia, Louisiana
. Its early planter elite built numerous antebellum
mansions and estates. Many owned plantations in Louisiana but chose to locate their homes on the higher ground in Mississippi. Prior to the American Civil War
, Natchez had the most millionaires per capita of any city in the United States. It was frequented by notables such as Aaron Burr
, Henry Clay
, Andrew Jackson
, Zachary Taylor
and Jefferson Davis
. Today the city boasts that it has more antebellum homes than any other city in the US, as during the War
, Natchez was spared the destruction of many other Southern
cities.
The Forks of the Road Market had the highest volume of slave sales in Natchez, and Natchez had the most active slave trading market in Mississippi. This also stimulated the city's wealth. The market, at the intersection of two streets, became especially important after the slave traders Isaac Franklin of Tennessee and John Armfield of Virginia purchased the land in 1823. Tens of thousands of slaves passed through the market, most originating in Virginia and the Upper South, and destined for the plantations in the Deep South
. All trading at the market ceased by the summer of 1863, when Union troops occupied Natchez.
Prior to 1845 and the founding of the Natchez Institute, the city's elite were the few who could pay for formal education. Although many of the parents had not had much schooling, they were anxious to provide their children with a prestigious education. Schools opened in the city as early as 1801, but many of the wealthiest families relied on private tutors or out-of-state institutions. The city founded the Natchez Institute to offer free education to the rest of the white residents of the city. Although children from a variety of economic backgrounds could obtain an education, class differences persisted among students, particularly in terms of school choice and social ties. Although it was illegal, slave children were often taught the alphabet and reading the Bible by their white age mates in private houses.
occupied Natchez in 1863; Grant set up his temporary headquarters in the Natchez mansion Rosalie
.
Some Natchez residents remained defiant of the Federal authorities. In 1864, William Henry Elder
, the Catholic bishop of the Diocese of Natchez
, refused to obey a federal order to compel his parishioners to pray for the President of the United States
. The federals arrested Elder, jailed him briefly and banished him across the river to Confederate-held Vidalia
. Elder was eventually allowed to return to Natchez and resume his clerical duties there, staying until 1880, when he was elevated to archbishop
of Cincinnati.
Ellen Shields's memoir reveals a Southern women's reactions to Yankee occupation of the city. Shields was a member of the local elite and her memoir points to the upheaval of Southern society during the War. Because Southern men were absent at war, many elite women had to call on their class-based femininity and their sexuality to deal with the Yankees.
In 1860 there were 340 planters in the Natchez region who each owned 250 or more slaves; many were not enthusiastic Confederates. They were fairly recent arrivals to the South, opposed secession, and held social and economic ties to the North. These elite planters lacked a strong emotional attachment to the South; but, when war came, many of their sons and nephews joined the Confederate army. Charles Dahlgren was among the recent migrants; from Philadelphia, he had made his fortune before the war. He did support the Confederacy and led a brigade, but was criticized for failing to defend the Gulf Coast. When the Yankees came, he moved to Georgia for the duration. He returned in 1865 but never recouped his fortune. He had to declare bankruptcy and in 1870 he gave up and moved to New York City.
White Natchez became much more pro-Confederate after the war. The Lost Cause
myth arose as a means for coming to terms with the South's defeat. It quickly became a definitive ideology, strengthened by its celebratory activities, speeches, clubs, and statues. The major organizations dedicated to creating and maintaining the tradition were the United Daughters of the Confederacy and United Confederate Veterans. At Natchez and other cities, although the local newspapers and veterans played a role in the maintenance of the Lost Cause, elite women particularly were important, especially in establishing memorials, such as the Civil War Monument dedicated on Memorial Day 1890, and cemeteries. The Lost Cause enabled women noncombatants to lay a claim to the central event in their redefinition of Southern history.
. In addition to cotton, the development of local industries such as logging added to the exports through the city's wharf. In return, Natchez saw an influx of manufactured goods from Northern markets such as Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis.
The city's prominent place in Mississippi River commerce during the nineteenth century was expressed by the naming of nine steamboats plying the lower river between 1823 and 1918 which were named Natchez. Many were built for and commanded by the famous Captain, Thomas P. Leathers, whom Jefferson Davis
had wanted to head the Confederate
defense fleet on the Mississippi River. (This appointment never was concluded.) In 1885, the Anchor Line, known for its luxury steamboats operating between St. Louis and New Orleans, launched its "brag boat", the City of Natchez. This ship survived only a year before succumbing to a fire at Cairo, Illinois
, on 28 December 1886. Since 1975, an excursion steamboat at New Orleans has also borne the name Natchez.
Such river commerce sustained the city's economic growth until just after the turn of the twentieth century, when steamboat traffic began to be replaced by the railroads. The city's economy declined over the course of the century, as did that of many Mississippi river towns. Tourism has helped compensate for the decline.
After the war and during Reconstruction, the world of domestic servants in Natchez changed somewhat in response to Emancipation
and freedom. After the Civil War, most domestic servants continued to be black women, and often they were single mothers. Although they were poorly paid, they found domestic work provided an important source of income for family maintenance. White employers often continued the paternalism
that characterized relations between slaveholders and slaves. They often preferred black workers to white servants. White men and women who did work as domestics generally held positions such as gardener or governess, while black servants worked as cooks, maids, and laundresses.
, built as a private mansion in 1858 and designated a National Historic Landmark
in the twentieth century. During the early 20th century, the college was a site of negotiation between the planter
class and the new commercial elite, as well as between traditional parents and their more modern daughters. The young women joined social clubs and literary societies that maintained relations among cousins and family friends. The coursework included classes in proper behavior and letter writing, as well as skills that might enable those suffering from genteel poverty to make a living. The girls often balked at dress codes and rules, but also replicated their parents' social values.
Located on the Mississippi River, the town had long had an active nightlife. On April 23, 1940, 209 people died in a fire at the Rhythm Night Club
, a black dance hall in Natchez. The local paper remarked that "203 negroes bought 50 cent tickets to eternity." This fire has been noted as the fourth deadliest fire in U.S. history. Several blues
songs pay tribute to this tragedy and mention the city of Natchez.
as the first black to the University of Mississippi
, Natchez was the center of Ku Klux Klan
activity opposing integration and the civil rights movement
. E. L. McDaniel, the Grand Dragon of the United Klans of America
, the largest Klan organization in 1965, had his office in Natchez at 114 Main Street. In August of 1964, McDaniel established a klavern of the UKA in Natchez, operating under the cover name of the Adams County Civic and Betterment Association.
Despite the violence of the time, Forrest A. Johnson, Sr., a well-respected white attorney in Natchez, began to speak out and write against the Klan. From 1964 through 1965, he published an alternative newspaper called the Miss-Lou Observer, in which he weekly took on the Klan. Klansmen and their supporters conducted an economic boycott against his law practice, nearly ruining him financially.
In his October 1964 report, A.E. Hopkins, an investigator for the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, who spied on activities of residents, wrote that the FBI was in Adams County
in force
In 1965 two weeks after he urged the school board to accept desegregation, George Metcalfe, a NAACP official in Natchez, was seriously injured in the bombing of his car. On February 27, 1967 Wharlest Jackson Sr. was killed when a car bomb went off in his truck as he drove home from work at the Armstrong Rubber Company, where he had recently received a promotion and was working in a position previously "reserved" for whites. A Korean War
veteran, married and with five children, he also had been treasurer of the NAACP. His murder was never solved and no one has been charged in the crime.
In 1966, the House Un-American Activities Committee
published long lists of the names of Natchez residents who were current or former members of the Klan, including over 70 employees at the International Paper
plant in the city, as well as members of the Natchez police department and the Adams County Sheriff's department. HUAC found that there were at least four white supremacist terrorist groups operating in Natchez during the 1960s, including the Mississippi White Caps. The MWC distributed flyers anonymously around the city, threatening "crooks and mongrelizers." The Americans for the Preservation of the White Race was founded in May 1963 by nine residents of Natchez.
The Cottonmouth Moccasin Gang was founded by Claude Fuller and Natchez klansmen Ernest Avants and James Lloyd Jones. In June of 1966, they murdered Natchez resident Ben Chester White, reportedly as part of a plot to draw Dr. Martin Luther King to Natchez in order to assassinate him. The three Klansmen were arrested and charged by the state with the murder, but in each case, despite overwhelming evidence and, in Jones's case, a confession, either the charges were dismissed or the defendants were acquitted by all-white juries.
James Ford Seale
, arrested in 1964 as a suspect in the kidnapping and murders of Dee and Moore, had been released when the state district attorney decided not to take the case forward. Interest in the case was revived after 2000, and the FBI investigated. Seale was arrested and charged by the US Attorney. He was tried and convicted in federal court in 2007. He died in federal prison in 2011 at the age of 76.
The FBI discovered that Ben Chester White had been killed on federal land near Pretty Creek in the Homochitto National Forest
of Natchez, which gave them jurisdiction. In 1999 they reopened an investigation into the case, and indicted Ernest Avants in 2000. He was convicted in 2003 and sentenced to life in prison. He died in prison in 2004 at age 72.
In February 2011, The Injustice Files of the Investigation Discovery channel aired three TV episodes of cold case murders related to the civil rights era. The first episode was devoted to the story of Wharlest Jackson, Sr., killed in 1967, as noted above. This was part of a collaboration with the FBI, which had started an initiative in 2007 to investigate and prosecute civil rights cases.
, Natchez served as a refuge for coastal Mississippi and Louisiana residents, providing shelters, hotel rooms, rentals, FEMA disbursements and animal shelters. Natchez was able to keep fuel supplies open for the duration of the disaster, provide essential power to the most affected areas, receive food deliveries, and maintain law and order while assisting visitors from other areas. In the months after the hurricane, a majority of the available homes were purchased or rented, with some tenants making Natchez their permanent new home.
Flooding in 2011 drove the Mississippi River
to crest at 61.9 ft on May 19, the highest recorded height of the river since the 1930s.
A cinema verité
account of the 1966 Civil Rights actions by local NAACP leaders in Natchez was depicted by the filmmaker Ed Pincus in his film Black Natchez. The film highlights the attempt to organize a black community in the Deep South
in 1965 during the heyday of the Civil Rights Movement
. A black leader has been car-bombed and a struggle ensues in the black community for control. A group of black men organize a chapter of the Deacons for Defense—a secret armed self-defense group. The community splits between more conservative and activist elements.
By the winter of 1988 the National Park Service had established Natchez National Historical Park
around Melrose
. The William Johnson House, in the city was added a few years later. The tours given by the National Park Service tend to present a more complex view of the past.
The historic district has been used by Hollywood as the backdrop for feature films set in the ante-bellum period. Disney
's The Adventures of Huck Finn
was partially filmed here in 1993. The 1982 television movie
Rascals and Robbers: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn was also filmed here. The television mini-series Beulah Land was also filmed in Natchez, as well a number of individual weekly shows of the TV drama The Mississippi, starring Ralph Waite
.
In 2007 a United States Courthouse
was opened, after renovating a historic hall for changed use. Part of the old hall had a Jim Crow-era monument to the local men and women from Natchez and Adams County who served in World War I. The 1924 monument was the subject of several stories in the Natchez Democrat, as reporters noted it lacked representation of black Army troops who had served in the war. A story suggested the monument may be updated and the old monument retired.
According to the United States Census Bureau
, the city has a total area of 13.9 square miles (36 km²), of which 13.2 square miles (34.2 km²) are land and 0.6 square miles (1.6 km²) (4.62%) is water.
.
of 2000, there were 18,464 people, 7,591 households, and 4,858 families residing in the city. The population density
was 1,398.3 people per square mile (540.1/km²). There were 8,479 housing units at an average density of 642.1 per square mile (248.0/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 44.18% White, 54.49% African American, 0.11% Native American, 0.38% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.18% from other races, and 0.63% from two or more races. 0.70% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 7,591 households out of which 29.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 36.6% were married couples
living together, 23.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.0% were non-families. 32.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 14.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.37 and the average family size was 3.00.
In the city the population was spread out with 26.5% under the age of 18, 8.8% from 18 to 24, 24.3% from 25 to 44, 22.4% from 45 to 64, and 18.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 81.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 76.7 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $25,117, and the median income for a family was $29,723. Males had a median income of $31,323 versus $20,829 for females. The per capita income
for the city was $16,868. 28.6% of the population and 25.1% of families were below the poverty line. 41.6% of those under the age of 18 and 23.3% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.
's Natchez Campus.
Copiah-Lincoln Community College also operates a campus in Natchez.
The city of Natchez and the county of Adams operate one public school system, the Natchez-Adams School District
. The district comprises eight schools. They are Susie B. West, Morgantown, Gilmer McLaurin, Joseph F Frazier, Robert Lewis Middle School, Central Alternative School, Natchez High School, and Fallin Career and Technology Center.
In Natchez, there are a number of private and parochial schools. Trinity Episcopal Day School
is PK-12 school founded by the Trinity Episcopal Church. Trinity Episcopal Day School and Adams County Christian School are both members of the Mississippi Private School Association. Cathedral School is also a PK-12 school in the city. It is affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church St. Mary Basilica. Holy Family Catholic School, founded in 1890, is a PK-3 school affiliated with Holy Family Catholic Church.
U.S. Route 61
runs north-south, parallel to the Mississippi River, linking Natchez with Port Gibson, Mississippi
, Woodville, Mississippi
, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana
.
U.S. Route 84
runs east-west and bridges the Mississippi, connecting it with Vidalia, Louisiana, and Brookhaven, Mississippi
.
U.S. Route 65
runs north from Natchez along the west bank of the Mississippi through Ferriday
and Waterproof, Louisiana
.
U.S. Route 98
runs east from Natchez towards Bude
and McComb, Mississippi
.
Mississippi Highway 555 runs north from the center of Natchez to where it joins Mississippi Highway 554.
Mississippi Highway 554 runs from the north side of the city to where it joins U.S. Highway 84 northeast of town.
, which services general aviation. The nearest airport with commercial service is Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport
, 85 miles (136.8 km) to the south on US 61.
County seat
A county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States....
of Adams County
Adams County, Mississippi
As of the census of 2000, there were 34,340 people, 13,677 households, and 9,409 families residing in the county. The population density was 75 people per square mile . There were 15,175 housing units at an average density of 33 per square mile...
, Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. With a total population of 18,464 (according to the 2000 census), it is the largest community and the only incorporated municipality
Municipal corporation
A municipal corporation is the legal term for a local governing body, including cities, counties, towns, townships, charter townships, villages, and boroughs. Municipal incorporation occurs when such municipalities become self-governing entities under the laws of the state or province in which...
within Adams County. Located on the Mississippi River, some 90 miles southwest of Jackson
Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson is the capital and the most populous city of the US state of Mississippi. It is one of two county seats of Hinds County ,. The population of the city declined from 184,256 at the 2000 census to 173,514 at the 2010 census...
, the capital of Mississippi, and 85 miles north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Baton Rouge is the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is located in East Baton Rouge Parish and is the second-largest city in the state.Baton Rouge is a major industrial, petrochemical, medical, and research center of the American South...
, it is the eighteenth-largest city in the state. It is named for the Natchez tribe
Natchez people
The Natchez are a Native American people who originally lived in the Natchez Bluffs area, near the present-day city of Natchez, Mississippi. They spoke a language isolate that has no known close relatives, although it may be very distantly related to the Muskogean languages of the Creek...
of Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
who lived in the vicinity through the arrival of Europeans in the eighteenth century.
Established by French colonists
French colonization of the Americas
The French colonization of the Americas began in the 16th century, and continued in the following centuries as France established a colonial empire in the Western Hemisphere. France founded colonies in much of eastern North America, on a number of Caribbean islands, and in South America...
in 1716, Natchez is one of the oldest and most important European settlements in the lower Mississippi River Valley, and served as the capital of the Mississippi Territory and then the state of Mississippi. It predates Jackson, which replaced Natchez as the capital in 1822, by more than a century. The strategic location of Natchez, on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
, ensured that it would become a pivotal center of trade, commerce, and the interchange of Native American, European, and African-American cultures in the region for the first two centuries of its existence. In U. S. history
History of the United States
The history of the United States traditionally starts with the Declaration of Independence in the year 1776, although its territory was inhabited by Native Americans since prehistoric times and then by European colonists who followed the voyages of Christopher Columbus starting in 1492. The...
, it is recognized particularly for its role in the development of the Old Southwest
Old Southwest
The Old Southwest is a term used to refer to the area of the United States west of the Appalachians and south of the Ohio which were settled in the early nineteenth century, especially the states of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas...
during the first half of the nineteenth century. It was the southern terminus of the historic Natchez Trace
Natchez Trace
The Natchez Trace, also known as the "Old Natchez Trace", is a historical path that extends roughly from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee, linking the Cumberland, Tennessee and Mississippi rivers...
, which provided many pilots of flatboats and keelboats a road back to their homes in the Ohio River Valley after unloading their cargo in the city. Today Natchez serves in the same capacity for the modern Natchez Trace Parkway
Natchez Trace Parkway
The Natchez Trace Parkway is a National Park Service unit in the southeastern United States that commemorates the historic Old Natchez Trace and preserves sections of the original trail....
, which commemorates this route.
In the middle of the nineteenth century, the city became the home of a collection of extremely wealthy Southern planters, who owned vast tracts of land in the surrounding lowlands of Mississippi and Louisiana where they grew huge crops of cotton and sugar cane using slave labor. Natchez became the principal port from which these crops were exported, both upriver to Northern cities and downriver to New Orleans, where much of the cargo was exported to Europe. The planters' fortunes allowed them to build huge mansions in Natchez before 1860, many of which survive to this day and form a major part of the city's architecture and identity. Agriculture remained the primary economic sustenance for the region until well into the twentieth century.
During the twentieth century the city's economy experienced a downturn, first due to the replacement of steamboat traffic on the Mississippi River by railroads in the early 1900s, and later due to the exodus of many local industries that had provided a large number of jobs in the area. Despite its status as a popular tourist destination for much of its preserved aspects of antebellum culture, Natchez has experienced a general decline in population since 1960. It remains the principal city of the Natchez, MS–LA
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
Micropolitan Statistical Area
Natchez micropolitan area
The Natchez Micropolitan Statistical Area is a micropolitan area that consists of Adams County, Mississippi and Concordia Parish, Louisiana. As of the 2000 census, the μSA had a population of 54,587 .-Incorporated places:*Clayton, Louisiana*Ferriday, Louisiana*Natchez, Mississippi *Ridgecrest,...
.
Pre-European settlement (to 1716)
According to archaeological excavations, the area had been continuously inhabited by various cultures of indigenous peoplesIndigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....
since the 8th century CE The original site of Natchez was developed as a major village with ceremonial platform mound
Platform mound
A platform mound is any earthwork or mound intended to support a structure or activity.-Eastern North America:The indigenous peoples of North America built substructure mounds for well over a thousand years starting in the Archaic period and continuing through the Woodland period...
, built by people of the prehistoric Plaquemine culture
Plaquemine culture
The Plaquemine culture was an archaeological culture in the lower Mississippi River Valley in western Mississippi and eastern Louisiana. Good examples of this culture are the Medora Site in West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, and the Anna, Emerald Mound, Winterville and Holly Bluff sites located...
, part of the Mississippian culture
Mississippian culture
The Mississippian culture was a mound-building Native American culture that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 CE to 1500 CE, varying regionally....
. Archaeological evidence shows they began construction of the three mounds by 1200. Additional work was done in the mid-15th century.
By the late 17th and early 18th century, the historical Natchez
Natchez people
The Natchez are a Native American people who originally lived in the Natchez Bluffs area, near the present-day city of Natchez, Mississippi. They spoke a language isolate that has no known close relatives, although it may be very distantly related to the Muskogean languages of the Creek...
, descendants of the Plaquemine culture, occupied the site, which they used for their major ceremonial center, replacing Emerald Mound. They added to the mounds, including a residence for their chief, the "Great Sun", on Mound B, and a combined temple
Temple
A temple is a structure reserved for religious or spiritual activities, such as prayer and sacrifice, or analogous rites. A templum constituted a sacred precinct as defined by a priest, or augur. It has the same root as the word "template," a plan in preparation of the building that was marked out...
and charnel house
Charnel house
A charnel house is a vault or building where human skeletal remains are stored. They are often built near churches for depositing bones that are unearthed while digging graves...
for the elite on Mound C. Many early European explorers, including Hernando De Soto, La Salle
René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle
René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, or Robert de LaSalle was a French explorer. He explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, the Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico...
and Bienville, made contact with the Natchez at this site, called the Grand Village of the Natchez. Their accounts provided descriptions of the society and village. The Natchez maintained a hierarchical society, divided into nobles and commoners, with people affiliated according to matrilineal descent. The paramount chief
Paramount chief
A paramount chief is the highest-level traditional chief or political leader in a regional or local polity or country typically administered politically with a chief-based system. This definition is used occasionally in anthropological and archaeological theory to refer to the rulers of multiple...
, the "Great Sun", owed his position to the rank of his mother.
The 128 acre (0.51799808 km²) site of the Grand Village of the Natchez
Grand Village of the Natchez
Grand Village of the Natchez, also known as the Fatherland Site, is a site encompassing a prehistoric indigenous village and earthwork mounds in present-day south Natchez, Mississippi. The village complex was constructed starting about 1200 CE by members of the prehistoric Plaquemine culture....
is preserved as a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
and is maintained by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. The site includes a museum with artifacts
Artifact (archaeology)
An artifact or artefact is "something made or given shape by man, such as a tool or a work of art, esp an object of archaeological interest"...
from the mounds and village, picnic pavilion, and walking trails. Nearby Emerald Mound is also a National Historic Landmark. The historic Natchez occupied it as well before moving in the late 17th century to the Natchez bluffs area.
Colonial history (1716–1783)
In 1716 the French founded Fort RosalieFort Rosalie
Fort Rosalie was a French fort built in 1716 in the territory of the Natchez Native Americans. The present-day city of Natchez, Mississippi developed at this site. As part of the peace terms that ended the Natchez War of 1716, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville required the Natchez to...
to protect the trading post
Trading post
A trading post was a place or establishment in historic Northern America where the trading of goods took place. The preferred travel route to a trading post or between trading posts, was known as a trade route....
established in the Natchez territory in 1714. Permanent French settlements and plantations were subsequently established. The French inhabitants of the "Natchez colony" often came into conflict over land use and resources with the Natchez, who were increasingly split into pro-French and pro-English factions.
After several smaller wars, the Natchez (together with the Chickasaw
Chickasaw
The Chickasaw are Native American people originally from the region that would become the Southeastern United States...
and Yazoo
Yazoo tribe
The Yazoo were a tribe of the Native American Tunica people historically located on the lower course of Yazoo River, Mississippi. It was closely connected to other Tunica peoples, especially the Tunica, Koroa, and possibly the Tioux....
) launched a war to eliminate the French in November 1729. It became known by the Europeans as the "Natchez War" or Natchez Massacre. The Indians destroyed the French colony at Natchez and other settlements in the area. On November 28, 1729, the Natchez Indians killed a total of 229 French colonists: 138 men, 35 women, and 56 children (the largest death toll by an Indian attack in Mississippi's history). Counterattacks by the French and their Indian allies over the next two years resulted in most of the Natchez Indians' being killed, enslaved, or forced to flee as refugees. After surrender of the leader and several hundred Natchez in 1731, the French took their prisoners to New Orleans, where they were sold as slaves and shipped as laborers to the plantations of Saint-Domingue
Saint-Domingue
The labour for these plantations was provided by an estimated 790,000 African slaves . Between 1764 and 1771, the average annual importation of slaves varied between 10,000-15,000; by 1786 it was about 28,000, and from 1787 onward, the colony received more than 40,000 slaves a year...
, as ordered by the French prime minister Maurepas.
Many of the refugees who escaped enslavement ultimately became part of the Creek
Creek people
The Muscogee , also known as the Creek or Creeks, are a Native American people traditionally from the southeastern United States. Mvskoke is their name in traditional spelling. The modern Muscogee live primarily in Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida...
and Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
nations. Descendants of the Natchez diaspora
Diaspora
A diaspora is "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland" or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location", or "people settled far from their ancestral homelands".The word has come to refer to historical mass-dispersions of...
survive as the Natchez Nation, a treaty tribe and confederate of the federally recognized Muscogee (Creek) Nation
Muscogee (Creek) Nation
The Muscogee Nation is a federally recognized tribe of Muscogee people, also known as the Creek, based in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. They are regarded as one of the historical Five Civilized Tribes and call themselves Este Mvskokvlke...
, with a sovereign traditional government.
Subsequently, Fort Rosalie and the surrounding town, which was renamed after the extinguished tribe, spent periods under British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and then Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
colonial rule. After defeat in the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
, the British ceded the territory to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
under the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1783)
Treaty of Paris (1783)
The Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783, ended the American Revolutionary War between Great Britain on the one hand and the United States of America and its allies on the other. The other combatant nations, France, Spain and the Dutch Republic had separate agreements; for details of...
.
Spain was not a party to the treaty, and it was Spanish forces that had taken Natchez from the British. Although the Spanish were loosely allied with the American colonists, they were more interested in advancing their power at the expense of the British. Once the war was over, the Spanish were not inclined to give up that which they had taken by force. The Spanish retained control of Natchez for a time. A census of the Natchez district taken in 1784 counted 1,619 people, including 498 African-American slaves.
Antebellum (1783–1860)
In the late 18th century, Natchez was the starting point of the Natchez TraceNatchez Trace
The Natchez Trace, also known as the "Old Natchez Trace", is a historical path that extends roughly from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee, linking the Cumberland, Tennessee and Mississippi rivers...
overland route, based on a Native American trail, which ran from Natchez to Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
through what is now Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
, Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
, and Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
. Produce and goods were transported on the Mississippi River by the flatboatmen and keelboat
Keelboat
Keelboat has two distinct meanings related to two different types of boats: one a riverine cargo-capable working boat, and the other a classification for small- to mid-sized recreational sailing yachts.-Historical keel-boats:...
men, who usually sold their wares at Natchez or New Orleans, including their boats (as lumber). They made the long trek back north overland on the Natchez Trace to their homes. The boatmen were locally called "Kaintucks" because they were usually from Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
, although the entire Ohio River Valley was well represented among their numbers.
On October 27, 1795, the U.S. and Spanish signed the Treaty of San Lorenzo, settling their decade-long boundary dispute. All Spanish claims to Natchez were formally surrendered to the United States. More than two years passed before official orders reached the Spanish garrison there. It surrendered the fort and possession of Natchez to United States forces led by Captain Isaac Guion on March 30, 1798.
A week later, Natchez became the first capital of the new Mississippi Territory
Mississippi Territory
The Territory of Mississippi was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from April 7, 1798, until December 10, 1817, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the state of Mississippi....
, created by the Adams
John Adams
John Adams was an American lawyer, statesman, diplomat and political theorist. A leading champion of independence in 1776, he was the second President of the United States...
administration. After it served for several years as the territorial capital, the territory built a new capital, named Washington, six miles (10 km) to the east and also in Adams County. After roughly 15 years, the legislature transferred the capital back to Natchez at the end of 1817, when the territory became a state. Later the capital was returned to Washington. As the state's population center shifted to the north and east as more settlers entered the area, the legislature voted to move the capital to the more centrally located city of Jackson
Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson is the capital and the most populous city of the US state of Mississippi. It is one of two county seats of Hinds County ,. The population of the city declined from 184,256 at the 2000 census to 173,514 at the 2010 census...
in 1822.
Throughout the course of the early nineteenth century, Natchez was the center of economic activity for the young state. Its strategic location on the high bluffs on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
enabled it to develop into a bustling port. At Natchez, many local plantation
Plantation
A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...
owners had their cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
loaded onto steamboat
Steamboat
A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...
s at the landing known as Natchez-Under-the-Hill to be transported downriver to New Orleans or, sometimes, upriver to St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
or Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
. The cotton was sold and shipped to New England and European spinning mills.
The Natchez District
Natchez District
The Natchez District was one of two areas, the other being the Tombigbee District, that were the first to be colonized by British subjects from the Thirteen Colonies and elsewhere in what was West Florida and would later become the Mississippi Territory. The district was recognized to be the area...
, along with the Sea Islands
Sea Islands
The Sea Islands are a chain of tidal and barrier islands on the Atlantic Ocean coast of the United States. They number over 100, and are located between the mouths of the Santee and St. Johns Rivers along the coast of the U.S...
of South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
and Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, pioneered cotton agriculture in the United States. Until new hybridized breeds of cotton were created in the early nineteenth century, it was unprofitable to grow cotton in the United States anywhere other than those latter two areas. Although South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
came to dominate the cotton plantation culture of much of the Antebellum South, it was the Natchez District that first experimented with hybridization, making the cotton boom possible.
The growth of the cotton industry attracted many new settlers to Mississippi, who competed with the Choctaw
Choctaw
The Choctaw are a Native American people originally from the Southeastern United States...
for their land. Despite land cessions, the settlers continued to encroach on Choctaw territory, leading to conflict. With the election of President Andrew Jackson in 1828, he pressed for Indian removal, gaining Congressional passage of an act authorizing that in 1830. Starting with the Choctaw, the government began Indian Removal in 1831 to lands west of the Mississippi River. Nearly 15,000 Choctaw left their traditional homeland over the next two years.
On May 7, 1840, an intense tornado
Tornado
A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider...
struck Natchez. It killed 269 people, most of whom were on flatboat
Flatboat
Fil1800flatboat.jpgA flatboat is a rectangular flat-bottomed boat with Fil1800flatboat.jpgA flatboat is a rectangular flat-bottomed boat with Fil1800flatboat.jpgA flatboat is a rectangular flat-bottomed boat with (mostlyNOTE: "(parenthesized)" wordings in the quote below are notes added to...
s in the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
. The tornado killed 317 persons in all, making it the second-deadliest tornado in United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
history. Today the event is called the "Great Natchez Tornado
Great Natchez Tornado
The Great Natchez Tornado hit Natchez, Mississippi on May 7, 1840. It is the second deadliest single tornado in United States history, killing 317 people . It is also the only recorded massive tornado in the U.S.A. that killed more people than it injured: only 109 were injured...
".
The terrain around Natchez on the Mississippi side of the river is hilly. The city sits on a high bluff above the Mississippi River; to reach the riverbank, one must travel down a steep road to the landing called Silver Street, which is in marked contrast to the flat "delta" lowland found across the river surrounding the city of Vidalia, Louisiana
Vidalia, Louisiana
Vidalia is a city in and the parish seat of Concordia Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 4,543 at the 2000 census.- Geography :Vidalia is located at and has an elevation of ....
. Its early planter elite built numerous antebellum
Antebellum architecture
Antebellum architecture is a term used to describe the characteristic neoclassical architectural style of the Southern United States, especially the Old South, from after the birth of the United States in the American Revolution, to the start of the American Civil War...
mansions and estates. Many owned plantations in Louisiana but chose to locate their homes on the higher ground in Mississippi. Prior to the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, Natchez had the most millionaires per capita of any city in the United States. It was frequented by notables such as Aaron Burr
Aaron Burr
Aaron Burr, Jr. was an important political figure in the early history of the United States of America. After serving as a Continental Army officer in the Revolutionary War, Burr became a successful lawyer and politician...
, Henry Clay
Henry Clay
Henry Clay, Sr. , was a lawyer, politician and skilled orator who represented Kentucky separately in both the Senate and in the House of Representatives...
, Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...
, Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor was the 12th President of the United States and an American military leader. Initially uninterested in politics, Taylor nonetheless ran as a Whig in the 1848 presidential election, defeating Lewis Cass...
and Jefferson Davis
Jefferson Davis
Jefferson Finis Davis , also known as Jeff Davis, was an American statesman and leader of the Confederacy during the American Civil War, serving as President for its entire history. He was born in Kentucky to Samuel and Jane Davis...
. Today the city boasts that it has more antebellum homes than any other city in the US, as during the War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, Natchez was spared the destruction of many other Southern
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
cities.
The Forks of the Road Market had the highest volume of slave sales in Natchez, and Natchez had the most active slave trading market in Mississippi. This also stimulated the city's wealth. The market, at the intersection of two streets, became especially important after the slave traders Isaac Franklin of Tennessee and John Armfield of Virginia purchased the land in 1823. Tens of thousands of slaves passed through the market, most originating in Virginia and the Upper South, and destined for the plantations in the Deep South
Deep South
The Deep South is a descriptive category of the cultural and geographic subregions in the American South. Historically, it is differentiated from the "Upper South" as being the states which were most dependent on plantation type agriculture during the pre-Civil War period...
. All trading at the market ceased by the summer of 1863, when Union troops occupied Natchez.
Prior to 1845 and the founding of the Natchez Institute, the city's elite were the few who could pay for formal education. Although many of the parents had not had much schooling, they were anxious to provide their children with a prestigious education. Schools opened in the city as early as 1801, but many of the wealthiest families relied on private tutors or out-of-state institutions. The city founded the Natchez Institute to offer free education to the rest of the white residents of the city. Although children from a variety of economic backgrounds could obtain an education, class differences persisted among students, particularly in terms of school choice and social ties. Although it was illegal, slave children were often taught the alphabet and reading the Bible by their white age mates in private houses.
American Civil War (1861–1865)
During the Civil War, Natchez remained largely undamaged. The city surrendered to Flag-Officer David G. Farragut after the fall of New Orleans in May 1862. One civilian, an elderly man, was killed during the war, when in September 1863, a Union ironclad shelled the town from the river and he died of a heart attack. Union troops under Ulysses S. GrantUlysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...
occupied Natchez in 1863; Grant set up his temporary headquarters in the Natchez mansion Rosalie
Rosalie (Natchez, Mississippi)
Rosalie Mansion is a historic pre-Civil War mansion in Natchez, Mississippi, significant for its influence on architecture in a wide area. During the American Civil War, it served as Union headquarters for the Natchez area from July 1863 on....
.
Some Natchez residents remained defiant of the Federal authorities. In 1864, William Henry Elder
William Henry Elder
William Henry Elder was a U.S. archbishop. He served as the Roman Catholic Bishop of Natchez from 1857 to 1880 and the Roman Catholic Bishop of Cincinnati between 1883 and 1904.-Early life and education:...
, the Catholic bishop of the Diocese of Natchez
Roman Catholic Diocese of Jackson
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Jackson is a diocese in the ecclesiastical province of Mobile, in the southern United States of America. Its ecclesiastical jurisdiction includes the northern and central parts of the state of Mississippi, an area of . It is the largest diocese, by area, in the United...
, refused to obey a federal order to compel his parishioners to pray for the President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
. The federals arrested Elder, jailed him briefly and banished him across the river to Confederate-held Vidalia
Vidalia, Louisiana
Vidalia is a city in and the parish seat of Concordia Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 4,543 at the 2000 census.- Geography :Vidalia is located at and has an elevation of ....
. Elder was eventually allowed to return to Natchez and resume his clerical duties there, staying until 1880, when he was elevated to archbishop
Archbishop
An archbishop is a bishop of higher rank, but not of higher sacramental order above that of the three orders of deacon, priest , and bishop...
of Cincinnati.
Ellen Shields's memoir reveals a Southern women's reactions to Yankee occupation of the city. Shields was a member of the local elite and her memoir points to the upheaval of Southern society during the War. Because Southern men were absent at war, many elite women had to call on their class-based femininity and their sexuality to deal with the Yankees.
In 1860 there were 340 planters in the Natchez region who each owned 250 or more slaves; many were not enthusiastic Confederates. They were fairly recent arrivals to the South, opposed secession, and held social and economic ties to the North. These elite planters lacked a strong emotional attachment to the South; but, when war came, many of their sons and nephews joined the Confederate army. Charles Dahlgren was among the recent migrants; from Philadelphia, he had made his fortune before the war. He did support the Confederacy and led a brigade, but was criticized for failing to defend the Gulf Coast. When the Yankees came, he moved to Georgia for the duration. He returned in 1865 but never recouped his fortune. He had to declare bankruptcy and in 1870 he gave up and moved to New York City.
White Natchez became much more pro-Confederate after the war. The Lost Cause
Lost Cause of the Confederacy
The Lost Cause is the name commonly given to an American literary and intellectual movement that sought to reconcile the traditional white society of the U.S. South to the defeat of the Confederate States of America in the American Civil War of 1861–1865...
myth arose as a means for coming to terms with the South's defeat. It quickly became a definitive ideology, strengthened by its celebratory activities, speeches, clubs, and statues. The major organizations dedicated to creating and maintaining the tradition were the United Daughters of the Confederacy and United Confederate Veterans. At Natchez and other cities, although the local newspapers and veterans played a role in the maintenance of the Lost Cause, elite women particularly were important, especially in establishing memorials, such as the Civil War Monument dedicated on Memorial Day 1890, and cemeteries. The Lost Cause enabled women noncombatants to lay a claim to the central event in their redefinition of Southern history.
Postwar period (1865–1900)
Natchez was able to make a rapid economic comeback in the postwar years, with the resumption of much of the commercial shipping traffic on the Mississippi River. The cash crop was still cotton, but gang labor came to be largely replaced by SharecroppingSharecropping
Sharecropping is a system of agriculture in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crop produced on the land . This should not be confused with a crop fixed rent contract, in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a fixed amount of...
. In addition to cotton, the development of local industries such as logging added to the exports through the city's wharf. In return, Natchez saw an influx of manufactured goods from Northern markets such as Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis.
The city's prominent place in Mississippi River commerce during the nineteenth century was expressed by the naming of nine steamboats plying the lower river between 1823 and 1918 which were named Natchez. Many were built for and commanded by the famous Captain, Thomas P. Leathers, whom Jefferson Davis
Jefferson Davis
Jefferson Finis Davis , also known as Jeff Davis, was an American statesman and leader of the Confederacy during the American Civil War, serving as President for its entire history. He was born in Kentucky to Samuel and Jane Davis...
had wanted to head the Confederate
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
defense fleet on the Mississippi River. (This appointment never was concluded.) In 1885, the Anchor Line, known for its luxury steamboats operating between St. Louis and New Orleans, launched its "brag boat", the City of Natchez. This ship survived only a year before succumbing to a fire at Cairo, Illinois
Cairo, Illinois
Cairo is the southernmost city in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is the county seat of Alexander County. Cairo is located at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. The rivers converge at Fort Defiance State Park, an American Civil War fort that was commanded by General Ulysses S. Grant...
, on 28 December 1886. Since 1975, an excursion steamboat at New Orleans has also borne the name Natchez.
Such river commerce sustained the city's economic growth until just after the turn of the twentieth century, when steamboat traffic began to be replaced by the railroads. The city's economy declined over the course of the century, as did that of many Mississippi river towns. Tourism has helped compensate for the decline.
After the war and during Reconstruction, the world of domestic servants in Natchez changed somewhat in response to Emancipation
Emancipation
Emancipation means the act of setting an individual or social group free or making equal to citizens in a political society.Emancipation may also refer to:* Emancipation , a champion Australian thoroughbred racehorse foaled in 1979...
and freedom. After the Civil War, most domestic servants continued to be black women, and often they were single mothers. Although they were poorly paid, they found domestic work provided an important source of income for family maintenance. White employers often continued the paternalism
Paternalism
Paternalism refers to attitudes or states of affairs that exemplify a traditional relationship between father and child. Two conditions of paternalism are usually identified: interference with liberty and a beneficent intention towards those whose liberty is interfered with...
that characterized relations between slaveholders and slaves. They often preferred black workers to white servants. White men and women who did work as domestics generally held positions such as gardener or governess, while black servants worked as cooks, maids, and laundresses.
Since 1900
For a short time, the women's school Stanton College in Natchez educated daughters of the white Southern elite. It was located in Stanton HallStanton Hall
Stanton Hall, also known as Belfast, is an Antebellum Classical Revival mansion in Natchez, Mississippi built during 1851-1857 for Frederick Stanton, a cotton broker...
, built as a private mansion in 1858 and designated a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
in the twentieth century. During the early 20th century, the college was a site of negotiation between the planter
Plantation
A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...
class and the new commercial elite, as well as between traditional parents and their more modern daughters. The young women joined social clubs and literary societies that maintained relations among cousins and family friends. The coursework included classes in proper behavior and letter writing, as well as skills that might enable those suffering from genteel poverty to make a living. The girls often balked at dress codes and rules, but also replicated their parents' social values.
Located on the Mississippi River, the town had long had an active nightlife. On April 23, 1940, 209 people died in a fire at the Rhythm Night Club
Rhythm Night Club Fire
The Rhythm Club fire aka The Natchez Dance Hall Holocaust was a conflagration resulting in the death or serious injury of hundreds of people who became trapped inside a one-story steel-clad wooden building in Natchez, Mississippi, United States on the night of April 23, 1940.Over 700 people were in...
, a black dance hall in Natchez. The local paper remarked that "203 negroes bought 50 cent tickets to eternity." This fire has been noted as the fourth deadliest fire in U.S. history. Several blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
songs pay tribute to this tragedy and mention the city of Natchez.
Civil rights era and cold cases
In the early 1960s, after the admission of James MeredithJames Meredith
James H. Meredith is an American civil rights movement figure, a writer, and a political adviser. In 1962, he was the first African American student admitted to the segregated University of Mississippi, an event that was a flashpoint in the American civil rights movement. Motivated by President...
as the first black to the University of Mississippi
University of Mississippi
The University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss, is a public, coeducational research university located in Oxford, Mississippi. Founded in 1844, the school is composed of the main campus in Oxford, four branch campuses located in Booneville, Grenada, Tupelo, and Southaven as well as the...
, Natchez was the center of Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
activity opposing integration and the civil rights movement
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
. E. L. McDaniel, the Grand Dragon of the United Klans of America
United Klans of America
United Klans of America Inc. was one of the largest Ku Klux Klan organizations in the United States. Led by Robert Shelton, the UKA peaked in popularity in the late 1960s and 1970s, and was the most violent Klan organization of its time. Its headquarters were the Anglo-Saxon Club outside...
, the largest Klan organization in 1965, had his office in Natchez at 114 Main Street. In August of 1964, McDaniel established a klavern of the UKA in Natchez, operating under the cover name of the Adams County Civic and Betterment Association.
Despite the violence of the time, Forrest A. Johnson, Sr., a well-respected white attorney in Natchez, began to speak out and write against the Klan. From 1964 through 1965, he published an alternative newspaper called the Miss-Lou Observer, in which he weekly took on the Klan. Klansmen and their supporters conducted an economic boycott against his law practice, nearly ruining him financially.
In his October 1964 report, A.E. Hopkins, an investigator for the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, who spied on activities of residents, wrote that the FBI was in Adams County
Adams County, Mississippi
As of the census of 2000, there were 34,340 people, 13,677 households, and 9,409 families residing in the county. The population density was 75 people per square mile . There were 15,175 housing units at an average density of 33 per square mile...
in force
"because of the alleged burning of several churches in that area as well as several bombings and the whipping of several Negroes; also, because of the murder of two Negroes from MeadvilleBy that time, more than 100 FBI agents were in the area as part of the Philadelphia investigation and to try to keep racial violence under control. Bill Williams, an FBI agent in Natchez for two years during that time said in a 2005 interview that the "race wars in the area are 'a story never told,' that Natchez in 1964 had become the 'focal point for racial, anti-civil rights activity for the state for the next several years'."Meadville, MississippiMeadville is a town in Franklin County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 519 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Franklin County...
whose bodies were recovered from the Mississippi riverMississippi RiverThe Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
while the murders of three civil rights workers from Philadelphia was being investigated by Federal, State and local officials."
In 1965 two weeks after he urged the school board to accept desegregation, George Metcalfe, a NAACP official in Natchez, was seriously injured in the bombing of his car. On February 27, 1967 Wharlest Jackson Sr. was killed when a car bomb went off in his truck as he drove home from work at the Armstrong Rubber Company, where he had recently received a promotion and was working in a position previously "reserved" for whites. A Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
veteran, married and with five children, he also had been treasurer of the NAACP. His murder was never solved and no one has been charged in the crime.
In 1966, the House Un-American Activities Committee
House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities or House Un-American Activities Committee was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. In 1969, the House changed the committee's name to "House Committee on Internal Security"...
published long lists of the names of Natchez residents who were current or former members of the Klan, including over 70 employees at the International Paper
International Paper
International Paper Company is an American pulp and paper company, the largest such company in the world. It has approximately 59,500 employees, and it is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee.-History:...
plant in the city, as well as members of the Natchez police department and the Adams County Sheriff's department. HUAC found that there were at least four white supremacist terrorist groups operating in Natchez during the 1960s, including the Mississippi White Caps. The MWC distributed flyers anonymously around the city, threatening "crooks and mongrelizers." The Americans for the Preservation of the White Race was founded in May 1963 by nine residents of Natchez.
The Cottonmouth Moccasin Gang was founded by Claude Fuller and Natchez klansmen Ernest Avants and James Lloyd Jones. In June of 1966, they murdered Natchez resident Ben Chester White, reportedly as part of a plot to draw Dr. Martin Luther King to Natchez in order to assassinate him. The three Klansmen were arrested and charged by the state with the murder, but in each case, despite overwhelming evidence and, in Jones's case, a confession, either the charges were dismissed or the defendants were acquitted by all-white juries.
James Ford Seale
James Ford Seale
James Ford Seale was a Ku Klux Klan member charged by the U.S. Justice Department on January 24, 2007, and subsequently convicted on June 14, 2007, for the May 1964 kidnapping of Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore, two African-American young men in Meadville, Mississippi...
, arrested in 1964 as a suspect in the kidnapping and murders of Dee and Moore, had been released when the state district attorney decided not to take the case forward. Interest in the case was revived after 2000, and the FBI investigated. Seale was arrested and charged by the US Attorney. He was tried and convicted in federal court in 2007. He died in federal prison in 2011 at the age of 76.
The FBI discovered that Ben Chester White had been killed on federal land near Pretty Creek in the Homochitto National Forest
Homochitto National Forest
Homochitto National Forest is a U.S. National Forest in southwestern Mississippi comprising . In the mid-1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps began reforestation of the area and developing a system of roadways and recreational areas.-Geography:...
of Natchez, which gave them jurisdiction. In 1999 they reopened an investigation into the case, and indicted Ernest Avants in 2000. He was convicted in 2003 and sentenced to life in prison. He died in prison in 2004 at age 72.
In February 2011, The Injustice Files of the Investigation Discovery channel aired three TV episodes of cold case murders related to the civil rights era. The first episode was devoted to the story of Wharlest Jackson, Sr., killed in 1967, as noted above. This was part of a collaboration with the FBI, which had started an initiative in 2007 to investigate and prosecute civil rights cases.
Natural disasters
In August 2005, in the aftermath of Hurricane KatrinaHurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
, Natchez served as a refuge for coastal Mississippi and Louisiana residents, providing shelters, hotel rooms, rentals, FEMA disbursements and animal shelters. Natchez was able to keep fuel supplies open for the duration of the disaster, provide essential power to the most affected areas, receive food deliveries, and maintain law and order while assisting visitors from other areas. In the months after the hurricane, a majority of the available homes were purchased or rented, with some tenants making Natchez their permanent new home.
Flooding in 2011 drove the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
to crest at 61.9 ft on May 19, the highest recorded height of the river since the 1930s.
Images and memory
Historic wealthy and famous families in Natchez have used the Natchez Pilgrimage, which is an annual tour of the city's impressive antebellum mansions; to portray a nostalgic vision of its antebellum slaveholding society. Since the civil rights movement, however, this version has been increasingly challenged by blacks who have sought to portray the black experience in Natchez. According to the author Paul Hendrickson, "Blacks are not a part of the Natchez Pilgrimage."A cinema verité
Cinéma vérité
Cinéma vérité is a style of documentary filmmaking, combining naturalistic techniques with stylized cinematic devices of editing and camerawork, staged set-ups, and the use of the camera to provoke subjects. It is also known for taking a provocative stance toward its topics.There are subtle yet...
account of the 1966 Civil Rights actions by local NAACP leaders in Natchez was depicted by the filmmaker Ed Pincus in his film Black Natchez. The film highlights the attempt to organize a black community in the Deep South
Deep South
The Deep South is a descriptive category of the cultural and geographic subregions in the American South. Historically, it is differentiated from the "Upper South" as being the states which were most dependent on plantation type agriculture during the pre-Civil War period...
in 1965 during the heyday of the Civil Rights Movement
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
. A black leader has been car-bombed and a struggle ensues in the black community for control. A group of black men organize a chapter of the Deacons for Defense—a secret armed self-defense group. The community splits between more conservative and activist elements.
By the winter of 1988 the National Park Service had established Natchez National Historical Park
Natchez National Historical Park
Natchez National Historical Park commemorates the history of Natchez, Mississippi, and is managed by the National Park Service.The park consists of three distinct parts. Fort Rosalie is the site of a fortification from the 18th century, built by the French, and later controlled by the United...
around Melrose
Melrose (Natchez, Mississippi)
Melrose is a mansion that is said to reflect "perfection" in its Greek Revival design. The estate is now part of Natchez National Historical Park and is open to the public by guided tours. The house is furnished for the period just before the Civil War...
. The William Johnson House, in the city was added a few years later. The tours given by the National Park Service tend to present a more complex view of the past.
The historic district has been used by Hollywood as the backdrop for feature films set in the ante-bellum period. Disney
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
's The Adventures of Huck Finn
The Adventures of Huck Finn (1993 film)
The Adventures of Huck Finn is a 1993 Disney adventure film starring Elijah Wood and Courtney B. Vance; it is based on Mark Twain's novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, though it focuses almost exclusively on the first half of the book...
was partially filmed here in 1993. The 1982 television movie
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
Rascals and Robbers: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn was also filmed here. The television mini-series Beulah Land was also filmed in Natchez, as well a number of individual weekly shows of the TV drama The Mississippi, starring Ralph Waite
Ralph Waite
Ralph Waite is an American actor, whose most notable role was playing John Walton Sr. on the 1970s CBS TV series The Waltons, which he also occasionally directed...
.
In 2007 a United States Courthouse
United States Courthouse (Natchez, Mississippi)
The United States Courthouse, previously known as Institute Hall, Opera Hall, and Memorial Hall, is a building in Natchez, Mississippi that was initially constructed from 1851 to 1853, for use as an educational building. It has served a variety of public purposes in the intervening years. It was...
was opened, after renovating a historic hall for changed use. Part of the old hall had a Jim Crow-era monument to the local men and women from Natchez and Adams County who served in World War I. The 1924 monument was the subject of several stories in the Natchez Democrat, as reporters noted it lacked representation of black Army troops who had served in the war. A story suggested the monument may be updated and the old monument retired.
Geography
Natchez is located at 31°33'16" latitude, 91°23'15" longitude (31.554393, −91.387566).According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the city has a total area of 13.9 square miles (36 km²), of which 13.2 square miles (34.2 km²) are land and 0.6 square miles (1.6 km²) (4.62%) is water.
Climate
Natchez has a humid subtropical climateHumid subtropical climate
A humid subtropical climate is a climate zone characterized by hot, humid summers and mild to cool winters...
.
Demographics
As of the censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 18,464 people, 7,591 households, and 4,858 families residing in the city. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 1,398.3 people per square mile (540.1/km²). There were 8,479 housing units at an average density of 642.1 per square mile (248.0/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 44.18% White, 54.49% African American, 0.11% Native American, 0.38% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.18% from other races, and 0.63% from two or more races. 0.70% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 7,591 households out of which 29.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 36.6% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 23.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.0% were non-families. 32.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 14.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.37 and the average family size was 3.00.
In the city the population was spread out with 26.5% under the age of 18, 8.8% from 18 to 24, 24.3% from 25 to 44, 22.4% from 45 to 64, and 18.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 81.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 76.7 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $25,117, and the median income for a family was $29,723. Males had a median income of $31,323 versus $20,829 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the city was $16,868. 28.6% of the population and 25.1% of families were below the poverty line. 41.6% of those under the age of 18 and 23.3% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.
Education
Natchez is home to Alcorn State UniversityAlcorn State University
Alcorn State University is an historically black university comprehensive land-grant institution in Lorman, Mississippi. It was founded in 1871-History:...
's Natchez Campus.
Copiah-Lincoln Community College also operates a campus in Natchez.
The city of Natchez and the county of Adams operate one public school system, the Natchez-Adams School District
Natchez-Adams School District
The Natchez-Adams School District is a public school district based in Natchez, Mississippi . The district's boundaries parallel that of Adams County.-Schools:*Natchez High School*Fallin Career and Technology Center*Robert Lewis Middle School...
. The district comprises eight schools. They are Susie B. West, Morgantown, Gilmer McLaurin, Joseph F Frazier, Robert Lewis Middle School, Central Alternative School, Natchez High School, and Fallin Career and Technology Center.
In Natchez, there are a number of private and parochial schools. Trinity Episcopal Day School
Trinity Episcopal Day School
Trinity Episcopal Day School is a private school located in Natchez, Mississippi with students in preschool through twelfth grade. Trinity Episcopal is accredited by the Mississippi State Department of Education, the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools, and the Southern Association of...
is PK-12 school founded by the Trinity Episcopal Church. Trinity Episcopal Day School and Adams County Christian School are both members of the Mississippi Private School Association. Cathedral School is also a PK-12 school in the city. It is affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church St. Mary Basilica. Holy Family Catholic School, founded in 1890, is a PK-3 school affiliated with Holy Family Catholic Church.
Highways
U.S. Route 61U.S. Route 61
U.S. Route 61 is the official designation for a United States highway that runs from New Orleans, Louisiana, to the city of Wyoming, Minnesota. The highway generally follows the course of the Mississippi River, and is designated the Great River Road for much of its route. As of 2004, the highway's...
runs north-south, parallel to the Mississippi River, linking Natchez with Port Gibson, Mississippi
Port Gibson, Mississippi
Port Gibson is a city in Claiborne County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 1,840 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Claiborne County.- History :...
, Woodville, Mississippi
Woodville, Mississippi
Woodville is a town in and the county seat of Wilkinson County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 1,192 at the 2000 census.The Woodville Republican, a weekly newspaper founded in 1823, is the oldest surviving business in Mississippi.-Geography:Woodville is located at .According to...
, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Baton Rouge is the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is located in East Baton Rouge Parish and is the second-largest city in the state.Baton Rouge is a major industrial, petrochemical, medical, and research center of the American South...
.
U.S. Route 84U.S. Route 84
U.S. Route 84 is an east–west United States highway. It started as a short Georgia-Alabama route in the original 1926 scheme, but now extends all the way to Colorado. The highway's eastern terminus is a short distance east of Midway, Georgia, at an intersection with I-95. The road continues...
runs east-west and bridges the Mississippi, connecting it with Vidalia, Louisiana, and Brookhaven, Mississippi
Brookhaven, Mississippi
Brookhaven is a small city in Lincoln County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 9,861 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Lincoln County...
.
U.S. Route 65U.S. Route 65
U.S. Route 65 is a north–south United States highway in the southern and midwestern United States. The southern terminus of the route is at U.S. Route 425 in Clayton, Louisiana. The northern terminus is at Interstate 35 just south of Interstate 90 in Albert Lea, Minnesota...
runs north from Natchez along the west bank of the Mississippi through Ferriday
Ferriday, Louisiana
Ferriday is a town in Concordia Parish in northeastern Louisiana, United States. The population, which is three-fourths African American, was 3,723 at the 2000 census....
and Waterproof, Louisiana
Waterproof, Louisiana
Waterproof is a town in Tensas Parish, Louisiana, United States with a population of 834 as of 2000 census. Waterproof is approximately seventeen miles north of Ferriday, one of the two principal communities of Concordia Parish...
.
U.S. Route 98U.S. Route 98
U.S. Route 98 is an east–west United States highway that runs from western Mississippi to southern Florida. It was established in 1933 as a route between Pensacola, Florida and Apalachicola, Florida, and has since been extended westward into Mississippi and eastward across the Florida...
runs east from Natchez towards Bude
Bude, Mississippi
Bude is a town in Franklin County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 1,037 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Bude is located at .According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , all of it land....
and McComb, Mississippi
McComb, Mississippi
McComb is a city in Pike County, Mississippi, United States, about south of Jackson. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 13,644. It is the principal city of the McComb, Mississippi, Micropolitan Statistical Area...
.
Mississippi Highway 555 runs north from the center of Natchez to where it joins Mississippi Highway 554.
Mississippi Highway 554 runs from the north side of the city to where it joins U.S. Highway 84 northeast of town.
Air
Natchez is served by the Natchez-Adams County AirportNatchez-Adams County Airport
Natchez-Adams County Airport , also known as Hardy-Anders Field, is a county-owned public-use airport located six nautical miles northeast of the central business district of Natchez, a city in Adams County, Mississippi, United States....
, which services general aviation. The nearest airport with commercial service is Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport
Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport
Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport , also known as Ryan Field, is a public use airport located four nautical miles north of the central business district of Baton Rouge, a city in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, United States....
, 85 miles (136.8 km) to the south on US 61.
Suburbs
Natchez's surrounding communities (collectively known as the "Miss-Lou") include:- Cloverdale, Mississippi
- Canonsburg, Mississippi
- Jonesville, Louisiana
- Morgantown, Mississippi
- Kingston, Mississippi
- Cranfield, Mississippi
- Vidalia, Louisiana
- Pine Ridge, Mississippi
- Washington, MississippiWashington, MississippiWashington is a small unincorporated town in Adams County, Mississippi, United States, close to Natchez.-History:The town of Washington's namesake is George Washington...
- Monterey, Louisiana
- Church Hill, Mississippi
- Sibley, Mississippi
- Stanton, Mississippi
- Roxie, Mississippi
Notable natives and residents
- Robert H. AdamsRobert H. AdamsRobert Huntington Adams was a Mississippi lawyer and politician who, in the final months of his life, briefly served as United States senator from Mississippi....
, former United States Senator from MississippiMississippiMississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
. - William Wirt AdamsWilliam Wirt AdamsWilliam Wirt Adams was a United States district court judge for the state of Mississippi, a soldier for the Republic of Texas, and a Confederate officer and general in the American Civil War.-Early life and career:...
, Confederate Army officer, grew up in Natchez. - Philip Alston (counterfeiter)Philip Alston (counterfeiter)Philip Alston was an 18th century counterfeiter both before and after the American Revolution in Virginia and the Carolinas before the war, and later in Kentucky and Illinois afterwards...
, prominent plantationPlantationA plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...
owner and early American outlawOutlawIn historical legal systems, an outlaw is declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, this takes the burden of active prosecution of a criminal from the authorities. Instead, the criminal is withdrawn all legal protection, so that anyone is legally empowered to persecute... - Glen BallardGlen BallardGlen Ballard is an American songwriter and record producer, best known for co-writing and producing Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill , which won Grammy Award for "Best Rock Album", and "Album of the Year" amongst others, and is ranked by the Rolling Stone amongst The 500 Greatest Albums of...
, a five-time Grammy AwardGrammy AwardA Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
winning songwriter/producer. - Campbell BrownCampbell BrownCampbell Brown is an American television news reporter and anchor. She previously hosted an eponymous primetime show on CNN and was formerly co-anchor of NBC's Weekend Today...
, Emmy award-winning journalist, a political anchor for CNN; grew up in Natchez and attended both Trinity Episcopal and Cathedral High School. - John J. ChancheJohn J. ChancheBishop John Joseph Mary Benedict Chanche, S.S. was the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Natchez from 1841 to 1852.-Early Life and Family:John Mary Joseph Chanche was born October 4, 1795, in Baltimore, Maryland...
, First Bishop of Natchez, is buried on the grounds of St. Mary Basilica, Natchez. - Olu DaraOlu DaraOlu Dara Jones is an American cornetist, guitarist and singer.-History:...
, musician & father of rapper NasNasNasir bin Olu Dara Jones, who performs under the name Nas , formerly Nasty Nas, is an American rapper and actor. He is regarded as one of the most important figures in hip hop and one of the most skilled and influential rappers of all-time...
. - Varina Howell Davis, first lady of the Confederate States of AmericaConfederate States of AmericaThe Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
, was born, raised, and married in Natchez. - Je'Kel Foster, basketball player.
- Mickey GilleyMickey GilleyMickey Leroy Gilley is an American country music singer and musician. Although he started out singing straight-up country and western material in the 1970s, he moved towards a more pop-friendly sound in the 1980s, bringing him further success on not just the country charts, but the pop charts as...
, a country music singer, was born in Natchez. - Cedric GriffinCedric GriffinCedric Leonard Griffin is an American football cornerback for the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League.He was born in Natchez, Mississippi and graduated from Holmes High School in San Antonio, Texas. He played college football for The University of Texas Longhorns and was a stand-out...
, Minnesota Vikings cornerback, was born in Natchez but raised in San Antonio, TexasSan Antonio, TexasSan Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
. - Hugh Green, All-American defensive end at the University of PittsburghUniversity of PittsburghThe University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...
and two-time Pro Bowler. - Troyce GuiceTroyce GuiceTroyce Eual Guice was a prominent businessman in northeastern Louisiana who twice ran for the United States Senate in campaigns thirty years apart, 1966 and 1996. A conservative Democrat, Guice later, as a Mississippi voter, became a donor to the Republican Party...
, Natchez restaurantRestaurantA restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
owner, was twice a candidate for the United State Senate from LouisianaLouisianaLouisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
. - Von HutchinsVon HutchinsTahaya De'Von Hutchins is an American football defensive back who is currently a free agent. He was drafted by the Indianapolis Colts in the sixth round of the 2004 NFL Draft. He played college football at the Mississippi.Hutchins has also played for the Houston Texans and Atlanta Falcons in his...
, NFL football player for the Atlanta FalconsAtlanta FalconsThe Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta, Georgia. They are a member of the South Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
. - Greg IlesGreg IlesGreg Iles is an American bestselling novelist who lives in Natchez, Mississippi.Iles was born in Stuttgart, Germany, where his father ran the U.S. Embassy Medical Clinic. He was raised in Natchez, Mississippi, where he attended Trinity Episcopal Day School and graduated from the University of...
, born in Natchez and a best-selling author of many novels set in the city. - William JohnsonWilliam Johnson (barber)William T. Johnson was a free African American barber, who lived in Natchez, Mississippi.Johnson was born into slavery, but his slaveholder emancipated him in 1820. His mother Amy was freed in 1814 and his sister Adelia in 1818. He trained with his brother-in-law James Miller as a barber, and...
, "The Barber of Natchez", freed slave and prominent businessman. - Nook LoganNook LoganExavier Prente "Nook" Logan is a former Major League Baseball center fielder. He attended Copiah-Lincoln Community College. He made his Major League debut July 21, 2004, with the Detroit Tigers against the Kansas City Royals...
, former Major League Baseball player for the Washington Nationals. - John R. LynchJohn R. LynchJohn Roy Lynch was the first African-American Speaker of the House in Mississippi. He was also one of the first African-Americans elected to the U.S House of Representatives during Reconstruction, the period in United States history after the Civil War.-Biography:Lynch was born a slave near...
, The first African-American Speaker of the House in Mississippi and one of the earliest African-American members of Congress - Lynda Lee MeadLynda Lee MeadLynda Lee Mead Shea attended the University of Mississippi, where she was a member of Chi Omega sorority, and won the Miss America pageant in 1960...
, Miss MississippiMiss Mississippi:For the state pageant affiliated with Miss USA, see Miss Mississippi USAMiss Mississippi is a scholarship pageant and a preliminary of Miss America. The contest began in 1934, has been held in Vicksburg since 1958, and provides more money than any other scholarship pageant in the Miss America...
in 1959 and Miss AmericaMiss AmericaThe Miss America pageant is a long-standing competition which awards scholarships to young women from the 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands...
in 1960. A Natchez city street, Lynda Lee Drive, is named in her honor. - Anne MoodyAnne MoodyAnne Moody is an African-American author who has written about her experiences growing up poor and black in rural Mississippi, joining the Civil Rights Movement, and fighting racism against blacks in the United States beginning in the 1960s-Life:Born Essie Mae Moody, she was the oldest of nine...
, civil rightsCivil rightsCivil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
activist and author of Coming of Age in MississippiComing of Age in MississippiComing of Age in Mississippi is a 1968 memoir by Anne Moody about growing up in rural Mississippi in the middle of the 20th century as an African American woman. The book covers Moody's life from childhood until her late 20s, including her involvement in the civil rights movement, which began when...
, attended Natchez Junior College. - Alexander O'NealAlexander O'NealAlexander O'Neal is an American R&B singer. He is best-known for the songs "If You Were Here Tonight" and "Fake", and the duets with Cherrelle, "Saturday Love" and "Never Knew Love Like This".-Biography:...
, R&B singer. - General John Anthony Quitman – Mexican War hero, plantation owner, governor of Mississippi, owner of Monmouth Plantation.
- Pierre Adolphe RostPierre Adolphe RostPierre Adolphe Rost was a Louisiana politician, diplomat, lawyer, judge, and plantation owner.- Early Life and Emigration to the United States :...
, a member of the Mississippi Senate and commissioner to EuropeEuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
for the Confederate States, immigrated to Natchez from FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. - Billy ShawBilly ShawWilliam Lewis "Billy" Shaw is an American former college and professional football player.Drafted in 1961 by the American Football League's Buffalo Bills, Billy Shaw of Georgia Tech was the prototypical "pulling guard" who despite his size held his own against much bigger defensive linemen like...
, Pro Football Hall of Fame member, was born in Natchez. - Chris ShiversChris ShiversChris Shivers is a top-rated bull rider on the Professional Bull Riders' Built Ford Tough Series with career PBR earnings of $3,842,739.33 . Shivers has earned the title of PBR World Champion Bull Rider in 2000 and 2003. He turned pro in 1997.Shivers has nineteen career BFTS wins...
, two-time PBR world champion bull rider, was born in Natchez. - Hound Dog TaylorHound Dog TaylorTheodore Roosevelt "Hound Dog" Taylor was an American Chicago blues guitarist and singer.-Career:Taylor was born in Natchez, Mississippi in 1915 . He originally played piano, but began playing guitar when he was 20...
, a blues singer and slide guitarSlide guitarSlide guitar or bottleneck guitar is a particular method or technique for playing the guitar. The term slide refers to the motion of the slide against the strings, while bottleneck refers to the original material of choice for such slides: the necks of glass bottles...
player. - Don José VidalDon José VidalDon José Vidal was the Spanish grandee who held many official titles during Spanish rule of the Mississippi Territory. One of the titles he held was secretary to Manuel Gayoso de Lemos, the Spanish Governor of the Natchez District from 1792-1797...
, Spanish Governor of the Natchez DistrictNatchez DistrictThe Natchez District was one of two areas, the other being the Tombigbee District, that were the first to be colonized by British subjects from the Thirteen Colonies and elsewhere in what was West Florida and would later become the Mississippi Territory. The district was recognized to be the area...
, is buried in the Natchez City Cemetery. - Joanna Fox WaddillJoanna Fox WaddillJoanna Painter Waddill was a nurse assisting wounded and ill Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War. She became celebrated as the "Florence Nightingale of the Confederacy" for her humanitarianism....
, American Civil War nurse known as the "Florence NightingaleFlorence NightingaleFlorence Nightingale OM, RRC was a celebrated English nurse, writer and statistician. She came to prominence for her pioneering work in nursing during the Crimean War, where she tended to wounded soldiers. She was dubbed "The Lady with the Lamp" after her habit of making rounds at night...
of the Confederacy." - Samuel Washington WeisSamuel Washington WeisSamuel Washington Weis was an American cotton broker, painter and sketch artist.-Early life and education:Samuel Weis was born in Natchez, Mississippi to Caroline and Julius Weis . His father was a German Jewish immigrant who came to the United States in 1845...
(1870–1956), an American painter - Les WhittLes WhittRobert Leslie Whitt, known as Les Whitt , was the award-winning director of Alexandria Zoological Park in Alexandria, the seat of Rapides Parish and the largest city in Central Louisiana, having served from 1974 until his death from heart complications only six days prior to what would have been...
, director of the municipal zoo in Alexandria, LouisianaAlexandria, LouisianaAlexandria is a city in and the parish seat of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies on the south bank of the Red River in almost the exact geographic center of the state. It is the principal city of the Alexandria metropolitan area which encompasses all of Rapides and Grant parishes....
, and a musicianMusicianA musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
who sometimes played with B.B. King. - Novelist Richard WrightRichard Wright (author)Richard Nathaniel Wright was an African-American author of sometimes controversial novels, short stories, poems, and non-fiction. Much of his literature concerns racial themes, especially those involving the plight of African-Americans during the late 19th to mid 20th centuries...
, author of Black Boy and Native Son, was born in Rucker Plantation in Roxie, MississippiRoxie, MississippiRoxie is a town in Franklin County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 569 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Roxie is located at .According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , all of it land....
, twenty-two miles east of Natchez.
See also
- Alcorn State UniversityAlcorn State UniversityAlcorn State University is an historically black university comprehensive land-grant institution in Lorman, Mississippi. It was founded in 1871-History:...
- Arlington (Natchez, Mississippi)Arlington (Natchez, Mississippi)Arlington is a historic Federal style house and outbuildings in Natchez, Mississippi. The property, which includes three contributing buildings, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. It was further declared a National Historic Landmark in 1974...
- Auburn (Natchez, Mississippi)Auburn (Natchez, Mississippi)Auburn is an Antebellum Greek Revival mansion in Duncan Park in Natchez, Mississippi. It was designed and constructed by Levi Weeks in 1812, the first planned building in the town...
- Commercial Bank and Banker's HouseCommercial Bank and Banker's HouseCommercial Bank and Banker's House, also known as First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Banker's House, built in 1833, is an historic Greek Revival style building located on a parcel lying between Main and Canal streets in Natchez, Mississippi. For security reasons, it was designed to contain both...
- DunleithDunleithDunleith is an antebellum mansion in Natchez, Mississippi. The previous building, Routhland had been built by Job Routh and passed down to his daughter Mary Routh. When it was struck by lightning and burned down in 1855, her husband, General Charles G. Dahlgren rebuilt the home. It was sold for...
- Great Natchez TornadoGreat Natchez TornadoThe Great Natchez Tornado hit Natchez, Mississippi on May 7, 1840. It is the second deadliest single tornado in United States history, killing 317 people . It is also the only recorded massive tornado in the U.S.A. that killed more people than it injured: only 109 were injured...
- House on Ellicott's HillHouse on Ellicott's HillHouse on Ellicott's Hill, also known as Connelly's Tavern, James Moore House, or Gilreath's Hill, is a historic house in Natchez, Mississippi. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1974 and a Mississippi Landmark in 2001.-History:...
- Longwood (Natchez, Mississippi)Longwood (Natchez, Mississippi)Longwood, also known as Nutt's Folly, is an historic antebellum octagonal mansion located at 140 Lower Woodville Road in Natchez, Mississippi, USA. The mansion is on the U.S...
- Melrose (Natchez, Mississippi)Melrose (Natchez, Mississippi)Melrose is a mansion that is said to reflect "perfection" in its Greek Revival design. The estate is now part of Natchez National Historical Park and is open to the public by guided tours. The house is furnished for the period just before the Civil War...
- Monmouth (Natchez, Mississippi)Monmouth (Natchez, Mississippi)Monmouth Plantation is a historic plantation on a lot built in 1818 by John Hankinson and inhabited by John A. Quitman, a former Governor of Mississippi and well known figure in the Mexican-American War...
- Natchez National CemeteryNatchez National CemeteryNatchez National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery located in the city of Natchez overlooking the Mississippi River in Adams County, Mississippi. It encompasses , and as of the end of 2005, had 7,154 interments.- History :...
- Natchez National Historical ParkNatchez National Historical ParkNatchez National Historical Park commemorates the history of Natchez, Mississippi, and is managed by the National Park Service.The park consists of three distinct parts. Fort Rosalie is the site of a fortification from the 18th century, built by the French, and later controlled by the United...
- Natchez On-Top-of-the-Hill Historic DistrictNatchez On-Top-of-the-Hill Historic DistrictNatches On-Top-of-the-Hill Historic District is an historic district in Natchez, Mississippi that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979...
- Stanton HallStanton HallStanton Hall, also known as Belfast, is an Antebellum Classical Revival mansion in Natchez, Mississippi built during 1851-1857 for Frederick Stanton, a cotton broker...
- United States Courthouse (Natchez, Mississippi)United States Courthouse (Natchez, Mississippi)The United States Courthouse, previously known as Institute Hall, Opera Hall, and Memorial Hall, is a building in Natchez, Mississippi that was initially constructed from 1851 to 1853, for use as an educational building. It has served a variety of public purposes in the intervening years. It was...
External links
- Official Travel & Tourism Website
- Official City Website
- City's Daily Newspaper
- History of Natchez's Jewish community (from the Institute of Southern Jewish Life)
- Interactive Map of Natchez Oil Wells Mississippi Oil Journal
- Natchez Library Institute Accounts (MUM00328) at the University of Mississippi.
- Natchez City Cemetery
- History of the Catholic Community of Natchez