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63-594: Natchez National Historical Park commemorates the history of Natchez, Mississippi , and is managed by the National Park Service . The park consists of four separate sites: Fort Rosalie is the site of a former fortification from the 18th century, built by the French . It was later renamed Fort Panmure and controlled in turn by Great Britain , Spain , and the United States . The fort site

126-545: A bluff overlooking the Mississippi River , ensured that it would be a pivotal center of trade, commerce, and the interchange of ethnic Native American, European, and African cultures in the region; it held this position for two centuries after its founding. In U.S. history, Natchez is recognized particularly for its role in the development of the Old Southwest during the first half of the 19th century. It

189-760: A private prison operated by the Corrections Corporation of America on behalf of the Federal Bureau of Prisons , is in an unincorporated area in Adams County , near Natchez. Natchez is home to Alcorn State University 's Natchez Campus, which offers the School of Nursing, the School of Business, and graduate business programs. The School of Business offers Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree and other business classes from its Natchez campus. The MBA program attracts students from

252-740: A campus in Natchez. Adams County is in the district of Copiah–Lincoln Community College and has been since 1971. The city of Natchez and Adams County are in the boundary of one public school system, the Natchez-Adams School District . The district comprises ten schools. They are Susie B. West, Morgantown, Gilmer McLaurin, Joseph F. Frazier, Robert Lewis Magnet School, Natchez Freshman Academy, Natchez Early College@Co-Lin, Central Alternative School, Natchez High School , and Fallin Career and Technology Center. In Natchez, there are

315-509: A coffle, from Virginia to the Forks of the Road in Natchez, as well as sending others by ship through New Orleans. Unlike other slave sellers of the day, Franklin and Armfield sold slaves individually, with the buyers allowed to survey the people much like items in a modern retail store. In 1840, the city was struck by a devastating tornado that killed 317 people and injured 109. It ranks today as

378-621: A general decline in population since 1960. It remains the principal city of the Natchez micropolitan area . According to the United States Census Bureau , the city has a total area of 13.9 square miles (36 km ), of which 13.2 square miles (34 km ) are land and 0.6 square miles (1.6 km ) (4.62%) is water. Natchez has a humid subtropical climate ( Cfa ) under the Köppen climate classification system. As of

441-545: A landmark study published in the Journal of Political Economy . Their arguments were further developed by Robert Fogel and Stanley L. Engerman , who argued in their 1974 book, Time on the Cross , that slavery was both efficient and profitable, as long as the price of cotton was high enough. In turn, Fogel and Engerman came under attack from other historians of slavery. As slavery began to displace indentured servitude as

504-510: A lesser extent the rest of the country. In the 18th century, the Atlantic slave trade brought enslaved Africans to the South during the colonial period as a source of labor for the harvesting of crops. There were almost 700,000 enslaved persons in the U.S. in 1790, which equated to approximately 18 percent of the total population or roughly one in every six people. This would persist through

567-570: A number of private and parochial schools. Adams County Christian School (ACCS) is also a PK-12 school in the city. Adams County Christian School was founded as a segregation academy and is a member of the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools (MAIS). Cathedral School is also a PK-12 school in the city. It is affiliated with the Roman Catholic St. Mary Basilica . Holy Family Catholic School, founded in 1890,

630-529: A political issue between North and South, but as a social and economic system. He focused on the large plantations that dominated the South. Phillips addressed the unprofitability of slave labor and slavery's ill effects on the Southern economy. An example of pioneering comparative work was A Jamaica Slave Plantation (1914). His methods inspired the "Phillips school" of slavery studies, between 1900 and 1950. Phillips argued that large-scale plantation slavery

693-576: A set of Gothic Revival dining room chairs, and bookcases with books dating to the 18th century. These were collected from Natchez families, including the McMurran family. The collection in the Johnson house includes furnishings from his life and family. Archaeological objects found in the park are also on display. The National Historical Park was authorized on October 7, 1988 ( Pub. L.   100–479 , H.R. 4457 ). The William Johnson House

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756-497: A wide range of academic disciplines and preparation from the Southwest Mississippi area and beyond offering concentrations in general business, gaming management and hospitality management. Both schools in the Natchez campus provide skills which has enabled community students to have an important impact on the economic opportunities of people in Southwest Mississippi. Copiah-Lincoln Community College also operates

819-680: Is a PK-3 school affiliated with Holy Family Catholic Church. Natchez is amid the Alexandria, Louisiana and Jackson, Mississippi television markets. U.S. 61 runs north–south, parallel to the Mississippi River, linking Natchez with Port Gibson , Woodville , Mississippi and Baton Rouge , Louisiana . U.S. 84 runs east–west and bridges the Mississippi, connecting it with Vidalia , Louisiana and Brookhaven , Mississippi . U.S. 425 runs north from Natchez after crossing

882-582: Is a few blocks from the Fort Rosalie site and is both separately NRHP-listed and also included in the Natchez On-Top-of-the-Hill Historic District . Melrose is located about two miles southeast of Fort Rosalie. [REDACTED] Media related to Natchez National Historical Park at Wikimedia Commons Natchez, Mississippi Natchez ( / ˈ n æ tʃ ɪ z / NATCH -iz ) is the only city in and

945-472: Is open to the public. The William Johnson House was the home of William Johnson , a 19th-century free African American barber and resident of Natchez whose diary has been published. Melrose was the estate of John T. McMurran, a lawyer, state senator, and planter who lived in Natchez from 1830 until the Civil War . Forks of the Road marks what was the second-busiest slave trading market in

1008-769: The American Civil War Natchez was surrendered by Confederate forces without a fight in September 1862. 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. The Union Army officers claimed to be short on resources and unable to provide for

1071-515: The French and Indian War (Seven Years' War), they ceded Natchez and near territory to Great Britain in the Treaty of Paris of 1763 . (It later traded other territory east of the Mississippi River with Great Britain, which expanded what it called West Florida). The British Crown bestowed land grants in this territory to officers who had served with distinction in the war. These officers came mostly from

1134-401: The census of 2020, there were 14,520 people, 6,028 households, and 3,149 families residing in the city. As of the census of 2000, there were 18,464 people, 7,591 households, and 4,858 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,398.3 inhabitants per square mile (539.9/km ). There were 8,479 housing units at an average density of 642.1 per square mile (247.9/km ). In 2000,

1197-458: The county seat of Adams County, Mississippi , United States. The population was 14,520 at the 2020 census . Located on the Mississippi River across from Vidalia, Louisiana , Natchez was a prominent city in the antebellum years , a center of cotton planters and Mississippi River trade. Natchez is approximately 90 miles (140 km) southwest of the capital of Jackson and 85 miles (137 km) north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana , located on

1260-686: The 17th and 18th centuries, but it was not until the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in the 1790s that slavery grew very profitable and that the large plantation system developed. In the 15 years between the invention of the cotton gin and the passage of the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves , an increase in the slave trade occurred, furthering the slave system in the United States. The Antebellum South saw large expansions in agriculture, while manufacturing growth remained relatively slow. The Southern economy

1323-508: The 1820s that travel northward on the river could be accomplished by large boats.) The Natchez Trace also played an important role during the War of 1812 . Today the modern Natchez Trace Parkway , which commemorates this route, still has its southern terminus in Natchez. In the decades preceding the Civil War, Natchez was by far the most prevalent slave trading city in Mississippi, and second in

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1386-646: The American Civil War, the city's economy rapidly revived, mostly due to Natchez having been spared the destruction visited upon many other parts of the South. From 1870 to 1871, Robert H. Wood served as Mayor of Natchez; he was the one of only five African Americans to serve as mayor during the Reconstruction-era, and he was one of the first black mayors in the entire country. Natchez was also home to politicians Hiram Rhodes Revels and John R. Lynch , both African Americans. The vitality of

1449-472: The American South in large numbers to support European demand. By 1670, more than half of all tobacco shipped to England was being re-exported to other countries throughout Europe at a premium. In similar ways Britain was able to profit from other American staple crops, such as cotton, rice, and indigo. As Russell Menard puts it, Britain's capitalizing on increased European demand for these crops "fueled

1512-534: The American colonies for economic gain was tobacco . When tobacco was first discovered as a recreational substance, there was a widespread social backlash in England, spearheaded by King James I himself. By the middle of the 17th century, however, Parliament had realized the revenue potential of tobacco and quickly changed its official moral stance towards its use. As a result, tobacco plantations sprung up across

1575-411: The American colonists, they were more interested in advancing their power at the expense of Britain. Once the war was over, they were not inclined to give up that which they had acquired by force. In 1797 Major Andrew Ellicott of the United States marched to the highest ridge in the young town of Natchez, set up camp, and raised the first American Flag claiming Natchez and all former Spanish lands east of

1638-553: The Deep South between 1832 and 1863. This unit of the park opened in an official ceremony on June 18, 2021. Both Melrose and the William Johnson House contain furnishings related to life in antebellum Natchez and other exhibits. The collection at Melrose's two-story Greek Revival mansion and its slave quarters include painted floor cloths, mahogany , a punkah , a set of Rococo Revival parlor furniture,

1701-548: The Mississippi above the 31st parallel for the United States. After the United States acquired this area from the Spanish, the city served as the capital of the Mississippi Territory and then of the state of Mississippi . It predates Jackson by more than a century; the latter replaced Natchez as the capital in 1822, as it was more centrally located in the developing state. The strategic location of Natchez, on

1764-423: The Mississippi, connecting Ferriday with Clayton , at which point U.S. 65 follows the west bank of the Mississippi, connecting to Waterproof north to St. Joseph , Newellton , and Tallulah , Louisiana . U.S. 98 runs east from Natchez towards Bude and McComb , Mississippi . Mississippi 555 runs north from the center of Natchez to where it joins Mississippi Highway 554. Mississippi 554 runs from

1827-467: The North, which more eagerly embraced women and child labor in its factories to push forward industrialization due to their relative value to Northern agriculture being lesser than in Southern agriculture. While the South still attracted immigrants from Europe, the North attracted far more during the early-to-mid 1800s, such that by the time of the American Civil War, the population of the North far exceeded

1890-453: The South in a precarious economic situation. This was the subject of the highly influential 1857 book The Impending Crisis of the South : How to Meet It , by Hinton Rowan Helper . Following the end of the Civil War and into Reconstruction era (1865–1877), the South experienced economic devastation. Some states that relied less heavily on the plantation system managed to fare better following its downfall. Ulrich Bonnell Phillips contends that

1953-479: The South included land- and slave-owners and slaves, various strata of social classes existed within and between the two. In examining class relations and the banking system in the South, the economic exploitation of slave labor can be seen to arise from a need to maintain certain conditions for the existence of slavery and from a need for each of the remaining social strata to remain in status quo. In order to meet conditions where slavery may continue to exist, members of

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2016-485: The Southern domestic market consisted primarily of plantations, Southern states imported sustenance commodities from the West and manufactured goods from England and the North. The plantation system can be seen as the factory system applied to agriculture, with a concentration of labor under skilled management. But while the industrial manufacturing-based labor economy of the North was driven by growing demand, maintenance of

2079-649: The United States only to New Orleans. The leading markets were located at the Forks of the Road , at the intersection of Liberty Road and Washington Road (now D'Evereux Drive and St. Catherine Street). In 1833, the most active slavers in the United States, John Armfield and Isaac Franklin began a program of arbitraging low slave prices in the Middle Atlantic area by sending thousands of slaves to Deep South markets in Natchez and New Orleans. Their company, Franklin and Armfield sent an annual caravan of slaves, called

2142-610: The city and region was captured most significantly in the 80 years or so following the war by the photographers Henry C. Norman and his son Earl. The output of the Norman Studio between roughly 1870 and 1950 documents this period in Natchez's development vividly; the photographs are now preserved as the Thomas and Joan Gandy Collection in special collections of the library of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. During

2205-626: The colonies of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. They established plantations and brought their upper-class style of living to the area. Beginning 1779, the area was under Spanish colonial rule. After defeat in the American Revolutionary War, Great Britain ceded the territory to the United States under the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1783). Spain was not a party to the treaty, and it was their forces who had taken Natchez from British troops. Although Spain had been allied with

2268-469: The company he works for "has 31,259 employees, which is more than the entire population of Natchez, Mississippi." Ta-Nehisi Coates' 2019 novel, The Water Dancer , alludes constantly to the threat, in antebellum Virginia, represented to slaves by the possibility of being sold "down Natchez way," that is, into harshest slavery. Antebellum South Society was stratified, inegalitarian, and perceived by immigrants as lacking in opportunities. Consequently,

2331-403: The concentration of landholding and slave holding, which were highly correlated, six percent of landowners ended up commanding one-third of the gross income and an even higher portion of the net income. The majority of landowners, who had smaller scale plantations, saw a disproportionately small portion in revenues generated by the slavery-driven plantation system. While the two largest classes in

2394-587: The expansion of the American plantation colonies, transformed the Atlantic into an English inland sea, and led to the creation of the first British Empire ." Many claim that being a part of the British mercantilist system was in the best economic interest of the American colonies as well, as they would not have been able to survive as independent economic entities. Robert Haywood, in his article "Mercantilism and South Carolina Agriculture, 1700–1763", argues that "it

2457-423: The large plantation owner's wealth, often reflected in the number of slaves they owned, afforded them considerable prestige and political power." Phillips contended that masters treated enslaved persons relatively well; his views on that issue were later sharply rejected by Kenneth M. Stampp . His conclusions about the economic decline of slavery were challenged in 1958 by Alfred H. Conrad and John R. Meyer in

2520-412: The lower Mississippi River. Natchez is the 28th-largest city in the state. The city was named for the Natchez people , who with their ancestors, inhabited much of the area from the 8th century AD through the French colonial period. Established by French colonists in 1716, Natchez is one of the oldest and most important European settlements in the lower Mississippi River Valley . After the French lost

2583-402: The manufacturing base lagged behind that of the non-slave states. Wealth inequality grew as the larger landholders took the greater share of the profits generated by enslaved persons, which also helped to entrench their power as a political class. As the country expanded westward , slavery's propagation became a major issue in national politics , eventually boiling over into the Civil War . In

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2646-405: The master class (e.g., white, landowning, slave-owning) had to compete with other members of the master class to maximize the surplus labor extracted from slaves. Likewise, in order to remain within the same class, members of the master class (and each subsumed class below) must expand their claim on revenues derived from the slave labor surplus. Mercantilist ideologies largely explain the rise of

2709-596: The north side of the city to where it joins Highway 61, northeast of town. Natchez is served by the Natchez Railway, which interchanges with Canadian National . Natchez is served by the Natchez-Adams County Airport , a general aviation facility. The nearest airports with commercial service are Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport , 85 miles (137 km) to the south via US 61 and Alexandria International Airport , 82 miles (132 km) to

2772-476: The northern and western states, much of the social spectrum was dominated by a wide range of different laboring classes. The conclusion that, while both the North and the South were characterized by a high degree of inequality during the plantation era, the wealth distribution was much more unequal in the South than in the North arises from studies concerned with the equality of land, slave, and wealth distribution. For example, in certain states and counties, due to

2835-428: The plantation "sadly restricted the opportunity of such men as were of better industrial quality than was required for the field gangs." Essentially, men who would have been otherwise capable of performing other skilled jobs were nonetheless relegated to field work because of the nature of the system. A 1984 journal article by Claudia Goldin and Kenneth Sokoloff suggested that the South misallocated labor compared to

2898-491: The plantation economic system depended upon slave labor, which was abundant and cheap. The five major commodities of the Southern agricultural economy were cotton, grain, tobacco, sugar, and rice, with cotton the leading cash crop . These commodities were concentrated in the Deep South (Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana). The leading historian of the era was Ulrich Bonnell Phillips , who studied slavery not so much as

2961-455: The plantation system in the United States. In the 16th and 17th centuries under mercantilism, rulers of nations believed that the accumulation of wealth through a favorable balance of trade was the best way to ensure power. As a result, several European nations began to colonize the Americas to take advantage of rich natural resources and encourage exports. One example of England utilizing

3024-478: The plantation system, largely agricultural. With the exception of New Orleans , Charleston , and Richmond the slave states had no large cities, and the urban population of the South could not compare to that of the Northeast , or even that of the agrarian West. This led to a sharp division in class in the southern states, between the landowning "master" class, yeoman farmers, poor whites , and slaves; while in

3087-490: The potential loss in investment of owning slaves from death, disability, etc. was much greater for small plantation owners. Accentuated by the rise in price of slaves seen just prior to the Civil War , the overall costs associated with owning slaves to the individual plantation owner led to the concentration of slave ownership seen at the eve of the Civil War. Much of the Antebellum South was rural, and in line with

3150-400: The principal port from which these crops were exported, both upriver to Northern cities and downriver to New Orleans, where much of the cargo was exported to Europe. Many of the mansions built by planters before 1860 survive and form a major part of the city's architecture and identity. Agriculture remained the primary economic base for the region until well into the twentieth century. During

3213-450: The principal supply of labor in the plantation systems of the South, the economic nature of the institution of slavery aided in the increased inequality of wealth seen in the antebellum South. The demand for slave labor and the U.S. ban on importing more slaves from Africa drove up prices for slaves, making it profitable for smaller farms in older settled areas such as Virginia to sell their slaves further south and west. The actuarial risk, or

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3276-577: The racial and ethnic makeup of the city was 54.49% African American , 44.18% White , 0.38% Asian , 0.11% Native American , 0.02% Pacific Islander , 0.18% from other races , and 0.63% from two or more races. 0.70% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. Since then, with the publication of the 2020 census, its racial and ethnic makeup was 60.12% African American, 35.51% non-Hispanic white, 0.11% Native American, 0.5% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 2.36% other or mixed, and 1.38% Hispanic or Latino of any race. Adams County Correctional Center ,

3339-556: The refugees. The Army planned to address the situation with a mixture of paid labor for freed slaves on government leased plantations, the enlistment of able-bodied males who were willing to fight in the Union Army and the establishment of refugee camps where former slaves could be provided with education. However, as the war continued, the plan was never effectively implemented and the leased plantations were crowded, poorly managed and frequently raided by Confederate troops who controlled

3402-537: The second-deadliest tornado in U.S. history, although the death toll may be higher due to slave deaths not traditionally being counted in the South at that time. In the middle of the nineteenth century, the city attracted wealthy Southern planters as residents, who built mansions to fit their ambitions. Their plantations were vast tracts of land in the surrounding lowlands along the river fronts of Mississippi and Louisiana, where they grew large commodity crops of cotton and sugarcane using slave labor . Natchez became

3465-485: The surrounding territory. Hundreds of people living in Natchez, including many former slaves and refugees, died of hunger, disease, overwork or were killed in the fighting during this period. In order to manage the tens of thousands of freed Black slaves, the Union Army created a refugee camp in Natchez in a natural pit known as the Devil's Punchbowl , where thousands died of starvation, smallpox, and other diseases. After

3528-509: The twentieth century, the city's economy experienced a downturn, first due to the replacement of steamboat traffic on the Mississippi River by railroads in the early 1900s, some of which bypassed the river cities and drew away their commerce. Later in the 20th century, many local industries closed in a restructuring that sharply reduced the number of jobs in the area. Despite its status as a popular destination for heritage tourism because of well-preserved antebellum architecture , Natchez has had

3591-453: The west via US 84 to LA-28W. Various movies have been shot here, including The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974), Crossroads (1986), Raintree County (1957), Horse Soldiers (1959), Rascals and Robbers: The Secret Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn (1981), The Ladykillers (2004), Get On Up (2014) and Ma (film) (2019). In the opening narration of The Apartment (1960), C.C. Baxter mentions

3654-471: The years that followed the Civil War, the war was romanticized by historical revisionists to protect three central assertions: that the Confederate cause was heroic, that enslaved people were happy and satisfied, and that slavery was not the primary cause of the war. This phenomenon has continued to the present day to contribute to racism , gender roles , and religious attitudes in the South, and to

3717-701: Was added to it on September 28, 1990 ( Pub. L.   101–379 , H.R. 4501 ). As with all historic areas administered by the National Park Service, the park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places . Fort Rosalie was already included in the National Register as part of the 1972 NRHP-listed Natchez Bluffs and Under-the-Hill Historic District ; the William Johnson House , at 210 State St.,

3780-514: Was characterized by a low level of capital accumulation (largely slave-labor-based) and a shortage of liquid capital, which, when aggravated by the need to concentrate on a few staples, the pervasive anti-industrial and anti-urban ideology, and the reduction of Southern banking, led to a South dependent on export trade. This was in contrast to the economies of the Northern and Western U.S., which relied primarily on their own domestic markets. Since

3843-540: Was inefficient and not progressive. It had reached its geographical limits by 1860 or so, and therefore eventually had to fade away (as happened in Brazil ). In The Decadence of the Plantation System (1910), he argued that slavery was an unprofitable relic that persisted because it produced social status, honor, and political power . "Most farmers in the South had small-to-medium-sized farms with few slaves, but

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3906-532: Was the southern terminus of the historic Natchez Trace , with the northern terminus being Nashville, Tennessee . After unloading their cargoes in Natchez or New Orleans , many pilots and crew of flatboats and keelboats traveled by the Trace overland to their homes in the Ohio River Valley . (Given the strong current of the Mississippi River, it was not until steam-powered vessels were developed in

3969-403: Was unthinkable that any trade could prosper in the straight-jacket of regimented and restricted international trade, without the guiding hand of a powerful protecting government." The plantation system created an environment for the South to experience an economic boom in the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries. However, reliance on both the plantation system and more widespread slave labor, left

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