After the United States acquired the territory from France in 1803 in the Louisiana Purchase, the town was chartered that same year.

To develop cotton plantations in the area after Indian Removal of the 1830s, planters who moved to the state brought with them or imported thousands of enslaved African Americans from the Upper South, disrupting many families.

The British acquired this area after the French ceded their colonies east of the Mississippi River in 1763,[4] following their defeat in the Seven Years' War.

Planters developed cotton plantations in the fertile river lowlands of the Mississippi Delta and other riverfront areas, dependent on the labor of enslaved Africans, initially brought from the Upper South.

As the planter population increased, they founded the Port Gibson Female College in 1843 to educate their daughters.

Port Gibson was the site of several clashes during the American Civil War and figured in Union General Ulysses S. Grant's Vicksburg Campaign.

Reportedly, many of the historic buildings in the town survived the Civil War because Grant proclaimed the city to be "too beautiful to burn".

[4] Gemiluth Chessed synagogue, built in 1892, had an active congregation when the town was thriving as the county seat and a trading center.

As the economy changed, the Jewish population gradually moved to larger cities and areas offering more opportunity, and none remain in Port Gibson.

The Rabbit's Foot Company was established in 1900 by Pat Chappelle, an African-American theatre owner in Tampa, Florida.

This was the leading traveling vaudeville show in the southern states, with an all-black cast of singers, musicians, comedians, and entertainers.

The Rabbit's Foot Company remained popular, but as some white performers joined and used blackface, it was no longer considered "authentic".

[13] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1.8 square miles (4.7 km2), all land.