MISSISSIPPI “Magnolia state” Dec. 10, 1817.
Written on November 18, 2009
The state has seen the rise and fall of several different cultures, and their remnants still blend together in Mississippi’s culture today. Mississippi, one of the East South Central states of the United States, bordered on the north by Tennessee, on the east by Alabama, on the south by the Gulf of Mexico and Louisiana, and on the west by Louisiana and Arkansas. The Mississippi River forms almost the entire western boundary, and the Pearl River forms part of the southern boundary.
General information:
Statehood: Dec. 10, 1817, the 20th state.
State abbreviations: Miss. (traditional); MS (postal).
State capital: Jackson, Mississippi’s capital since 1822. Other capitals were Natchez (1798-1802, 1817-1821), Washington (1802-1817), and Columbia (1821-1822).
Origin of Name: From an Indian word meaning “Father of Waters”
Major Industries: Agriculture, Fisheries, Manufacturing
Agriculture: broilers, cotton, soybeans
Manufacturing: petroleum products, food products, chemicals, wood products, machinery, electrical equipment.
Bordering States: Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Tennessee
State motto: Virtute et Armis (By Valor and Arms).
Popular name: The Magnolia State.
State song: “Go Mis-sis-sip-pi” by Houston Davis. (see page 9)
State bird: Mockingbird. (see picture nr.1 on page 
State flower and tree: Magnolia. An election was held in November 1900 to select a State Flower. Votes were submitted by 23,278 school children. The magnolia received 12,745 votes; the cotton blossom 4,171; and the cape jasmine 2,484. In 1935, the Director of Forestry started a movement by which to select a State Tree for Mississippi, to be selected by nomination and election by the school children of the State. Four nominations were made–the magnolia, oak, pine and dogwood. The magnolia received by far the largest majority. On April 1, 1938, the Mississippi Legislature officially designated the magnolia as the State Tree. (see picture nr.2 and 3. on page
State flag and seal: The state flag was adopted in 1894. The bars of red, white, and blue are the national colours. A replica of the Confederate battle flag occupies the upper left portion. The state seal was adopted in 1817 and it bears a modified version of the arms of the United States. The eagle holds an olive branch and arrows, symbolizing the desire for peace but the ability to wage war. (see picture nr.4 and nr.5 on page
Area: 123,530 square kilometres, including 2,024 square kilometres of inland water but excluding 1,530 square kilometres of coastal water.
Population: 2,844,658
Governor: 4-year term.
Physical Geography: Most of Mississippi is part of the East Gulf Coastal Plain, and the rest of the state is made up of a section of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain. The East Gulf Coastal Plain is generally composed of low hills, such as the Pine Hills in the south and the North Central Hills. Somewhat higher elevations are in the Pontotoc Ridge and the Fall Line Hills in the northeast. Yellow-brown loess soil is in the west, and a region of fertile black earth, part of the Black Belt, is in the northeast. The coastline, which includes large bays at Bay Saint Louis, Biloxi, and Pascagoula, is separated from the Gulf of Mexico proper by the shallow Mississippi Sound, which is partially enclosed by Petit Bois, Horn, Ship, and Cat islands. The Mississippi Alluvial Plain, known also as the Delta, is narrow in the south and widens north of Vicksburg. The region has rich soil, partly made up of silt deposited by floodwaters of the Mississippi River.
Mississippi river: (Algonquin, Missi Sipi, or “great river”) is central trunk of the major river system of the continent of North America. This river together with its tributaries - many of which is large enough to be considered the major streams - drains an area of 1,240,000 sq. mi., approximately one - eighth of the continent of North America.
Plants and Animals
About 55% of the land area of Mississippi is covered with forests. In the north are such hardwoods as elm, hickory, and oak, as well as cedar, shortleaf pine, and tupelo. In the south are loblolly, longleaf, and slash pines. Other trees include live oak, magnolia, pecan, and sweet gum. Flowering plants in Mississippi include azalea, black-eyed Susan, camellia, dogwood, iris, Cherokee rose, trillium, and violet.
The white-tailed deer is the principal large animal of Mississippi. Other mammals found in abundance include beaver, fox, opossum, rabbit, skunk, and squirrel. Among the state’s game birds are duck, quail, and wild turkey. In the winter, migrating duck, egret, heron, and tern nest on Horn and Petit Bois islands. Freshwater fish include black bass, bream, catfish, croaker, and perch; crabs, oysters, shrimp, Spanish mackerel, menhaden, and tarpon inhabit marine waters. Mineral Resources Mississippi has considerable deposits of petroleum and natural gas. Other mineral resources include clay, sand and gravel, lignite, iron ore, limestone, and salt.
Early inhabitants
Mississippi had a large prehistoric population. Many ceremonial mounds still stand throughout the state as reminders of the Hopewell culture about AD 1-800 and the Mississippian culture about AD 800-1500, whose people lived in highly organized farming communities. In historic times three nations were the principal Native American residents of the region. The Choctaw the largest and most powerful, were dominant in most of central and southern Mississippi. The Chickasaw controlled the northern part of the state. The Natchez were dominant in south-western Mississippi. Among these major peoples lived a number of smaller groups.
1540Hernando de Soto entered the Mississippi region.
The first Europeans who entered the area were from Spain. Among them was the Hernando de Soto expedition (1539-1543) that explored large parts of the southern United States. De Soto is believed to have led his expedition westward across northern Mississippi late in 1540. For about 130 years following de Soto’s expedition, there was no significant exploratory activity in the region. In 1673, the French explorers Jacques Marquette and Luis Joliet traveled down the Mississippi River to the mouth of the Arkansas River. Nine years later another French explorer, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, traveled down the Mississippi to its mouth and claimed for France all of the land drained by the river and its tributaries. La Salle named that vast region Louisiane (in English, Louisiana) in honour of the reigning French king, Louis XIV.
1699Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d’Iberville, established the first French colony at Old Biloxi.
The French built forts and settlements along the Gulf Coast and in the Mississippi valley. In 1699 they established the first fort and permanent settlement in the Mississippi region. Under the leadership of Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d’Iberville, they built Fort Maurepas and the settlement of Biloxi (later Old Biloxi. Biloxi became the first settlement in Louisiana, which came to include various new settlements in the lower Mississippi valley and along the Gulf Coast.
Louisiana struggled as a royal colony from 1699 to 1712. As a result of fighting between France and Great Britain during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714), the colonists were cut off from France for years at a time.
War with the Natchez, who resented the French for encroaching on their lands, had begun in 1729. In November of that year the Natchez attacked Fort Rosalie, killing more than 200 French settlers. In retaliation, the French, with help from the Choctaw, killed most of the Natchez and, in the following years, enslaved or scattered the rest.
In the early 1760s the lengthy colonial struggle between France and Great Britain finally ended with France’s defeat in the French and Indian War (1754-1763). Under the terms of the treaty ending the war, Great Britain acquired the entire former French claim east of the Mississippi River, including all of the present state of Mississippi. New Orleans and the territory west of the river had been ceded to Spain during the war.
1763Mississippi became English territory after the French and Indian War.
Under the British that part of Mississippi south of latitude 31° north was included in the province of West Florida. The king of Great Britain, by the Royal Proclamation of 1763, reserved the area north of that line for Native Americans, and settlement by whites was forbidden there without the permission of the Native American inhabitants. South of that line, settlers came from the British Atlantic Seaboard colonies. During the American Revolution (1775-1783) the rate of migration increased as Loyalists (colonists loyal to the king) fled from the rebelling colonies.
1781Spain occupied the Gulf Coast.
Across the Mississippi River from West Florida was the remainder of Louisiana, now governed by Spain. During the American Revolution, Spain declared war on Great Britain. The governor of Louisiana, Bernardo de Gálvez, led Spanish forces that captured major settlements in West Florida, including Baton Rouge, Natchez, and Pensacola. In 1781 Gálvez took over the administration of the region. Great Britain ceded West Florida to Spain in the peace treaty of 1783.
1798The Mississippi Territory was organized.
Three years later, in 1798, Spain withdrew its forces from the area north of the boundary. The Congress of the United States then created the Mississippi Territory on April 7, 1798. The new territory was bounded on the north by a line drawn east from the mouth of the Yazoo River, on the south by latitude 31° north, on the west by the Mississippi River, and on the east by the Chattahoochee River, which now forms part of the eastern border of Alabama. A former Georgia governor, George Matthews, was appointed the territorial governor. Natchez was designated the first territorial capital. In 1802 the capital was moved to nearby Washington.
1817Mississippi became the 20th state on December 10.
Statehood. In 1817, Congress divided the Mississippi Territory into the state of Mississippi and the Alabama Territory. On December 10, 1817, Mississippi was admitted to the Union as the 20th state. The first Mississippi state governor, David Holmes, had been territorial governor since 1809. Columbia, Natchez, and Washington served as the state capital at various times until Jackson became the capital in 1822.
In territorial days, Indian tribes had controlled almost two-thirds of Mississippi. The tribes gradually gave up their lands to the U.S. government. By 1832, most of the Indians had moved to the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).
1861Mississippi seceded from the Union.
In January 1861, a convention met in the Old Capitol in Jackson and adopted the Ordinance of Secession. Mississippi became the second state, after South Carolina, to secede from the Union. About five weeks later, Jefferson Davis of Mississippi became president of the Confederacy. He had been a soldier, planter, and a U.S. senator. Davis also had served as secretary of war under President Franklin Pierce. Union and Confederate forces clashed in many places in Mississippi and on its borders. Important battles were fought.
1863Union forces captured Vicksburg in the Civil War.
The Battle of Vicksburg ranks as the most important military action in Mississippi. The Confederate stronghold in Vicksburg fell to General Ulysses S. Grant’s Union forces on July 4, 1863, after a 47-day siege. The capture of Vicksburg gave the Union control of the Mississippi River. The Union victories at Vicksburg and Gettysburg marked the turning point of the Civil War.
1870Mississippi was readmitted to the Union.
After the war, in 1867, the United States placed Mississippi under military rule during the Reconstruction period. Mississippi was readmitted to the Union in 1870. After adopting a new state constitution and ratifying Amendments 14 and 15 of the United States Constitution. It took many years for the state to recover from its war losses. After Reconstruction ended in 1876, whites in Mississippi, as in the other Southern states, refused to share political power with blacks. Blacks throughout the South gradually lost most of the rights they had gained after the Civil War.
1939Petroleum was discovered at Tinsley and Mississippi became one of the ten leading states in oil production.
1954The Mississippi legislature passed a law banning required union membership.
After the war, the state’s industrial development continued. In 1954, the legislature passed a right-to-work law. This law provided that no worker has to join a union if he or she does not want to do so. The law became part of the state’s Constitution in 1960.
1960Mississippi passed laws that broadened the tax-free privilege of industrial properties.
During the 1960’s, Mississippi worked to attract new industries. The increasing mechanization of agriculture had created a surplus of farm labour, and Mississippi leaders wanted new industries that could employ former farm workers. The legislature passed laws in 1960 broadening the tax-free position of industry.
1964Atomic scientists set off the first nuclear test explosion east of the Mississippi River at Baxterville, Miss.
1969A federal court ordered the desegregation of Mississippi’s public schools.
In the fall of 1964, the first public schools in Mississippi began to desegregate. In 1969, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered an immediate end to all segregated public schools. As a result, a federal court in New Orleans ordered 33 Mississippi school districts to desegregate by December 1969. Many white people opened segregated private schools and enrolled their children. Also in 1969 Charles Evers became the first black mayor in Mississippi since Reconstruction. He was elected in Fayette.
1991Kirk Fordice became the first Republican to be elected governor of Mississippi since 1874.
Today, Mississippi is a major contributor to USA. One contribution is an immense forestry industry. About 54 percent of the state is covered by slash and loblolly pine trees. There is also an abundance of tung trees, which are used for their oil. A major forest in Mississippi is the Piney Woods, which are located in the southeastern portion of the state. The lakes formed by dams on the Yazoo, Pearl, and Tennessee Rivers supply hydroelectric power to most of the state.
Mississippi is rich in culture and history because of the many different groups of people who impacted it through the decades. There have been times of plenty and those of hardship, especially the years surrounding servility. Today, Mississippi faces the challenge of fully developing its economic program. Local and state government is still organized to meet the needs of an agricultural, rural society and needs to be modernized to deal with economic problems effectively.
