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State of Mississippi History
The first written record in Mississippi history was made in 1540 when the Spaniard Hernando de Soto and his men crossed its boundaries to discover the Mississippi River. Yet long before these first Europeans came, there were Native Americans who existed in this natural habitat with its gentle climate, fertile soil, and plentiful food environment. Mississippi was home to many tribes; in the early days Mississippi had a larger population of Native Americans than any other state in the Southeast. Some of the major tribes include the Natchez on the lower Mississippi, the Chickasaw in the north and northeast, and the Choctaw in the central and southern part.
Mississippi history may be divided into four distinct jurisdictional periods: French Colonial (1699–1763), British Provincial (1763–79), Spanish Provincial (1779–98), and American Territorial and Statehood (1798-present). The year 1699 saw the French establish the colony of Biloxi, the first permanent settlement in this part of the Lower Mississippi Valley. Later this colony was moved to Mobile, and Natchez was established as the seat of government in 1716. Toward the end of the Seven Years War (or French and Indian War) in 1763, France ceded this province to Britain, beginning the immigration of Protestant, land-loving British, a stark contrast with the remaining Roman-Catholic French. Sixteen years later in 1779, the British yielded control of the Natchez District to the Spanish, who remained until pro-American sentiment prevailed.
When Mississippi Territory was formed in 1798 by the U.S. Congress, the territory included lands north of the 31st parallel and south of Tennessee, lying between the Chattahoochee and Mississippi rivers. During this period there were only two significant regions of settlement: the Natchez District, found in the southern part of the state along the Mississippi River, and the St. Stephens District in the eastern section on the Tombigbee River. At the time, Spain controlled the Gulf Coast and the Choctaw, Creek, and Chickasaw tribes owned more land than did the white settlers, who numbered fewer than 5,000 in 1798.
With the opening of the territory in that year, there was a surge of immigration that sparked a recurring division and formation of county boundaries. The fact that the present state of Alabama was part of Mississippi Territory occasionally causes confusion for the researcher. The present Alabama counties of Washington, Madison, Baldwin, Clarke, Monroe, Mobile, and Montgomery were organized as counties in Mississippi Territory. County names have been duplicated in Mississippi and Alabama of these except for Baldwin and Mobile counties. The coastal area of Mississippi Territory was part of British West Florida (1763–79) and later of Spanish West Florida (1779–1810) until after the War of 1812. Actually, the land encompassing the Mississippi counties of Hancock, Harrison, and Jackson was made a part of Mississippi Territory in 1812, following the West Florida Revolution of 1810.
Ambiguous application of land grant distribution through the Treaty of Paris in 1783 and Pinckney Treaty of 1795, coupled with politics of the era, produced a sometimes-muddled trail of land titles. Early Mississippi history may be characterized as one of white settlers moving onto lands that were previously owned by natives. The acquisition of this land by treaties is more fully explained in Goodspeed’s Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Mississippi.
Some of the problems encountered with these treaties may be better understood by reviewing Clarence Edwin Carter, comp. and ed., Territorial Papers of the United States: The Territory of Mississippi, vol. 6 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1938).
The thrust of immigration and settlement pushed the territory toward statehood in 1817. In 1832, through treaties made with the Choctaw and Chickasaw, all land in the present state of Mississippi was opened for settlement. Offering opportunities for a richer life, the divergent cultures from the past came together as one. Cotton became king, and the state of Mississippi flourished at an astonishing pace for decades preceding the Civil War, aided by the labors of many African Americans, both slave and free.
Mississippi voted to secede from the Union on 9 January 1861, putting into motion events that led to Mississippi’s involvement in the Civil War. The harsh period of Reconstruction that followed the war left a long-standing bitterness that further strengthened Mississippi’s political stand regarding states’ rights. The Jim Crow laws, legislation put into effect by the white electorate, guaranteed that the freed slaves would continue in a condition of servitude, poverty, and ignorance. Sharecropping sprang into being for African Americans and whites alike, leading once again to an economic dependence on cotton. Because of its persistence in clinging to an agricultural society, Mississippi was well into the twentieth century before attempting to join an industrialized America. The records created after 1940 reflect the political, economic, and cultural changes that dramatically altered Mississippi life.
Anglo-Saxon settlers from the older seaboard states flocked to Mississippi’s virgin lands, bringing black slaves to work their fields, and until 1940 blacks outnumbered whites. Even today Mississippi has a larger percentage of blacks than any other state. Relations between the races have tended to shape Mississippi’s history and to foster a conservative political philosophy and an insistence on state’s rights among its white majority. In recent years, however, blacks have begun to enter political and economic realms formerly virtually closed to them. At the same time, “king” cotton has made room for a more diversified agriculture, and Mississippi has undergone an industrial boom. Although Mississippians still cherish the columned mansions and hallowed traditions of their past, they can now boast a diversified industrial and agricultural economy.
Mississippi African Americans
Materials previously described in this chapter may be used in African-American genealogical research. In addition, there are other resources for the study of both free and slave African-American families in Mississippi’s history. See Vernon L. Wharton, The Negro in Mississippi, 1865–1890 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1947) for a classic study of that time period. There are the more specialized collections that are associated with African-American history or genealogy, and then there are areas in scattered collections that reveal a variety of useful information. An extensive compilation of manuscript, photograph, and sound collections found in the state archives is found in Anne L. Webster, African Americans: A Mississippi Sourcebook (Carrolton, Miss.: Pioneer Publishing Co., 2001).
A voluminous collection also housed at the National Archives contains the papers pertaining to the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (RG 105), commonly referred to as the Freedman’s Bureau Collection. The Mississippi Department of Archives and History has a microfilm copy of these records and has created the only existing index for Mississippi labor contracts found within the collection. This bureau supervised issues relating to refugees, freedmen, and abandoned property. The labor contracts have been digitally indexed by plantation, planter’s name, freedman’s name, and county. The researcher should be aware of the fact that there were approximately 300,000 freed slaves, but the index provides only 36,000 names. Not all freedmen entered into labor contracts. Another segment of the Freedman’s Bureau includes the custody papers of the abandoned property owned by Confederates. Signed loyalty oaths or presidential pardons are held here if the property was restored to an individual.
The researcher should also consider slave enumerations in the federal censuses, the slave schedules of 1850 and 1860, and later censuses when each person in the household was named and “race” indicated. In addition, county records of all kinds reveal some African-American genealogical information interspersed in tax rolls and marriage, probate (some records specifically noting names and ages of slaves in the estate), and court records. The distinction of race, however, was not always marked in some of these records.
Other information may be gathered from school censuses, plantation journals, church records, cemetery records, and even newspapers. For a recently published guide to African-American press materials, see Julius E. Thompson, The Black Press in Mississippi, 1865–1985: A Directory (West Cornwall, Conn.: Locust Hill Press, 1988). With an intended historical purpose, this work directly renders a listing of newspapers, magazines, and newsletters printed by African Americans in Mississippi from 1865 to 1985.
One collection that focuses on the African-American population is the Slave Impressments—Confederacy. These records are located at the National Archives (RG 109) and are hard to access since they are not indexed, microfilmed, or published. For the years 1864 through 1865, this material gives a physical description, identification of the owner, the slave’s value, and the date and name of person to whom the slave was sent for work detail.
The WPA ex-slave narrative project has particular genealogical interest. Mississippi was one of several states where the WPA conducted interviews with these freedmen. These interviews have been published and are available at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Apart from these narratives, the manuscript collection at the department also contains oral histories of historical as well as genealogical value. Another collection found in the state archives library, with a limited finding aid, is the Alfred Stone Papers, which encompass a large compilation of published materials pertaining to African-American history.
The Newsfilm Collection draws together a more recent historical period of unedited news footage for the years 1954 to 1971. The significance of this collection is found in the documentation of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi including events like the arrival of the Freedom Riders, the Capitol Street Boycott, lunch counter sit-ins, demonstrations, James Meredith’s enrollment at the University of Mississippi, and the desegregation of schools. The Coleman Library at Tougaloo College near Jackson maintains a significant collection focusing on the history of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi. Private papers of some Civil Rights leaders are found here along with papers from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and the Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee.
Another repository of special interest is the University of Mississippi Blues Archives, which houses an extensive collection of historical materials pertaining to the blues. In addition to the recordings there is extensive biographical information on blues musicians including interviews, posters, and photographs.
Mississippi Native Americans
Mississippi records relating to Native Americans did not give actual names until the nineteenth century. For a good explanation of the structure of kinship, see Charles M. Hudson, Southeastern Indians (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1976), 185-96. Census records such as the “Armstrong Roll of 1831” (see Census Records) is a good place to begin, along with the papers kept by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Mississippi Department of Archives and History has some of the Bureau of Indian Affairs records on microfilm. There is also a select collection of genealogical sources located at the Choctaw reservation. Inquiries may be directed to Tribal Historian, Mississippi Band of the Choctaw, Box 6010, Philadelphia, MS 39350.
Treaties are another genealogical source to be considered. See Charles J. Kappler, comp., Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, 1779–1803, vol. 2. (1904; reprint, New York: Interland Publishing Co., 1972). A valuable source with listings of Choctaw names is found in the master’s thesis by Samuel James Wells, “Choctaw Mixed Bloods and the Advent of Renewal” (University of Southern Mississippi, 1987). A copy of the printed form or microfilm may be found at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Early native trading post records are found in the papers of Panton, Leslie, and Company, a multi-reel microfilm edition covering 1738–1853, which is available at the archives.
A bibliography of works published on the Choctaw is Clara Sue Kidwell and Charles Roberts, The Choctaw: A Critical Bibliography (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1960). See also Sharon Sholars Brown, “The Jena Choctaw: A Case Study in the Documentation of Indian Tribal Identity,” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 75 (September 1987): 180-93, and Arthur H. DeRosier, The Removal of the Choctaw Indians (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1970).
Many records relating to Native Americans were created by early colonial Americans as found in the Provincial Records (RG 24-26—see Provincial Records, below), in the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. However, evidence found in the records provides mostly background understanding of native and colonist relations.
The Formation of Mississipi Counties
The counties of Mississippi have repeatedly figured in the course of the narrative part of this history, as well as in the various topical chapters. But the story of their development as a whole, and the details pertaining to the separate organizations of today, have not been set forth as a complete outline. As there is a constant demand for some ready information as to locality and formation, a short, succinct history of each county is included with this history of the State. An entire volume would be required to properly present the history of Mississippi counties. Limited space prevents more extended treatment. Extensive county histories are being prepared by the State Department of Archives and History as a future contribution to State history.
- HISTORICAL DIVISION: The counties of Mississippi now number eighty-two and may be grouped according to the historical order of their formation from the Natchez District, the early Choctaw Indian cessions, the District of Mobile, and the later cessions from the Choctaws and Chickasaws.
- COUNTIES OF THE OLD NATCHEZ DISTRICT: The Natchez District, containing the principal white population of the new Territory of Mississippi, was first divided into the counties of Adams and Pickering, April 2, 1799, and the dividing line was nearly the same as the present boundary between Adams and Jefferson. From the area contained in the Natchez District were subsequently erected the counties of Wilkinson, Claiborne, Amite, Franklin and Warren, named in the order of their creation, being seven counties in all.
- COUNTIES OF FIRST CHOCTAW CESSION: By the Treaty of Mount Dexter, concluded November 16, 1805, the Choctaws ceded to the United States an extensive area in the southern portion of the Territory, between the Amite and Tombigbee rivers, comprising 5,987,000 acres, and lying north of the thirty-first parallel of latitude. From this area, roughly speaking, were formed by the year 1826, beginning with the county of Wayne, which was established December 21, 1809, the counties of Wayne, Greene, Marion, Lawrence, Pike, Covington, Perry and Jones, and the new counties of Lincoln, Lamar, and Forrest, established 1870, 1904, and 1906, or a total of eleven counties.
- DISTRICT OF MOBILE COUNTIES: The Gulf portion of the State, comprising the counties of Hancock, Harrison, Pearl River, Jackson and George, was formerly embraced in the District of Mobile, and was not annexed to the Territory of Mississippi until May 14, 1812, when the legislature promptly organized the new acquisition into the counties of Hancock and Jackson, May 14, 1812. These counties were divided in 1841 to form Harrison, and in 1890 Hancock was again divided to form Pearl River County, and Harrison to form George. While these counties are younger, in point of establishment, than those of the Natchez District, they were settled by the whites at an even earlier date. George and Stone counties were from this same section.
- COUNTY DIVISION OF FIRST CHICKASAW CESSION: September 20, 1816, the Chickasaw Indians ceded to the United States, by the Treaty of Chickasaw Council House, 408,000 acres, lying upon the eastern tributaries of the upper Tombigbee River. This area was erected into the large county of Monroe, February 9, 1821, and nine years later, January 30, 1830, the southern part was taken to form the county of Lowndes. After the Choctaw cession of 1830 and the Chickasaw cession of 1832, the limits of these two counties were considerably extended, so as to include a part of those cessions west of the Tombigbee.
- THE NEW PURCHASE ERECTED INTO COUNTIES: By the Treaty of Doak’s Stand, October 20, 1820, the Choctaws ceded to the United States an extensive scope of country, long known as "The New Purchase," north of the Mount Dexter treaty line, and bounded on the north by the present northern boundary line of Holmes County, and a line running northwesterly, from the Yazoo River, on the western boundary of Holmes County, to a point one mile below the mouth of the Arkansas River, on the Mississippi; and on the east by a line running a little west of north, from the eastern boundary of Simpson County, to the northern boundary of Holmes County. In this cession was included a total of 5,447,267 acres. All this area was first erected into the county of Hinds, February 12, 1821. Later it was subdivided to form the counties of Yazoo and Copiah in 1823, Simpson (1824), Washington (1827), Madison and Rankin (1828), Holmes (1833), Issaquena (1844), and Sharkey (1876). Humphries, the youngest county in Mississippi, was formed in 1918, from parts of Holmes, Sharkey, Sunflower, Washington and Yazoo, and is therefore a product of the Choctaw lands.
- COUNTIES FORMED FROM REMAINING CHOCTAW LANDS: The remaining lands of the Choctaws in the middle portion of the State were finally ceded by the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, concluded September 27, 1830. This large area of land was erected into eighteen large counties by the act of December 23, 1833, to wit: Noxubee, Kemper, Lauderdale, Clarke, Oktibbeha, Winston, Choctaw, Tallahatchie, Yalobusha, Carroll, Jasper, Neshoba, Smith, Scott, Leake, Attala, Bolivar and Coahoma counties were not erected until the organization of the last Chickasaw cession into counties, in 1836, though most of their area lies within this Choctaw territorial group. Newton was also established in 1836, from the lower half of Neshoba county. No new counties were formed from this area until 1844, when Sunflower County was established, and finally, during the years 1870-1877, the counties of Grenada, Webster, Leflore and Quitman were created.
- REMAINDER OF CHICKASAW LANDS FORMED INTO COUNTIES: The Treaty of Pontotoc, October 20, 1832, finally extinguished the title of the Chickasaws to all their lands east of the Mississippi. This immense territory, comprising the entire northern portion of the State, was divided into twelve counties February 9, 1836, when the following counties were formed: Tishomingo, Itawamba, Tippah, Pontotoc, Chickasaw, Marshall, Lafayette, De Soto, Panola, Tunica, Coahoma and Bolivar, though the last two should be properly grouped with the Choctaw cession of 1830. Calhoun County was formed in 1852, and it was not until 1866, when Lee County was created, that this area was further subdivided into counties. Benton, Union, Alcorn and Prentiss counties were established in 1870, Clay in 1871, and Tate in 1873.
It thus appears that all the territory of Mississippi was not organized into counties until the year 1836, when the last Indian cession was divided by the legislature. It will be noted also, that the earliest county organization obtained along the Mississippi River in the southwestern part of the State, and that the northern section of the State was the last to be settled and organized into counties.
