History of Natchez, Mississippi

The most thorough account was written by French colonists Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz, who lived near the Natchez for several years, learning their language and befriending leaders.

The Natchez tended to become increasingly split into pro-French and pro-English factions; those who were more distant had more relations with English traders, who came to the area from British colonies to the east.

Produce and goods were transported on the Mississippi River by the flatboatmen and keelboatmen, who usually sold their wares at Natchez or New Orleans, including their boats (as lumber).

A Mississippi River navigation guide published in 1817 stated, "The Natchez landing affords a pretty safe harbor for boats it being in the shape of a half moon.

[16] Spanish authorities exercised strict regulations for commerce and the development of the streets, lots, and bluff,[17] but surrendered the fort and possession of the Town of Natchez to United States forces led by Captain Isaac Guion on March 30, 1798.

As the state's population center shifted to the north and east with more settlers entering the area, the legislature voted to move the capital to the more centrally located city of Jackson in 1822.

[23] It was frequented by notables such as Aaron Burr, Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor, Ulysses S. Grant, Jefferson Davis, Winfield Scott, and John James Audubon.

Schools opened in the city as early as 1801, but many of the wealthiest families continued to rely on private tutors or out-of-state institutions, some sending their children as far as England and Scotland.

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.

[26] Census records from 1850 and 1860 show that about 85% of the free people of color in the antebellum era were mulattoes; the offspring of white male planter fathers and enslaved or emancipates black females to whom the former freed.

[31] Research in recent decades through courthouse and governmental records has substantially demonstrated that to be untrue for the wealthy property owning free people of color.

[32] Owning wealth and being included as equals by the richest of the white families in the antebellum era gave the few people of color who had this circumstance a rare amount of prestige and power.

[44] Two civilians, an elderly man and an eight-year-old girl named Rosalie Beekman, were killed when a Union ironclad shelled the town from the River.

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 exceptions tended to be fairly recent arrivals to the South, men who opposed secession, and some who held social and economic ties to the North.

[48] Following the Union victory at the Battle of Vicksburg in July 1863, many refugees, including former slaves, freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, began moving into Natchez and the surrounding countryside.

However, as the war continued, the plan was never effectively implemented and the leased plantations were poorly managed and frequently raided by Confederate troops who controlled the surrounding territory.

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.

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.

[54] Located on the Mississippi River, the town long had an active nightlife, featuring jazz and blues created and played by Black American musicians.

In August 1964, McDaniel established a klavern of the UKA in Natchez, operating under the cover name of the Adams County Civic and Betterment Association.

[60][61]By that time, more than 100 FBI agents were in the area as part of the Philadelphia investigation; three civil rights workers had disappeared and that summer were found murdered and buried in an earthen dam.

"[60] In May 1966 a Klan rally was held at Liberty Ball Park featuring speakers such as Imperial Wizard, Robert M. Shelton, as well as leaders from out of state groups.

James Jackson, a Natchez barber, publicly announced the group's formation the day after George Metcalf was seriously injured in a car bombing on August 27, 1965.

In addition to protecting activists, the Deacons helped enforce initiatives of the civil rights movement, such as a commercial boycott of white-owned stores in a successful effort to win concessions in integration from retailers and the city.

The FBI discovered that 67-year-old Ben Chester White, murdered in June 1966, had been killed on federal land near Pretty Creek in the Homochitto National Forest of Natchez.

[69] 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 television mini-series Beulah Land was filmed in Natchez, as well a number of individual weekly shows of the TV drama The Mississippi, starring Ralph Waite.

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.