History of Mississippi

The history of the state of Mississippi extends back to thousands of years of indigenous peoples. Evidence of their cultures has been found largely through archeological excavations, as well as existing remains of earthwork mounds built thousands of years ago. Native American traditions were kept through oral histories; with Europeans recording the accounts of historic peoples they encountered. Since the late 20th century, there have been increased studies of the Native American tribes and reliance on their oral histories to document their cultures. Their accounts have been correlated with evidence of natural events.

Initial colonization of the region was carried out by the French. France ceded its control over portions of the region to Spain and Britain, particularly along the Gulf Coast. European-American settlers did not enter the territory in great number until the early 19th century. Rich American settlers brought many enslaved Africans with them to serve as laborers to develop cotton plantations along major riverfronts. On December 10, 1817, Mississippi became a state of the United States. Through the 1830s, the federal government bought out most of the native Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes west of the Mississippi River. American planters developed an economy based on the export of cotton produced by slave labor along the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers. A small elite group of planters controlled most of the richest land, the wealth, and politics of the state; Mississippi seceded in 1861 and joined the Confederate States of America. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), control of the Mississippi River was a vital goal of both sides, with the Union in control by 1863. The Union Army had full control by 1865 and slavery was abolished. Mississippi entered the Reconstruction era (1865–1877).

The bottomlands of the Mississippi Delta were still 90% undeveloped after the Civil War. Thousands of migrants, both black and white, entered this area for a chance at land ownership. They sold timber while clearing land to raise money for purchases. During the Reconstruction era, many freedmen became owners of small farms in these areas, and by 1900, composed two-thirds of the property owners in the Mississippi Delta. Democrats regained control of the state in 1875 and in 1890 passed a disfranchising constitution, resulting in the exclusion of African Americans from political life until the mid-1960s. In the era of Jim Crow laws Blacks lost all political power and social status. The postwar sharp decline in cotton prices hurt the state economy. There was growth in the lumber industry, and railroads were built. However, there was were few factories or cities. By 1900, African Americans in the state were typically farm laborers or landless sharecroppers or tenant farmers. The state continued to rely mostly on agriculture and timber, but by the 1940s mechanization meant the end of a demand for labor to pick cotton.

During the 1910 to 1960 period two waves of the Great Migration led to hundreds of thousands of blacks leaving the state for cities in the North, such as St. Louis and Chicago. By 1930 African Americans were a minority of the state population. They were still a majority in the cotton-growing Delta counties. The Civil Rights Movement during the 1950s and 1960s saw African Americans organize. Thanks to new federal laws in the 1960s they recovered their rights for access to public facilities, including all state universities, and the ability to register, vote, and run for office. Public places and schools were desegregated.

By the early 21st century Mississippi had made notable progress in overcoming attitudes that had impeded social, economic, and political development. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina caused severe damage along Mississippi's Gulf Coast. The tourism industry grew in the early 21st century. Mississippi expanded its professional services in cities such as Jackson, the state capital. Top industries in Mississippi today include agriculture, forestry, manufacturing, transportation and utilities, and health services. The social base of politics changed in the late 20th century as Blacks joined the liberal Democratic Party, and Whites largely switched to the conservative Republican Party.