Natchez: 10 Things to Know About This Southern City

Natchez, Mississippi, is full of southern history. Before the War Between the States, it was a booming town along the Mississippi River. Kendra Ablaze with Mississippi Today shares some of the city’s amazing facts on its 300th birthday.

In honor of the city that boasts of being the birthplace of Mississippi, here are 10 things to know about this Southern city.

1. Natchez Indians Built Fort Rosalie for the French

The city’s story began on Aug. 3, 1716, when French settlers established Fort Rosalie on the Mississippi River in an area occupied by an American Indian tribe known as the Natchez. According to Kathleen Bond, the Natchez National Historical Park superintendent, Indian labor constructed the fort. In 1729, Natchez Indians attacked French settlers at Fort Rosalie, killing between 200 and 300 people and capturing many women, children, and enslaved Africans. This spurred the retreat of French colonists from North America.

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2. A Former Slave-Trading Hub

In 1789, Andrew Jackson, a public prosecutor in the region long before becoming president of the United States, built a trading post north of Natchez that trafficked in enslaved people. According to the Mississippi Historical Society, Natchez became the state’s most active slave-trading city in the decades before the Civil War.

3. A Capital With No Capitol

Since it already was a substantial settlement on the Mississippi River, Natchez was chosen by the United States Congress as the first capital when they created the Mississippi Territory in 1798. However, an official Capitol never developed.

4. Millionaire Mississippi Boom Town

Before the Civil War, the city had the most millionaires per capita of any city in the United States.

5. Home To Free People of Color

Natchez had the largest community of free people of color in Mississippi before the Civil War, Bond says. Many were the children of white plantation owners and enslaved African American women. William Johnson, who gained his freedom at age 11, bought a downtown Natchez barbershop in 1830 and kept a diary from 1835 until he died in 1851. The National Park Service cites his diary as an essential resource for studying free blacks and African American history.

6. The classic Southern antebellum facade emerges

Constructed in 1812, the front porch of the Auburn mansion contains classic two-story columns, the first of its kind built in Mississippi, which became synonymous with antebellum architecture.

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7. Southerners but not secessionists

On Jan. 9, 1861, Mississippi seceded from the Union, but delegates from Natchez and Adams County attending the state convention voted against secession. Many planters in Adams County had moved there from northern states and retained financial and familial connections to the north.

8. Natchez is home to the First Black U.S. Senator

The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protected the right of African Americans to vote. Hiram R. Revels became the first African American to be seated in Congress as a U.S. senator in 1870. Mississippi rejoined the Union on Feb. 23, 1870.

9. The history of historic preservation

In 1925, Miss Charlie Compton, one of the city’s earliest preservationists, protested the demolition of the historic city hall and columned open-air market to construct the city’s current city hall. However, she failed to save them. In 1974, Ron and Mimi Miller founded the private, nonprofit Historic Natchez Foundation, which helps preserve local structures by seeking their designation as national historical landmarks or listings on the National Register of Historic Places.

10. Natchez Displays Southern Charm

Tourists flock to the city each spring. In 1932, the tour of grand antebellum homes and gardens became an annual event.