TIMELINE
of THE
MISSISSIPPI
TERRITORY
-
1540
DeSoto with a party of about 1,000
men penetrated the eastern boundary of the state in what is now Yallobosha
County. About a year later the party reached the Mississippi River.
-
1682
LaSalle descended the Mississippi River
to the point of its confluence with the Gulf of Mexico, taking possession
of the adjacent country in the name of the King of France, and named it
Louisiana.
-
1698
M. d'Ibervile landed at Ship Island,
off the mouth of Pascagoula River, and erected huts for his colonists.
Here he discovered the Biloxi tribe, and after traveling along the coast
to the mouth of the Mississippi River, he returned to Ship Island and erected
a fort at the Bay of Biloxi, about eighty miles east of New Orleans.
About a year later Iberville built a fort on the banks of the Mississippi
River.
-
1700
De Touti ascended the Mississippi River
as far as the Natchez country, four hundred miles north of Iberville's
fort. He selected a site for a fort he called Rosalie, but it was
not built until sixteen years later.
-
1703
A settlement was made by De Touri on
the Yazoo river which was called St. Peter's. [The site of St. Peter's
was owned, in 1852, by J. U. Payne, Esq., of New Orleans, as part of a
plantation.]
-
1716
Fort Rosalie was built by Bienville.
It initially contained a garrison of eighteen men under M. Paillaux.
-
1728
New Orleans had been founded, and the
small colonies had slowly grown. Rice, tobacco, and indigo was being
produced and exported in considerable quantities.
-
1729
Massacre at Fort Rosalie, by the Natchez
Indians.
-
1734
Bienville returned from France, commissioned
from the King as Governor. He dispatched troops along the upper and
lower Mississippi and at Mobile. He formed an alliance with the Choctaws,
and set in place the events which led to several years of battles with
the Chickasaw's.
-
1740
Treaty signed with the Chickasaw's.
-
1755
War between France and England resulted
in France ceding to England that portion of Louisiana lying east of the
Mississippi River, except for New Orleans.
-
1763
France, by a secret treaty, ceding
to Spain all that portion of Louisiana west of the Mississippi, and New
Orleans and Mobile. France also ceded to England all of Florida,
an area which included all of the Gulf coast area east of Perdidi River.
The English promptly divided Florida into East and West Florida.
West Florida embraced the country east of the Mississippi River, and north
of Bayou Iberville, up to the 31st parallel, and east to the Chattahoochee
River.
-
1764
The old French posts, including Natchez,
were garrisoned with British troops. In spite of this, a flotilla
consisting of four hundred men under Major Loftus
was attacked by the Tunica Indians,
who had concealed themselves on both sides of the river near Loftus's Heights,
now known as Fort Adams.
-
1765
Inducements in the form of liberal
land grants were provided by the King of England. The result was
a heavy migration from the New England colonies. Walnut Hills (now
Vicksburg), Natchez, Bayou Sara, and Baton Rouge were major destinations.
-
1768-70
A body of Scotch Highlanders arrived
and colonized the branches of the Homochitto, about thirty miles east of
Natchez. The area became knows as New Scotland.
-
1779
Spain, as an ally of France, declared
war against England
-
1783
Treaty between England and the United
states. England also loses all the Floridas south of the 31st parallel
to Spain.
-
1785
The Spanish King ordered liberal grants
of land to be offered to all emigrants from the territories now comprising
Kentucky and Tennessee, to the Spanish provinces. Within three years
the population in the Spanish provinces increased by 10,000.
-
1788
The United States required from Spain
the right to the free navigation of the Mississippi River.
-
1795
Treaty was signed with Spain wherein
Spain agreed to remove her troops and garrisons from the territory north
of the 31st parallel, and to allow the United States free use of the Port
of New Orleans.
-
1797
Col. Andrew Endicott hoisted an American
flag on an eminence hear Fort Panmure, within the present limits of the
city of Natchez, and demanded the surrender of Fort Panmure to the Americans.
Weeks of negotiations failed, and on 9 June the Spanish seized an American
Baptist minister. The people rose in arms, and within a few hours,
the Spanish authority in Natchez was virtually over thrown. During
this period, Congress erected the territory previously surrendered by Spain,
naming it the Mississippi Territory.
-
1798
Winthrop Sargent was appointed the
first governor of the Mississippi Territory, and arrived at Natchez on
6 August. Three weeks later General Wilkinson arrived with the federal
army.
-
1799
The General Assembly passed an act
appointing justices with limited civil and criminal jurisdiction.
-
1804
All land previously ceded was attached
to the Mississippi Territory, so that it comprised Alabama and Mississippi
from the 31st to the 35th parallel.
-
1818
Mississippi Statehood Convention held
at Jefferson College, Washington, Adams Co, MS.
-
1818
Mississippi gains statehood.
Bibliography: The
industrial Resources, Etc., of the Southern and Western States, by
J. D. B. DeBow; Published at the Office of De Bow's Review,
Merchants' Exchange, New Orleans; 1852.
Prepared for Early SW
MS Territory by Ellen Pack
|