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133-522: The refuge provides significant resting areas for migratory birds utilizing the Mississippi Flyway. Wintering numbers of Canada geese can peak at 200,000. A total of nearly 1000 vascular plant species, 245 bird species, 33 mammal species, 63 fish species, and 44 reptile and amphibian species have been documented on the refuge. The western 24,000 acres (97 km) of the refuge provide a wide range of recreational opportunities and also include

266-517: A Jesuit priest, met the Natchez people , as did Le Page du Pratz (1758), a French explorer. Both observed them in the area that today is known as Mississippi. The Natchez were devout worshippers of the sun . Having a population of some 4,000, they occupied at least nine villages and were presided over by a paramount chief , known as the Great Sun, who wielded absolute power. Both observers noted

399-482: A lost race that had inhabited America even before the Native Americans. This idea is now referred to as the "mound builder myth" and still has supporters in society today. The book grew in popularity because of Priest's views on Native Americans. "It tapped into the widely accepted view of those times that Native Americans were merely bloodthirsty savages, bent on the destruction of all but their own race. It

532-465: A "sister culture" of the Mississippian horizon, or one of the "Mississippianised" cultures adjacent to the main area of the mound building cultures. This culture was also mostly extinct in the 17th century, but remnants may have survived into the first half of the 18th century. While this culture shows strong Mississippian influences, its bearers were most likely ethnolinguistically distinct from

665-649: A 4,050 acre (16 km) wilderness area. The eastern portion, 20,000 acres (81 km), is a wildlife sanctuary, and public use is limited. Annual visitation is approximately 1,000,000 visitors. Industrial activities on the refuge range from manufacturing and storage facilities to administrative offices. Many buildings now housing industries were used in the manufacturing of high explosives during World War II , and they are still used for military ordnance production today. The concrete igloos built for munition storage are now leased to private industry for storage of many types of products. Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge

798-535: A continuation of site usage. During the Terminal Coles Creek period (1150 to 1250 CE), contact increased with Mississippian cultures centered upriver near the future St. Louis, Missouri . This resulted in the adaption of new pottery techniques , as well as new ceremonial objects and possibly new social patterns during the Plaquemine period. As more Mississippian cultural influences were absorbed,

931-584: A first-hand description in his Historia de la Florida (published in 1605, Lisbon, as La Florida del Inca ) describing how the Indians had built mounds and how the Native American mound cultures practiced their traditional way of life. De la Vega's accounts also include vital details about the Native American tribes' systems of government present in the southeast, tribal territories, and the construction of mounds and temples. A few French expeditions in

1064-481: A group ruled by a queen, Cofitachequi . She told him that the mounds within her territory served as burial places for nobles. The artist Jacques le Moyne , who had accompanied French settlers to northeastern Florida during the 1560s, likewise noted Native American groups using existing mounds and constructing others. He produced a series of watercolor paintings depicting scenes of native life. Although most of his paintings have been lost, some engravings were copied from

1197-417: A new state constitution in 1890 specifically to "eliminate the nigger from politics", according to the state's Democratic governor, James K. Vardaman . It erected barriers to voter registration and instituted electoral provisions that effectively disenfranchised most black Mississippians and many poor whites. Estimates are that 100,000 black and 50,000 white men were removed from voter registration rolls in

1330-578: A representation of a man in flowing robes. When translated, once again by McCarty, the inscription was found to include the entire Ten Commandments , and the robed figure was identified as Moses . Naturally enough, it became known as the Decalogue Stone . Rather than being found beneath only a foot or two of soil, the Decalogue Stone was claimed to have been buried beneath a forty-foot-tall stone mound. Instead of modern Hebrew typography,

1463-449: A reputation in the 1960s as a reactionary state. After decades of disenfranchisement, African Americans in the state gradually began to exercise their right to vote again for the first time since the 19th century, following the passage of federal civil rights legislation in 1964 and 1965, which ended de jure segregation and enforced constitutional voting rights. Registration of African-American voters increased and black candidates ran in

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1596-654: A rich cultural heritage, especially in music, being the birthplace of the blues and contributing significantly to the development of the music of the United States as a whole. The state's name is derived from the Mississippi River , which flows along and defines its western boundary. European-American settlers named it after the Ojibwe word ᒥᓯ-ᓰᐱ misi-ziibi (English: great river ). Near 9500 BC Native Americans or Paleo-Indians arrived in what today

1729-473: A single moment. Never dried, never froze, never slept, never rested. The antiquarian author William Pidgeon in 1858 created fraudulent surveys of mound groups that did not exist. Beginning in the 1880s, the supposed origin of the earthworks with a race of giants was increasingly recognized as spurious. Pidgeon's fraudulent claims about the archaeological record were shown to be a hoax by Theodore Lewis in 1886. A major factor contributing to public acceptance of

1862-555: A then-current understanding of pre-Columbian civilizations, including the formative Mesoamerican civilizations such as the (Pre-Classic) Olmec , Maya , and Zapotec . Lafcadio Hearn in 1876 wrote about a theory that the mounds were built by people from the lost continent of Atlantis. The Reverend Landon West in 1901 claimed that the Serpent Mound in Ohio was built by God, or by man inspired by him. He believed that God built

1995-777: A trading network spanning the continent from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast. Their large earthworks, which expressed their cosmology of political and religious concepts, still stand throughout the Mississippi and Ohio River valleys. Descendant Native American tribes of the Mississippian culture in the Southeast include the Chickasaw and Choctaw . Other tribes who inhabited the territory of Mississippi (and whose names were honored by colonists in local towns) include

2128-473: A variety of other forms. They were generally built as part of complex villages. The early earthworks built in Louisiana around 3500 BCE are the only ones known to have been built by a hunter-gatherer culture, rather than a more settled culture based on agricultural surpluses. The best-known flat-topped pyramidal structure is Monks Mound at Cahokia , near present-day Collinsville, Illinois . This community

2261-597: Is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States . It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the southwest, and Arkansas to the northwest. Mississippi's western boundary is largely defined by the Mississippi River , or its historical course. Mississippi is the 32nd largest by area and 35th-most populous of the 50 U.S. states and has

2394-812: Is a Late Woodland culture (700–1200 CE) in the Lower Mississippi Valley in the Southern United States that marks a significant change in the cultural history of the area. Population and cultural and political complexity increased, especially by the end of the Coles Creek period. Although many of the classic traits of chiefdom societies had not yet developed, by 1000 CE, the formation of simple elite polities had begun. Coles Creek sites are found in Arkansas, Louisiana , Oklahoma , Mississippi , and Texas . The Coles Creek culture

2527-467: Is a striking complex of more than 1 square mile (2.6 km ), where six earthwork crescent ridges were built in concentric arrangement, interrupted by radial aisles. Three mounds are also part of the main complex, and evidence of residences extends for about 3 miles (4.8 km) along the bank of Bayou Macon . It is the major site among 100 associated with the Poverty Point culture and is one of

2660-610: Is almost entirely within the east Gulf Coastal Plain , and generally consists of lowland plains and low hills. The northwest remainder of the state consists of the Mississippi Delta . Mississippi's highest point is Woodall Mountain at 807 feet (246 m) above sea level adjacent to the Cumberland Plateau ; the lowest is the Gulf of Mexico. Mississippi has a humid subtropical climate classification. Mississippi

2793-672: Is considered ancestral to the Plaquemine culture. Around 900–1450 CE, the Mississippian culture developed and spread through the Eastern United States, primarily along the river valleys. The largest regional center where the Mississippian culture was first definitely developed is located in Illinois along a tributary of the Mississippi and is referred to as Cahokia . It had several regional variants including

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2926-442: Is known for its deep religious roots, which play a central role in its residents' lives. The state ranks among the highest of U.S. states in religiosity . Mississippi is also known for being the state with the highest proportion of African-American residents. The state's governance structure is based on the traditional separation of powers, with political trends showing a strong alignment with conservative values. Mississippi boasts

3059-625: Is located in the floodplain of the Ouachita River near Monroe in northern Louisiana. Securely dated to about 5,400 years ago (around 3500 BCE), in the Middle Archaic period, it consists of a formation of 11 mounds from 3 feet (0.91 m) to 25 feet (7.6 m) tall, connected by ridges to form an oval nearly 900 feet (270 m) across. In the Americas, the building of complex earthwork mounds started at an early date, well before

3192-459: Is managed with four broad objectives: wildlife management, agriculture, recreation, and industry. The primary wildlife management objective is to satisfy the food and resting needs of wintering Canada geese and other wildlife. This objective is coordinated with the agriculture objective through cooperative farming and permittee grazing programs. The Crab Orchard Wilderness , a federally listed 4,050-acre (16.4 km) U.S. wilderness area , occupies

3325-550: Is now the Eastern United States, stretching as far south as Crystal River in western Florida. During this time, in parts of present-day Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana, the Hopewellian Marksville culture degenerated and was succeeded by the Baytown culture . Reasons for degeneration include attacks from other tribes or the impact of severe climatic changes undermining agriculture. The Coles Creek culture

3458-660: Is one of 11 mound complexes from this period found in the Lower Mississippi Valley. These cultures generally had developed hierarchical societies that had an elite. These commanded hundreds or even thousands of workers to dig up tons of earth with the hand tools available, move the soil long distances, and finally, workers to create the shape with layers of soil as directed by the builders. However early mounds found in Louisiana preceded such cultures and were products of hunter-gatherer cultures. From about 800 CE,

3591-689: Is referred to as the American South . Paleo-Indians in the South were hunter-gatherers who pursued the megafauna that became extinct following the end of the Pleistocene age. In the Mississippi Delta , Native American settlements and agricultural fields were developed on the natural levees, higher ground in the proximity of rivers. The Native Americans developed extensive fields near their permanent villages. Together with other practices, they created some localized deforestation but did not alter

3724-631: Is the name for a Native American culture that flourished from 1000 to 1650 CE among a people who predominantly inhabited land along the Ohio River in areas of modern-day southern Ohio, northern Kentucky , and western West Virginia . A continuation of the Coles Creek culture in the lower Mississippi River Valley in western Mississippi and eastern Louisiana. Examples include the Medora site in West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana; and

3857-586: Is unlikely. The spread of the Mississippian culture from the late 1st millennium CE most likely involved cultural assimilation, in archaeological terminology called "Mississippianised" cultures. 19th-century ethnography assumed that the Mound-builders were an ancient prehistoric race with no direct connection to the Southeastern Woodland peoples of the historical period who were encountered by Europeans. A reference to this idea appears in

3990-512: The 20th state admitted to the Union. By 1860, Mississippi was the nation's top cotton -producing state and slaves accounted for 55% of the state population. Mississippi declared its secession from the Union on January 9, 1861, and was one of the seven original Confederate States , which constituted the largest slaveholding states in the nation. Following the Civil War , it was restored to

4123-771: The African Methodist Episcopal Church (established in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the early 19th century) and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (established in New York City), sent missionaries to the South in the postwar years. They quickly attracted hundreds of thousands of converts and founded new churches across the South. Southern congregations brought their own influences to those denominations as well. During Reconstruction ,

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4256-498: The Anna and Emerald Mound sites in Mississippi. Sites inhabited by Plaquemine peoples continued to be used as vacant ceremonial centers without large village areas much as their Coles Creek ancestors had done, although their layout began to show influences from Middle Mississippian peoples to the north. The Winterville and Holly Bluff (Lake George) sites in western Mississippi are good examples that exemplify this change of layout, but

4389-542: The Confederate Army . Around 17,000 black and 545 white Mississippians would serve in the Union Army . Pockets of Unionism in Mississippi were in places such as the northeastern corner of the state and Jones County , where Newton Knight formed a revolt with Unionist leanings, known as the "Free State of Jones". Union General Ulysses S. Grant 's long siege of Vicksburg finally gained the Union control of

4522-567: The Confederate battle flag . Mississippi became the last state to remove the Confederate battle flag as an official state symbol on June 30, 2020, when Governor Tate Reeves signed a law officially retiring the second state flag . The current flag, The "New Magnolia" flag, was selected via referendum as part of the general election on November 3, 2020. It officially became the state flag on January 11, 2021, after being signed into law by

4655-743: The French and Indian War ( Seven Years' War ), the French surrendered the Mississippi area to them under the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1763) . They also ceded their areas to the north that were east of the Mississippi River, including the Illinois Country and Quebec. After the Peace of Paris (1783) , the lower third of Mississippi came under Spanish rule as part of West Florida . In 1819

4788-537: The Grand Village close to present-day Natchez, Mississippi . In 1729 the Natchez revolted and massacred the French colony of Fort Rosalie. The French retaliated by destroying all the Natchez villages. The remaining Natchez fled in scattered bands to live among the Chickasaw , Creek , and Cherokee people . They traveled with them on the trail of tears when federal Indian removal policies after 1830 forced

4921-586: The Mississippi Delta . Many musicians carried their music north to Chicago, where they made it the heart of that city's jazz and blues. So many African Americans left in the Great Migration that after the 1930s, they became a minority in Mississippi. In 1960 they made up 42% of the state's population. The whites maintained their discriminatory voter registration processes established in 1890, preventing most blacks from voting, even if they were well educated. Court challenges were not successful until later in

5054-632: The Natchez , the Yazoo , and the Biloxi . The first major European expedition into the territory that became Mississippi was that of the Spanish explorer, Hernando de Soto , who passed through the northeast part of the state in 1540, in his second expedition to the New World. In April 1699, French colonists established the first European settlement at Fort Maurepas (also known as Old Biloxi), built in

5187-713: The Norse colonization of North America . In 1797, Barton reconsidered his position and correctly identified the mounds as part of indigenous prehistory. Notable for the association with the Ten Lost Tribes is the Book of Mormon (1830). This provides a related belief, as its narrative describes two major immigrations to the Americas from Mesopotamia : the Jaredites (ca. 3000 - 2000 BCE) and an Israelite group during 590 BCE (termed Nephites , Lamanites and Mulekites ). While

5320-671: The pyramids of Egypt were constructed. Watson Brake was being constructed nearly 2,000 years before the better-known Poverty Point , and the building continued for 500 years. Middle Archaic mound construction seems to have ceased about 2800 BCE. Scholars have not ascertained the reason, but it may have been because of changes in river patterns or other environmental factors. With the 1990s dating of Watson Brake and similar complexes, scholars established that pre-agricultural, pre-ceramic American societies could organize to accomplish complex construction during extended periods, invalidating scholars' traditional ideas of Archaic society. Watson Brake

5453-409: The 1560s reported staying with Indian societies who had built mounds. Later explorers to the same regions, only a few decades after mound-building settlements had been reported, found the regions largely depopulated with its residents vanished and the mounds untended. Conflicts with Europeans were dismissed by historians as the major cause of population reduction since few clashes had occurred between

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5586-479: The 17th century ( Beaver Wars period). Carbon dating seems to indicate that they were wiped out by successive waves of disease. Because of the disappearance of the cultures by the end of the 17th century, the identification of the bearers of these cultures was an open question in 19th-century ethnography. Modern stratigraphic dating has established that the "Mound builders" have spanned an extended period of more than five millennia so that any ethnolinguistic continuity

5719-466: The 1967 elections for state and local offices. The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party fielded some candidates. Teacher Robert G. Clark of Holmes County was the first African American to be elected to the State House since Reconstruction. He continued as the only African American in the state legislature until 1976 and was repeatedly elected into the 21st century, including three terms as Speaker of

5852-668: The 20th century and is a Federally recognized tribe. Many slaveholders brought enslaved African Americans with them or purchased them through the domestic slave trade, especially in New Orleans . Through the trade, an estimated nearly one million slaves were forcibly transported to the Deep South , including Mississippi, in an internal migration that broke up many slave families of the Upper South, where planters were selling excess slaves. The Southerners imposed slave laws in

5985-790: The Choctaw, together with other southeastern tribes removed as a result of the Act, became known as the Trail of Tears . When cotton was king during the 1850s, Mississippi plantation owners—especially those of the Delta and Black Belt central regions—became wealthy due to the high fertility of the soil, the high price of cotton on the international market, and free labor gained through their holding enslaved African Americans. They used some of their profits to buy more cotton land and more slaves. The planters' dependence on hundreds of thousands of slaves for labor and

6118-502: The Deep South and restricted the rights of free blacks. Beginning in 1822, slaves in Mississippi were protected by law from cruel and unusual punishment by their owners. The Southern slave codes made the willful killing of a slave illegal in most cases. For example, the 1860 Mississippi case of Oliver v. State charged the defendant with murdering his own slave. Mississippi became the 20th state on December 10, 1817. David Holmes

6251-600: The Earth." Charles Whittlesey , who was one of the foremost archaeologists at that time, pronounced the stone to be authentic. The Newark Holy Stones, if genuine, would provide support for monogenesis , since they would establish that American Indians could be encompassed within Biblical history. After his first expedition, Wyrick uncovered a small stone box that was found to contain an intricately carved slab of black limestone covered with archaic-looking Hebrew letters along with

6384-692: The House. In 1966, the state was the last to repeal officially statewide prohibition of alcohol . Before that, Mississippi had taxed the illegal alcohol brought in by bootleggers . Governor Paul Johnson urged repeal and the sheriff "raided the annual Junior League Mardi Gras ball at the Jackson Country Club, breaking open the liquor cabinet and carting off the Champagne before a startled crowd of nobility and high-ranking state officials". The end of legal segregation and Jim Crow led to

6517-472: The Indians had not built them." Priest's racism has also been discussed in detail by author Robert Silverberg , archaeologist Stephen Williams , and author Jason Colavito . Later authors placing the Book of Mormon in this context include Silverberg (1969), Brodie (1971), Kennedy (1994), and Garlinghouse (2001). Some nineteenth-century archaeological finds (e.g., earth and timber fortifications and towns,

6650-732: The Middle Mississippian culture of Cahokia, the South Appalachian Mississippian variant at Moundville and Etowah , the Plaquemine Mississippian variant in south Louisiana and Mississippi, and the Caddoan Mississippian culture of northwestern Louisiana, eastern Texas, and southwestern Arkansas. Like the mound builders of the Ohio, these peoples built gigantic mounds as burial and ceremonial places. Fort Ancient

6783-611: The Mississippi coast, killing 248 people and causing US$ 1.5 billion in damage (1969 dollars). Mississippi ratified the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution , in March 1984, which had already entered into force by August 1920; granting women the right to vote. In 1987, 20 years after the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled in 1967's Loving v. Virginia that a similar Virginian law

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6916-415: The Mississippians, possibly belonging to the Siouan phylum. The only tribal name associated with the Fort Ancient culture in the historical record is the Mosopelea , recorded by Jean-Baptiste-Louis Franquelin in 1684 as inhabiting eight villages north of the Ohio River. The Mosopelea is most likely identical to the Ofo ( Oufé , Offogoula ) recorded in the same area in the 18th century. The Ofo language

7049-510: The Mound Builders were not identical to the Southeast Woodland Native Americans of the 18th century. It is now thought that the most likely bearers of the Plaquemine culture , a late variant of the Mississippian culture, were ancestral to the related Natchez and Taensa peoples. The Natchez language is a language isolate. The Natchez are known to have historically occupied the Lower Mississippi Valley . They are first mentioned in French sources of around 1700, when they were centered around

7182-431: The Native Americans out of the Southeast and west of the Mississippi River to Indian Territory (admitted in the early 20th century as the state of Oklahoma . The Natchez language became extinct in the 20th century, with the death in 1957 of the last known native speaker, Nancy Raven . Based on the idea that the origins of the mound builders lay with a mysterious ancient people, various other suggestions were belonging to

7315-422: The Nephites, Lamanites, and Mulekites were all of Jewish origin coming from Israel around 590 BCE, the Jaradites were a non-Abrahamic people separate in all aspects, except in a belief in Jehovah, from the Nephites. The Book of Mormon depicts these settlers building magnificent cities, which were destroyed by warfare about CE 385. The Book of Mormon can be placed in the tradition of the "Mound-Builder literature" of

7448-401: The North. The convention adopted universal suffrage; did away with property qualifications for suffrage or for office, a change that also benefited both blacks and poor whites; provided for the state's first public school system; forbade race distinctions in the possession and inheritance of property; and prohibited limiting civil rights in travel. Under the terms of Reconstruction, Mississippi

7581-503: The Pacific Ocean. The Mississippi Territory was later twice expanded to include disputed territory claimed by both the United States and Spain. From 1800 to about 1830, the United States purchased some lands ( Treaty of Doak's Stand ) from Native American tribes for new settlements of European Americans. The latter were mostly migrants from other Southern states, particularly Virginia and North Carolina, where soils were exhausted. New settlers kept encroaching on Choctaw land, and they pressed

7714-467: The Plaquemine area as a distinct culture began to shrink after CE 1350. Eventually, the last enclave of purely Plaquemine culture was the Natchez Bluffs area, while the Yazoo Basin and adjacent areas of Louisiana became a hybrid Plaquemine-Mississippi culture. This division was recorded by Europeans when they first arrived in the area. In the Natchez Bluffs area, the Taensa and Natchez people had held out against Mississippian influence and continued to use

7847-489: The Plaquemine culture were presumably speakers of the Natchez language isolate. The first written description of these cultures were made by members of Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto 's expedition, between 1540 and 1542. The namesake cultural trait of the Mound Builders was the building of mounds and other earthworks. These burial and ceremonial structures were typically flat-topped pyramids or platform mounds , flat-topped or rounded cones, elongated ridges, and sometimes

7980-425: The Spanish conquistador , traversed what became the southeastern United States. There he encountered many different mound-builder peoples who were perhaps descendants of the great Mississippian culture . De Soto observed people living in fortified towns with lofty mounds and plazas and surmised that many of the mounds served as foundations for priestly temples. Near present-day Augusta, Georgia , de Soto encountered

8113-568: The Union on February 23, 1870. Mississippi's political and social landscape was dramatically shaped by the Civil War, Reconstruction era , and civil rights movement , with the state playing a pivotal role in the struggle for civil rights. From the end of the Civil War to the 1960s, Mississippi was dominated by socially conservative and segregationist Southern Democrats dedicated to upholding white supremacy . Despite progress, Mississippi continues to grapple with challenges related to health, education, and economic development, often ranking among

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8246-478: The United States completed the purchase of West Florida and all of East Florida in the Adams–Onís Treaty , and in 1822 both were merged into the Florida Territory . After the American Revolution (1775–83), Britain ceded this area to the new United States of America. The Mississippi Territory was organized on April 7, 1798, from territory ceded by Georgia and South Carolina to the United States. Their original colonial charters theoretically extended west to

8379-467: The age of the earliest Archaic mound complex in southeastern Louisiana. One of the two Monte Sano Site mounds, excavated in 1967 before being destroyed for new construction at Baton Rouge, was dated at 6220 BP (plus or minus 140 years). Researchers at the time thought that such hunter-gatherer societies were not organizationally capable of this type of construction. It has since been dated as about 6500 BP or 4500 BCE, although not all agree. Watson Brake

8512-409: The age of the earthworks. In his book, Antiquities Discovered in the Western States (1820), Atwater claimed that "Indian remains" were always found right beneath the surface of the earth, while artifacts associated with the Mound Builders were found fairly deep in the ground. Atwater argued that they must be from a different group of people. The discovery of metal artifacts further convinced people that

8645-479: The ballot box and more access to credit, white planters bought out such farmers, expanding their ownership of Delta bottomlands. They also took advantage of new railroads sponsored by the state. Blacks also faced violence in the form of lynching, shooting, and the burning of churches. In 1923, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People stated "the Negro feels that life is not safe in Mississippi and his life may be taken with impunity at any time upon

8778-413: The best-known early examples of earthwork monumental architecture. Unlike the localized societies during the Middle Archaic, this culture showed evidence of a wide trading network outside its area, which is one of its distinguishing characteristics. Horr's Island , Florida, now a gated community next to Marco Island , was excavated by Michael Russo in 1980. He found an Archaic Indian village site. Mound A

8911-518: The century. After World War II, African-American veterans returned with renewed commitment to be treated as full citizens of the United States and increasingly organized to gain enforcement of their constitutional rights. The Civil Rights movement had many roots in religion, and the strong community of churches helped supply volunteers and moral purpose for their activism. Mississippi was a center of activity, based in black churches, to educate and register black voters, and to work for integration. In 1954

9044-413: The characteristic mound earthworks that indigenous peoples erected for an extended period of more than 5,000 years. The "Mound Builder" cultures span the period of roughly 3500 BCE (the construction of Watson Brake ) to the 16th century CE, including the Archaic period ( Horr's Island ), Woodland period ( Caloosahatchee , Adena and Hopewell cultures ), and Mississippian period . Geographically,

9177-419: The characters on the stone were blocky and appeared to be an ancient form of the Hebrew alphabet. Finally, the stone bore no resemblance to any modern Masonic artifact. In 1870, Whittlesey declared finally that the Holy Stones and other similar artifacts were "Archaeological Frauds." In 19th-century America, many popular mythologies surrounding the origin of the mounds were in circulation, typically involving

9310-445: The cultures were present in the region of the Great Lakes , the Ohio River Valley, Florida, and the Mississippi River Valley and its tributary waters. The first mound building was an early marker of political and social complexity among the cultures in the Eastern United States. Watson Brake in Louisiana, constructed about 3500 BCE during the Middle Archaic period , is the oldest known and dated mound complex in North America. It

9443-551: The development of agricultural societies, rise of the Mound Builders , and flourishing of the Mississippian culture . European exploration began with the Spanish in the 16th century, followed by French colonization in the 17th century. Mississippi's strategic location along the Mississippi River made it a site of significant economic and strategic importance, especially during the era of cotton plantation agriculture, which led to its wealth pre-Civil War, but entrenched slavery and racial segregation. On December 10, 1817, Mississippi became

9576-424: The early 2000s. In a January 2023 episode of Tucker Carlson 's Fox Nation show Tucker Carlson Today had a guest who stated that: "They didn't build 'em. Someone before them built 'em". Carlson replied: "That's right" and said there was "skeletal evidence of people who bear no genetic resemblance to the current Indians". On June 29, 1860, David Wyrick, the surveyor of Licking County near Newark , discovered

9709-499: The early days the French and Spanish colonists were chiefly men. Even as more European women joined the settlements, the men had interracial unions among women of African descent (and increasingly, multiracial descent), both before and after marriages to European women. Often the European men would help their multiracial children get educated or gain apprenticeships for trades, and sometimes they settled property on them; they often freed

9842-487: The ecology of the Mississippi Delta as a whole. After thousands of years, succeeding cultures of the Woodland and Mississippian culture eras developed rich and complex agricultural societies, in which surplus supported the development of specialized trades. Both were mound builder cultures. Those of the Mississippian culture were the largest and most complex, constructed beginning about 950 AD. The peoples had

9975-497: The entire area of present-day Florida . The British assumed control of the French territory after the French and Indian War . During the colonial era , European (chiefly French and Spanish) settlers imported enslaved Africans to work on cash crop plantations . Under French and Spanish rule, there developed a class of free people of color ( gens de couleur libres ), mostly multiracial descendants of European men and enslaved or free black women, and their mixed-race children. In

10108-462: The falling cotton prices of the difficult years of the late 19th century. Cotton prices fell throughout the decades following the Civil War. As another agricultural depression lowered cotton prices into the 1890s, numerous African-American farmers finally had to sell their land to pay off debts, thus losing the land which they had developed by hard, personal labor. Democrats had regained control of

10241-547: The federal government to expel the Native Americans. On September 27, 1830, the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was signed between the U.S. Government and the Choctaw . The Choctaw agreed to sell their traditional homelands in Mississippi and Alabama, for compensation and removal to reservations in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). This opened up land for sale to European-American migrant settlement. Article 14 in

10374-461: The first Mississippi constitutional convention in 1868, with delegates both black and white, framed a constitution whose major elements would be maintained for 22 years. The convention was the first political organization in the state to include African-American representatives, 17 among the 100 members (32 counties had black majorities at the time). Some among the black delegates were freedmen , but others were educated free blacks who had migrated from

10507-653: The first half of the 20th century, African Americans became rapidly urbanized and many worked in industrial jobs. The Second Great Migration included destinations in the West , especially California , where the buildup of the defense industry offered higher-paying jobs to both African Americans and whites. Blacks and whites in Mississippi generated rich, quintessentially American music traditions: gospel music , country music , jazz , blues and rock and roll . All were invented, promulgated or heavily developed by Mississippi musicians, many of them African American, and most came from

10640-534: The great flood disappeared, Noah and his ark landed in America. While surveying the land, Noah also discovered mounds that had been constructed before the waters rose. Upon seeing this, Noah questioned where these agricultural phenomena came from. "Surveying the various themes of mound builder origins, he could not decide whether the mounds were the work of Polynesians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Israelites, Scandinavians, Welsh, Scotts, or Chinese, although he felt certain

10773-474: The height of their owners estimated at 14 feet (4.3 m). President Abraham Lincoln referred to the giants whose bones fill the mounds of America. But still there is more. It calls up the indefinite past. When Columbus first sought this continent – when Christ suffered on the cross – when Moses led Israel through the Red-Sea – nay, even, when Adam first came from the hand of his Maker – then as now, Niagara

10906-518: The high temple mounds that the Natchez had built so that the Great Sun could commune with God, the sun. His large residence was built atop the highest mound, from "which, every morning, he greeted the rising sun, invoking thanks and blowing tobacco smoke to the four cardinal directions". The most complete reference for these earthworks is Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley , written by Ephraim G. Squier and Edwin H. Davis. It

11039-599: The integration of some churches, but most today remain divided along racial and cultural lines, having developed different traditions. After the Civil War, most African Americans left white churches to establish their own independent congregations, particularly Baptist churches, establishing state associations and a national association by the end of the 20th century. They wanted to express their own traditions of worship and practice. In more diverse communities, such as Hattiesburg , some churches have multiracial congregations. On August 17, 1969, Category 5 Hurricane Camille hit

11172-477: The land and selling timber, and eventually advance to ownership. The new farmers included many freedmen, who by the late 19th century achieved unusually high rates of land ownership in the Mississippi bottomlands. In the 1870s and 1880s, many black farmers succeeded in gaining land ownership. Around the start of the 20th century, two-thirds of the Mississippi farmers who owned land in the Delta were African American . But many had become overextended with debt during

11305-506: The lowest in the United States in national metrics for wealth, health care quality, and educational attainment. Economically, it relies on agriculture , manufacturing, and an increasing focus on tourism, highlighted by its casinos and historical sites. Mississippi produces more than half of the country's farm-raised catfish , and is a top producer of sweet potatoes , cotton and pulpwood . Others include advanced manufacturing, utilities , transportation , and health services . Mississippi

11438-453: The lowest per-capita income. Jackson is both the state's capital and largest city. Greater Jackson is the state's most populous metropolitan area , with a population of 591,978 in 2020 . Other major cities include Gulfport , Southaven , Hattiesburg , Biloxi , Olive Branch , Tupelo , Meridian , and Greenville . The state's history traces back to around 9500 BC with the arrival of Paleo-Indians , evolving through periods marked by

11571-597: The more general genre of Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact theories , specifically involving Vikings , Atlantis , and the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel , summarised by Feder (2006) under the heading of "The Myth of a Vanished Race". Benjamin Smith Barton in his Observations on Some Parts of Natural History (1787) proposed the theory that the Mound Builders were associated with "Danes", i.e. with

11704-489: The mothers and their children if enslaved, as part of contracts of plaçage . With this social capital , the free people of color became artisans, and sometimes educated merchants and property owners, forming a third class between the Europeans and most enslaved Africans in the French and Spanish settlements, although not so large a free community as in the city of New Orleans , Louisiana. After Great Britain's victory in

11837-775: The mound and placed it as a symbol of the story of the Garden of Eden . More recently, Black nationalist websites claiming association with the Moorish Science Temple of America , have taken up the Atlantean (" Mu ") association of the Mound Builders. Similarly, the " Washitaw Nation ", a group associated with the Moorish Science Temple of America established in the 1990s, has been associated with mound-building in Black nationalist online articles of

11970-664: The mound-building cultures were dominated by the Mississippian culture , a large archaeological horizon, whose youngest descendants, the Plaquemine culture and the Fort Ancient culture , were still active at the time of European contact in the 16th century. One tribe of the Fort Ancient culture has been identified as the Mosopelea , presumably of southeast Ohio, who spoke an Ohio Valley Siouan language . The bearers of

12103-548: The mounds being built by a race of giants . A New York Times article from 1897 described a mound in Wisconsin in which a giant human skeleton measuring over 9 feet (2.7 m) in length was found. In 1886, another New York Times article described water receding from a mound in Cartersville, Georgia , which uncovered acres of skulls and bones, some of which were said to be gigantic. Two thigh bones were measured with

12236-464: The natives and the Europeans in the area during the same period. The most widely accepted explanation today is that new infectious diseases brought from the Old World, such as smallpox and influenza , had decimated most of the Native Americans from the last mound-builder civilization, as they had no immunity to such diseases. The Fort Ancient culture of the Ohio River valley is considered

12369-451: The next century. However, there were also other European accounts, earlier than 1560, that give a first-hand description of the enormous earth-built mounds being constructed by Native Americans. One of them was Garcilaso de la Vega (c.1539–1616), a Spanish chronicler also known as " El Inca " because of his Incan mother. He was the record-keeper of the noted De Soto expedition that landed in present-day Florida on May 31, 1538. Garcilaso gave

12502-467: The number of members as their white Baptist counterparts. The African-American call for social equality resonated throughout the Great Depression in the 1930s and World War II in the 1940s. The Second Great Migration from the South started in the 1940s, lasting until 1970. Almost half a million people left Mississippi in the second migration, three-quarters of them black. Nationwide during

12635-479: The originals and published in 1591 by a Flemish company. Among these is a depiction of the burial of an aboriginal Floridian tribal chief, an occasion of great mourning and ceremony. The original caption reads: Sometimes the deceased king of this province is buried with great solemnity, and his great cup from which he was accustomed to drink is placed on a tumulus with many arrows set about it. Maturin Le Petit ,

12768-460: The period and has been called "the most famous and certainly the most influential of all Mound-Builder literature". Josiah Priest 's 1833 400-page publication American Antiquities centered around his study of the Bible and antiquarian journals, supplemented by information from his travels. After visiting earthworks in Ohio and New York, Priest concluded that these mounds could be traced back to

12901-528: The poem "The Prairies" (1832) by William Cullen Bryant . The cultural stage of the Southeastern Woodland natives encountered in the 18th and 19th centuries by British colonists was deemed incompatible with the comparatively advanced stone, metal , and clay artifacts of the archaeological record. The age of the earthworks was also partly over-estimated. Caleb Atwater 's misunderstanding of stratigraphy caused him to significantly overestimate

13034-459: The right to vote, relative freedom from discrimination, and better living. In the migration of 1910–1940, they left a society that had been steadily closing off opportunity. Most migrants from Mississippi took trains directly north to Chicago and often settled near former neighbors. Cotton crops failed due to boll weevil infestation and successive severe flooding in 1912 and 1913, creating crisis conditions for many African Americans. With control of

13167-619: The river in 1863. In the postwar period, freedmen withdrew from white-run churches to set up independent congregations. The majority of blacks left the Southern Baptist Convention , sharply reducing its membership. They created independent black Baptist congregations. By 1895 they had established numerous black Baptist state associations and the National Baptist Convention of black churches. In addition, independent black denominations, such as

13300-486: The same sites as their ancestors. The Plaquemine culture is considered directly ancestral to these historic period groups encountered by Europeans. Groups who appear to have absorbed more Mississippian influence were identified as those tribes speaking the Tunican , Chitimachan , and Muskogean languages . Following the description by Jacques le Moyne in 1560, the mound-building cultures seem to have disappeared within

13433-536: The same year as the federal Civil Rights Act , but ruled unconstitutional in 1967 by federal courts. Republican Governor Haley Barbour signed the bill into law. On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina , though a Category 3 storm upon final landfall, caused even greater destruction across the entire 90 miles (145 km) of the Mississippi Gulf Coast from Louisiana to Alabama. The previous flag of Mississippi , used until June 30, 2020, featured

13566-520: The second state to declare its secession from the Union , and it was one of the founding members of the Confederate States . The first six states to secede were those with the highest number of slaves. During the war, Union and Confederate forces struggled for dominance on the Mississippi River, critical to supply routes and commerce. More than 80,000 Mississippians fought in the Civil War for

13699-489: The severe wealth imbalances among whites, played strong roles both in state politics and in planters' support for secession . Mississippi was a slave society, with the economy dependent on slavery. The state was thinly settled, with population concentrated in the riverfront areas and towns. By 1860, the enslaved African-American population numbered 436,631 or 55% of the state's total of 791,305 persons. Fewer than 1000 were free people of color . The relatively low population of

13832-504: The slightest pretext or provocation by a white man". In the early 20th century, some industries were established in Mississippi, but jobs were generally restricted to whites, including child workers. The lack of jobs also drove some southern whites north to cities such as Chicago and Detroit, seeking employment, where they also competed with European immigrants. The state depended on agriculture, but mechanization put many farm laborers out of work. By 1900, many white ministers, especially in

13965-490: The so-called "Keystone" in a shallow excavation at the monumental Newark Earthworks , which is an extraordinary set of ancient geometric enclosures created by Indigenous people. There he dug up a four-sided, plumb-bob -shaped stone with Hebrew letters engraved on each of its faces. The local Episcopal minister John W. McCarty translated the four inscriptions as "Law of the Lord," “Word of the Lord," “Holy of Holies," and "King of

14098-525: The southernmost strip of the National Wildlife Refuge. This article related to a protected area in Illinois is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Williamson County, Illinois location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Mississippi This is an accepted version of this page Mississippi ( / ˌ m ɪ s ə ˈ s ɪ p i / MISS -ə- SIP -ee )

14231-529: The state before the American Civil War reflected the fact that land and villages were developed only along the riverfronts, which formed the main transportation corridors. Ninety percent of the Delta bottomlands were still frontier and undeveloped. The state needed many more settlers for development. The land further away from the rivers was cleared by freedmen and white migrants during Reconstruction and later. On January 9, 1861, Mississippi became

14364-674: The state had created the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission , a tax-supported agency, chaired by the Governor, that claimed to work for the state's image but effectively spied on activists and passed information to the local White Citizens' Councils to suppress black activism. White Citizens Councils had been formed in many cities and towns to resist integration of schools following the unanimous 1954 United States Supreme Court ruling ( Brown v. Board of Education ) that segregation of public schools

14497-561: The state legislature and governor. Mississippi is bordered to the north by Tennessee , to the east by Alabama , to the south by Louisiana and a narrow coast on the Gulf of Mexico ; and to the west, across the Mississippi River, by Louisiana and Arkansas . Mound Builders Many pre-Columbian cultures in North America were collectively termed " Mound Builders ", but the term has no formal meaning. It does not refer to specific people or archaeological culture but refers to

14630-595: The state legislature in 1875, after a year of expanded violence against blacks and intimidation of whites in what was called the "white line" campaign, based on asserting white supremacy . Democratic whites were well armed and formed paramilitary organizations such as the Red Shirts to suppress black voting. From 1874 to the elections of 1875, they pressured whites to join the Democrats, and conducted violence against blacks in at least 15 known "riots" in cities around

14763-426: The state over the next few years. The loss of political influence contributed to the difficulties of African Americans in their attempts to obtain extended credit in the late 19th century. Together with imposition of Jim Crow and racial segregation laws, whites increased violence against blacks, with lynchings occurring through the period of the 1890s and extending to 1930. In 1900, blacks made up more than half of

14896-565: The state to intimidate blacks. They killed a total of 150 blacks, although other estimates place the death toll at twice as many. A total of three white Republicans and five white Democrats were reported killed. In rural areas, deaths of blacks could be covered up. Riots (better described as massacres of blacks) took place in Vicksburg, Clinton, Macon, and in their counties, as well-armed whites broke up black meetings and lynched known black leaders, destroying local political organizations. Seeing

15029-644: The state's population. By 1910, a majority of black farmers in the Delta had lost their land and became sharecroppers . By 1920, the third generation after freedom, most African Americans in Mississippi were landless laborers again facing poverty. Starting about 1913, tens of thousands of black Americans left Mississippi for the North in the Great Migration to industrial cities such as St. Louis , Chicago , Detroit , Cleveland , Philadelphia and New York . They sought jobs, better education for their children,

15162-418: The success of this deliberate " Mississippi Plan ", South Carolina and other states followed it and also achieved white Democratic dominance. In 1877 by a national compromise, the last of federal troops were withdrawn from the region. Even in this environment, black Mississippians continued to be elected to local office. However, black residents were deprived of all political power after white legislators passed

15295-521: The towns, subscribed to the Social Gospel movement, which attempted to apply Christian ethics to social and economic needs of the day. Many strongly supported Prohibition , believing it would help alleviate and prevent many sins. Mississippi became a dry state in 1908 by an act of the state legislature . It remained dry until the legislature passed a local option bill in 1966. African-American Baptist churches grew to include more than twice

15428-661: The treaty allowed those Choctaw who chose to remain in the states to become U.S. citizens, as they were considered to be giving up their tribal membership. They were the second major Native American ethnic group to do so (some Cherokee were the first, who chose to stay in North Carolina and other areas during rather than join the removal). Today their descendants include approximately 9,500 persons identifying as Choctaw, who live in Neshoba, Newton, Leake, and Jones counties. The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians reorganized in

15561-403: The use of a plaster-like cement, ancient roads, metal points and implements, copper breastplates, head-plates, textiles, pearls, native North American inscriptions, North American elephant remains etc.) were well-publicized at the time of the publication of the Book of Mormon and there is the incorporation of some of these ideas into the narrative. References are made in the Book of Mormon to

15694-445: The vicinity of present-day Ocean Springs on the Gulf Coast. It was settled by Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville . In 1716, the French founded Natchez on the Mississippi River (as Fort Rosalie ); it became the dominant town and trading post of the area. The French called the greater territory " New France "; the Spanish continued to claim part of the Gulf coast area (east of Mobile Bay ) of present-day southern Alabama , in addition to

15827-592: Was a burial mound that dated to 3400 BCE, making it the oldest known burial mound in North America. The oldest mound associated with the Woodland period was the mortuary mound and pond complex at the Fort Center site in Glade County, Florida. Excavations and dating in 2012 by Thompson and Pluckhahn show that work began around 2600 BCE, seven centuries before the mound-builders in Ohio. The Archaic period

15960-529: Was an urban settlement with 20,000–30,000 people. This population was not exceeded by North American European settlements until after 1800. Some effigy mounds were constructed in the shapes or outlines of culturally significant animals. The most famous effigy mound, Serpent Mound in southern Ohio, ranges from 1 foot (0.30 m) to just over 3 feet (0.91 m) tall, 20 feet (6.1 m) wide, more than 1,330 feet (410 m) long, and shaped as an undulating serpent . Between 1540 and 1542, Hernando de Soto ,

16093-419: Was built by a hunter-gatherer society, the people of which occupied this area only on a seasonal basis. Successive generations organized to build the complex mounds over 500 years. Their food consisted mostly of fish and deer, as well as available plants. Poverty Point, built about 1500 BCE in what is now Louisiana, is a prominent example of Late Archaic mound-builder construction (around 2500 BCE – 1000 BCE). It

16226-688: Was established to challenge the all-white Democratic Party of the Solid South . Most white politicians resisted such changes. Chapters of the Ku Klux Klan and its sympathizers used violence against activists, most notably the murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner in 1964 during the Freedom Summer campaign. This was a catalyst for Congressional passage the following year of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 . Mississippi earned

16359-496: Was followed by the Woodland period ( circa 1000 BCE). Some well-understood examples are the Adena culture of Ohio , West Virginia , and parts of nearby states. The subsequent Hopewell culture built monuments from present-day Illinois to Ohio; it is renowned for its geometric earthworks. The Adena and Hopewell were not the only mound-building peoples during this period. Contemporaneous mound-building cultures existed throughout what

16492-599: Was formerly classified as Muskogean but is now recognized as an eccentric member of the Western Siouan phylum. The late survival of the Fort Ancient culture is suggested by the remarkable amount of European-made goods in the archaeological record. Such artifacts would have been acquired by trade even before direct European contact. These artifacts include brass and steel items, glassware, and melted down or broken goods reforged into new items. The Fort Ancient peoples are known to have been severely affected by disease in

16625-426: Was inconceivable to Priest and like-minded men that a race so lazy and inept could conceive and build such huge, elaborate structures." Priest speculated that the original dwellers could be the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel . The reasoning Priest gives for his conclusion that there was an even earlier settler than the Native Americans relies upon his interpretation of the Biblical flood story. According to Priest, after

16758-586: Was published in 1848 by the Smithsonian Institution, which had commissioned the survey. Since many of the features that the authors documented have been destroyed or diminished by farming and development, their surveys, sketches, and descriptions are still used by modern archaeologists . All of the sites that they identified as located in Kentucky came from the manuscripts of Constantine Samuel Rafinesque . Radiocarbon dating has established

16891-559: Was restored to the Union on February 23, 1870. Because the Mississippi Delta contained so much fertile bottomland that had not been developed before the American Civil War, 90 percent of the land was still frontier. After the Civil War, tens of thousands of migrants were attracted to the area by higher wages offered by planters trying to develop land. In addition, black and white workers could earn money by clearing

17024-464: Was roaring here. The eyes of that species of extinct giants, whose bones fill the mounds of America, have gazed on Niagara, as ours do now. Co[n]temporary with the whole race of men, and older than the first man, Niagara is strong, and fresh to-day as ten thousand years ago. The Mammoth and Mastodon – now so long dead, that fragments of their monstrous bones, alone testify, that they ever lived, have gazed on Niagara. In that long – long time, never still for

17157-480: Was sold through treaties until 1826, when the Choctaws and Chickasaws refused to sell more land. The combination of the Mississippi state legislature's abolition of Choctaw Tribal Government in 1829, President Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act and the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek of 1830, the Choctaw were effectively forced to sell their land and were transported to Oklahoma Territory. The forced migration of

17290-445: Was the center of the Mississippian culture. This mound appears to have been the main ceremonial and residential mound for the religious and political leaders; it is more than 100 feet (30 m) tall and is the largest pre-Columbian earthwork north of Mexico. This site had numerous mounds, some with conical or ridge tops, as well as palisaded stockades protecting the large settlement and elite quarter. At its maximum about 1150 CE, Cahokia

17423-506: Was the first governor. The state was still occupied as ancestral land by several Native American tribes, including Choctaw, Natchez, Houma, Creek, and Chickasaw. Plantations were developed primarily along the major rivers, where the waterfront provided access to the major transportation routes. This is also where early towns developed, linked by the steamboats that carried commercial products and crops to markets. The remainder of Native American ancestral land remained largely undeveloped but

17556-499: Was unconstitutional, Mississippi repealed its ban on interracial marriage (also known as miscegenation ), which had been enacted in 1890. It also repealed the segregationist -era poll tax in 1989. In 1995, the state symbolically ratified the Thirteenth Amendment , which had abolished slavery in 1865. In 2009, the legislature passed a bill to repeal other discriminatory civil rights laws, which had been enacted in 1964,

17689-428: Was unconstitutional. They used intimidation and economic blackmail against activists and suspected activists, including teachers and other professionals. Techniques included loss of jobs and eviction from rental housing. In the summer of 1964 students and community organizers from across the country came to help register black voters in Mississippi and establish Freedom Schools . The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party

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