Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II, Part 38

Author: Dunbar Rowland
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Madison, Wis. : S.A. Brant
Number of Pages: 1020

USA > Mississippi > Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II > Part 38

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Writers have been fond of portraying the Natchez as the most civilized of all the southern tribes of Indians, but there is little or nothing to warrant the picture. They occupied a region highly favored by soil and climate, which may have given them a more permanent habitat than other tribes. But there was nothing in their religion, architecture, or mode of life to set them above or apart from many other Indian tribes. They were sun worship- pers and believed that their hereditary chiefs were descended from the sun, a belief prevailing among many other tribes-notably the Choctaws and Hurons. If they relied more on agriculture, and less on hunting and fishing, for the means of subsistence, the fertile area occupied by them, will readily account for it. Their religion was in the highest degree primitive and brutal. Says Charlevoix: "When this Great Chief, or the Woman Chief dies, all their Allouez or guards, are obliged to follow them into the other world; but they are not the only persons who have this honor; for so it is reckoned among them, and is greatly sought after. The death of a chief sometimes costs the lives of more than a hundred persons; and I have been assured that very few princi- pal persons of the Natchez die, without being escorted to the country of souls by some of their relations, their friends, or their servants." The horrible ceremonies attendant on human sacri- fices have been frequently detailed by early writers. Their idea of a future life was sufficiently crude. The good enjoyed a per- petual feast of green corn, venison and melons, and the bad were condemned to a diet of alligators and spoiled fish. The chiefs of the Natchez bore the name of Suns and the head chief was called the Great Sun. He was always succeeded by the son of the woman most nearly related to him. This woman had the title of Woman Chief, and though she did not .meddle with the government, she was paid great honors. Like the great chief, she also had the power of life and death. "The government was an absolute despotism. The supreme chief was master of their labor, their property and their lives. He never labored and when he needed provisions he issued invitations for a feast, and all the principal inhabitants were required to attend, and to bring supplies sufficient for the entertainment and for the support of the royal family, until he chose to proclaim another festival." (Claiborne, p. 24.)

The Natchez were divided into two classes, that of the nobility, and that of the common people, called "Stinkards." While they

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understood one another, their dialects were different. When Charlevoix saw the great village of the Natchez, it consisted of only a few cabins, and he explained its small size by the statement that the savages, from whom the great chief had the right to take all they had, got as far from him as they could.

He has left us a vivid picture of the village and its royal dwel- ling and temple. There is certainly no evidence of a higher civi- lization portrayed. The temple is built of the same crude mate- rials as the other cabins, only larger. Inside, he "Never saw any- thing more slovenly and dirty, nor more in disorder. We see nothing in their outward appearance that distinguishes them from the other savages of Canada and Louisiana. They seldom make war, not placing their glory in destroying men. What dis- tinguishes them more particularly, is the form of their govern- ment, entirely despotic; a great dependence, which extends even to a kind of slavery, in the subjects ; more pride and grandeur in the chiefs, and their pacific spirit, which, however, they have not entirely preserved for some years past."

The miserable remnant of the once powerful tribe was finally defeated and utterly crushed by the French at Natchitoches, in 1732 and their identity became merged in that of the Chickasaws and other tribes, among whom the few survivors took refuge.

Natchez Massacre, 1729. This unlooked for massacre began on Monday, the 28th day of November, 1729, about nine o'clock in the morning. Relations with the warlike and subtle tribe of the Natchez had been strained ever since the French post had been established at Natchez in 1716. Preliminary murders by the In- dians, followed by swift retribution on the part of the French, prevented any lasting peace. In 1723 had occurred the first gen- eral outbreak of the Indians, which Bienville quelled with charac- teristic severity. The misconduct, cupidity and injustice of some of the French commanders, particularly Chopart, inflamed the savages with hatred and a desire for revenge, with the result that in one day the Natchez massacred most of the settlers among them. In very early times the Natchez were reputed to have been a very numerous people, counting some sixty villages and eight hundred suns or princes. At the beginning of the 18th century they were reduced to six little villages and eleven suns. On the other hand, the French, at Natchez, were a small and compara- tively helpless band in comparison with the Indians; their garri- son at Fort Rosalie was small and the planters were living on isolated farms. In Claiborne's History, p. 236, foot-note, it is stated: "The French, under concessions granted by the king, had, at the time of the massacre, several extensive and well improved plantations around Natchez, particularly on St. Catherine's extend- ing from the present Washington road, down said creek, on both sides, to the Woodville road. There was a plantation, near the mouth of Cole's creek ; one or two on Bayou Pierre, and at Wal- nut Hills, and quite a settlement around Fort St. Peter, on the Yazoo. Nearly all the occupants perished at the time of the mas-

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sacre. The few that escaped, made their way to New Orleans. And it is remarkable that their claims, which were unquestionably valid, and would, doubtless, have been recognized by either the Spanish or British government, were never presented."

The Natchez gained entrance to the fort by a stratagem and the historic massacre began. It is probable that there was an agreement between the Natchez and the Chickasaws, Yasous, and other confederate tribes, to make a joint attack on the French, on a certain day-all to share in the distribution of the booty. The design was doubtless hastened by the requirement of Chopart, commandant of Fort Rosalie, that White Apple Village, on Sec- ond creek about 12 miles from Natchez, should be abandoned, so that it, with its surrounding fields, might be converted into a French plantation ; and the Natchez were tempted also to antici- pate the day agreed upon by the arrival of a number of richly laden boats for the garrison and the colonists. Father le Petit, whose account of the massacre, is perhaps as reliable as any, in his ac- count of the last Natchez war says "First they divided themselves, and sent into the fort, into the village, and into the two grants, as many Indians as there were French in each of these places; then they feigned that they were going out for a grand hunt and undertook to trade with the French for guns, powder and ball, offering to pay them as much, and even more than was customary, and in truth, as there was no reason to suspect their fidelity, they made at that time an exchange of their poultry and corn, for some arms and ammunition which they used advantageously against us. They had been on their guard against the Tchactas (Choctaws), but as for the Natchez, they never distrusted them. Having thus posted themselves in different houses, provided with the arms obtained from us, they attacked at the same time each his man, and in less than two hours they massacred more than two hundred of the French. The best known are Father du Poisson, M. de Chopart, commander of the post, M. du Codere, commander among the Yasous, M. des Ursins, Messieurs de Kolly and son, Messieurs de Longrays, des Noyers, Bailly, etc. These barbarians

spared but two of the French, a tailor and a carpenter, who were able to serve their wants. They did not treat badly either the negro slaves, or the Indians who were willing to give themselves up; but they ripped up the belly of every pregnant woman, and killed almost all those who were nursing their children, because they were disturbed by their cries and tears. They did not kill the other women, but made them their slaves. . During the massacre, the Sun, or the great chief of the Natchez, was seated quietly under the tobacco shed of the company. His warriors brought to his feet the head of the commander, about which they ranged those of the principal French of the post, leaving their bodies a prey to the dogs, the buzzards, and other carnivorous birds. The Tchactas, and the other Indians being engaged in the plot with them, they felt at their ease, and did not at all fear they would draw on themselves the vengeance which was merited by

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their cruelty and perfidy." On December 11, the Yasous treach- erously murdered the missionary priest, Father Souel; and the following day the Chevalier des Roches, who commanded the post among the Yasous in the absence of M. de Codere, and the seven- teen men of the garrison were all massacred by this tribe, the lives of the few women and children being spared.

On receipt of the news of this great catastrophe to the French, the governor general, Perrier, at New Orleans, sent Chevalier Lubois, with a small army to exterminate the Natchez. Perrier secured the cooperation of the powerful tribe of Choctaws, as well as the Tonikas and some smaller tribes. The Natchez were fiercely attacked and besieged in their two forts. A truce resulted after seven days, and the Natchez surrendered the prisoners in their hands, in consideration of the withdrawal of seven pieces of cannon by the French. The Natchez finally fled across the Mis- sissippi and intrenched themselves near Red river; they were pursued by the French and compelled to surrender in the year 1731. Their children and women were reduced to slavery; some of the warriors took refuge among the Chickasaws, but the Great Sun, St. Cosme, with several hundred prisoners, were taken to New Orleans and, by order of the prime minister, Maurepas, sold as slaves and shipped to St. Domingo, and the proceeds were turned into the Colonial treasury to pay the expenses of the war.

Natchez Tornado of 1840. Henry Tooley made an elaborate report of this disaster, including observations of the barometer and thermometer during the storm. The day, May 7, opened densely cloudy and very warm, increasing in heat until noon. At 12:45 the roar of the approaching storm could be heard in the southwest, with a gale blowing toward it, from the northeast. The thunder and lightning was incessant. An hour later inky clouds were sweeping up both sides of the river, the city was soon enveloped in darkness, terrific thunder shook the earth, the wind whirled to the southeast, and at 2 o'clock the tornado swept through the city, followed by a calm. There was about five min- utes while the storm was felt close at hand, a few seconds in which it accomplished its work. "Every building in the city was more or less injured, many utterly demolished, and very many unroofed, with their walls more or less broken or thrown down ; every tree and fence prostrated, and the streets filled with scattered fragments of every kind and nearly impassable." The famous district, "Natchez under the Hill," was swept with "the besom of destruc- tion, overthrowing, crashing and demolishing almost every house, shop and building, and at one fell swoop reduced that part of the city into undistinguished ruin. Three steamers break from their moorings; their upper works are blown as feathers; two of them capsize and sink and nearly all their crews and passengers perish. More than sixty flatboats laden with up-country produce break from their fastenings and with their crews disappear."

The casualties were given as follows: killed in the city, 48; per- ished on the river, 269; wounded in the city, 74, on the river, 35.

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A woman was rescued from the wreck of the Steamboat hotel, alive but mangled, with her two dead children in her arms. The most widespread damage was done in Louisiana, in the earlier path of the tornado, and hundreds were reported killed. The court- house at Vidalia was wrecked, burying Judge Kerton in the ruins. Natchez was visited by a delegation from New Orleans bringing a corps of surgeons and several thousand dollars of money for the relief of the suffering. Mr. Tooley, who was one of the most ac- curate meteorologists of his age, noted those facts regarding the storm that sustain the modern scientific explanation. Many houses, where the rooms were closed, were exploded by the surrounding vacuum created by the funnel of the tornado; the juices of leaves, and herbs and grass were extracted so that they withered.

Natchez Trace. See Roads.

National Cemeteries. There are three national cemeteries in Mississippi, One is located at Vicksburg; one at Natchez, and one at Corinth. The reservation at Vicksburg contains an area of 40 acres and a cemetery roadway which was deeded to the United States by Alvey H. Jaynes and wife of Ohio, August 27, 1866; the reservation at Natchez embraces an area of 11.07 acres, and was conveyed to the United States by Margaret Case et al., January 31, 1867, the city of Natchez afterwards conveying rights of way; the Corinth reservation contains an area of 20 acres which was deeded to the United States by Calvin V. Vance and wife et al., February 1, 1868, a right of way being subsequently obtained from the city and others. Jurisdiction over these several cemeteries was ceded to the United States by an act of the legislature, ap- proved February 12, 1875, which declared: "That exclusive juris- diction be, and hereby is, given to the United States to and over the following tracts of land and appurtenances thereunto belong- ing, to-wit: All of a tract or parcel of land situated near the city of Natchez, in the county of Adams, inclosed by a brick wall, and known as the Natchez National Cemetery; also, all of a tract or parcel of land situated on the banks of the Mississippi river, near the city of Vicksburg, in the county of Warren; said tract em- braces not only all that is enclosed by a brick wall, but also a strip lying between the southwest side of said wall and the Mississippi river, now owned by the United States and occupied for purposes aforesaid, and known as the Vicksburg National Cemetery ; also, another certain tract of land, situated near the city of Corinth, in the county of Alcorn, consisting of 20 acres (more or less), and known as the Corinth National Cemetery; the legal title to said several parcels of land being now in the United States for purposes aforesaid."

In 1901 Governor Longino appointed a committee representing each Mississippi command within the Vicksburg lines during the siege, to ascertain the position of the troops, with a view to having the same marked by monuments. The committee met at Vicks- burg May 15, 1901. In 1904 he made the report of the committee a part of his message, and urged that "the subject should be con-

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sidered broadly and patriotically, and an appropriation made for monument and markers." In 1906 an appropriation was finally made by the legislature in accordance with the above recommen- dation.

National Guard. See Militia, State.

Navigation and Limits. The Mississippi river was wholly with- in the territory of the French province of Louisiana until after the treaty of February, 1763, by which it was "agreed that for the future, the limits between the possessions of his Most Christian Majesty and those of his Brittanic Majestic in that part of the world shall be irrevocably fixed by a line drawn along the middle of the River Mississippi, from its source to the River Iberville, and from thence by a line in the middle of that stream and of the Lakes Maurepas and the Ponchartrain to the sea with the

understanding that the navigation of the Mississippi shall be free and open to the subjects of his Brittanic Majesty as well as those of his Most Christian Majesty, in all its length from its source to the sea, and particularly that part of it which is between said Is- land (of New Orleans, retained by France) and New Orleans and the right bank of the river, including egress and ingress at its mouth. It is further stipulated that the ships of both nations shall not be stopped on the river, visited, or subjected to any duty."

Beforehand, France had given, by secret treaty, all her posses- sions on the Mississippi to Spain, which nation a few years later took possession of New Orleans. The English rights of naviga- tion were never denied, except as smuggling was prohibited, until Spain declared war on England as an ally of France, during the American revolution. When peace was made in 1782, England agreed to a declaration of American bounds on the Mississippi identical to those made by the treaty of 1763, as far south as the original line of British West Florida.

It was also provided that "the navigation of the river Mississippi from its source to the ocean, shall forever remain free and open to the subjects of Great Britain and the citizens of the United States." This was more important as a menace to Spain than the assertion of a boundary on the 31° parallel. Thereafter she under- stood that any concession to the United States meant a concession to England, her great commercial rival.

In a conference with Lafayette in February, 1783, the Count of Florida Blanca put in writing "that although it is his majesty's intention to abide for the present by the limits established by the treaty of the 30th November, 1782, between the British and Ameri- cans, the king intends to inform himself particularly whether it can be in any ways inconvenient to settle that affair amicably with the United States." To the remonstrance of Lafayette that it was a fixed principle to abide by the limits fixed by the English and Americans, Blanca said verbally that only "unimportant details" were to be considered unadjusted. He would by no means oppose the general principle. In the presence of Montmorin, the ambas- sador of France, at Lafayette's request, he gave "his word of honor

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for it." So Lafayette told, and Blanca said the story was "the grossest misrepresentation on the part of Lafayette."

The treaty of peace between Spain and England was signed January 20, 1783. In this England ceded to Spain the two Floridas, without describing the 'limits. This treaty was confirmed by a definitive treaty September 3, 1783, six months after the treaty between the United States and England had been published in America. It follows (as Pinckney told Godoy) that Spain was content with the limit of the 31st parallel, and did not seek to obtain the definition of other limits, from England, or that she did so seek and failed. The latter was probably the case.

As to the equal right of navigation on the Mississippi river, the United States claimed it as the successor of Great Britain, under the treaty between France and England in 1763; also as a natural right.

In December, 1784, congress resolved to send a minister to Spain, to adjust the differences respecting the navigation of the Missis- sippi, and other matters; but this was made unnecessary, much to the advantage of Spain by the action of Florida Blanca, who sent Don Diego de Gardoqui to Philadelphia, as minister, in the spring of 1785. Congress authorized John Jay, secretary of foreign af- fairs, to negotiate with him. But, at the outset, Gardoqui frankly stated that the Spanish made a conquest of the country east of the Mississippi river and proposed to hold it as well as the exclusive control of the river. How far north the Spanish claim extended, Jay had been unable to determine in 1786, but it appeared that the Spanish attached some significance to the capture of the post of St. Joseph, on Lake Michigan, by Don Eugenio Parre, marching from St. Louis in January, 1781.

Great Britain was also maintaining military possession of the northwest, and defending this by charging the United States with breach of the treaty in other respects. The problem was so difficult that Jay submitted to congress, August 3, 1786, a plan for a com- mercial treaty with Spain (which was greatly desired), coupled with the provision that during the life of the treaty, twenty or twenty-five years, the United States, without relinquishing any right, would forbear to navigate the Mississippi river below their territories to the gulf. Seven northern States, mainly interested in Atlantic trade, supported this proposition, on the understanding that the right to the Mississippi should not be waived and Spain should acknowledge the boundary of the 31st parallel. The dis- cussions of congress on this subject leaked out, and as the rumor reached the Ohio and other frontier settlements it was told that Jay had surrendered the river. The proposition was, in fact, dic- tated by the commercial gentiment of the Northeast, which took little account of the importance of the great domain from Biloxi to Duluth. "The extreme representatives of this northeastern sec- tionalism not only objected to the growth of the west at the time now under consideration, but even avowed a desire to work it harm, by shutting the Mississippi, so as to benefit the commerce

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of the Atlantic States. . These intolerant extremists not only opposed the admission of the young western states into the Union, but at a later date actually announced that the annexation by the United States of vast territories beyond the Mississippi offered just cause for the secession of the northeastern states. Even those who did not take such an advanced ground felt an un- reasonable dread lest the west might grow to overtop the east in power." (Roosevelt, The Winning of the West.)

The Southern delegates, closer to the pioneer, made it impossi- ble to propose such a treaty, with the result, to be impartially noted, that the limits were not recognized for twelve years; the river was not free until a longer period had elapsed, and the United States missed all the advantages of a commercial treaty with Spain.

The settlement of Kentucky had vastly increased in 1784-86, and the shipment of flour, whiskey and other products to New Orleans from as far up as Pittsburg, on flatboats and barges, was the com- mercial outlet that promised profitable returns to the producer, the cost of transportation by wagons over the mountains being enormous. The settlers on the upper Tennessee and Cumberland also depended on river communication altogether. Hence congress and the eastern people began to hear in 1787 that the inhabitants of the west were highly irritated about the "Jay treaty," that Ken- tucky proposed to secede from Virginia, that the Cumberland peo- ple were talking of an expedition to take possession of Natchez and New Orleans, and John Sullivan was organizing a similar movement in Kentucky. Congress, in September, 1788, absolved the members from secrecy on the subject, and resolved that "the free navigation of the river Mississippi is a clear and essential right of the United States, and that the same ought to be consid- ered and supported as such."

Consequently, within the period of the confederation nothing was done. The proposition was one that required a higher degree of mutual interest, a closer bond between the States. Gardoqui, during his stay, busied himself mainly with organizing a secret service throughout the United States and encouraging emigration into the region held by Spain. He was doubtless cognizant also of the Spanish policy to make the navigation of the river as diffi- cult as possible to the Americans without absolute prohibition, so as to encourage the secession of the west from the Union, but he carefully left the secession intrigue to Governor Miro and Col- onel James Wilkinson, who had settled in Kentucky in 1786. Later, when Gardoqui had returned to Spain and was negotiating with Carmichael and Short, he allowed them to perceive that he fully understood the dissensions and jealousies in the United States, and consequently refused to believe that the United States dared enforce its claims by the sword.

The greater powers of the constitution permitted a revival of the negotiations. It was one of the main features of that military and diplomatic conquest of the west that occupied the whole of

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Washington's administration. The events in the Southwest dif- fered from those on the Northwest merely in this, that the Ameri- can policy was to keep the Spanish Indians quiet, until the British Indians could be brought to terms by an army. The United States was not prepared to make war at once on both wings of the situ- ation, partly because State jealousy refused the Federal govern- ment the use of more than 5,000 soldiers, and partly because opmn- ion was quite gravely divided as to whether it was worth while to conquer the west. That was a subject on which George Wash- ington never entertained a doubt. His character never was more grandly displayed than in this long and perplexing and at times apparently hopeless struggle to subdue the wilderness to allegiance to the United States.

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Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II, Part 38

Author: Dunbar Rowland Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Madison, Wis. : S.A. Brant Number of Pages: 1020

Author: Dunbar Rowland
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Madison, Wis. : S.A. Brant
Number of Pages: 1020