Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Master's Theses Graduate School 2004 A settlement of great consequence: the development of the Natchez District, 1763-1860 Lee Davis Smith Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Smith, Lee Davis, "A settlement of great consequence: the development of the Natchez District, 1763-1860" (2004). LSU Master's Theses. 2133. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses/2133 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Master's Theses by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A SETTLEMENT OF GREAT CONSEQUENCE: THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE NATCHEZ DISTRICT, 1763 - 1860 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in The Department of History by Lee Davis Smith B.A., Louisiana State University, 2002 August, 2004 Acknowledgments I would like to thank Dr. Tiwanna M. Simpson for her careful guidance and steadfast support throughout the process of writing this thesis. Her ability to give me freedom, yet reel me back in when necessary, has been invaluable. I treasure her friendship and her counsel. Dr. Rodger M. Payne has opened my eyes to the true significance of religion in America, and I thank him for shining a spotlight where I had previously held a candle. Dr. William J. Cooper, Jr. has provided inestimable assistance in his agreement to read and critique my work, and I thank him for his example of scholarship and professionalism. My husband Stephen has kept me fed and watered during this process, never complained about my work schedule, and took me to the beach at just the right times. My daughters Meghan and Johanna have kept me from taking myself too seriously. Finally, I would like to thank my parents for my love of history; a childhood trip to Williamsburg and Washington, D.C. planted a seed that continued to grow over several decades. Although they are no longer here to see the fruit of their care, I know they are smiling. ii Table of Contents Acknowledgments . ii List of Tables . iv List of Maps . .v Abstract . .vi Introduction . 1 Chapter One. The People and the Crown . 13 Chapter Two. The Land and the Economy . 39 Chapter Three. Society and Religion . 62 Conclusion . 83 Bibliography . 88 Appendix A: The Royal Proclamation - October 7, 1763 . .97 Appendix B: An Act for the Regulation and Government of Negroes and Slaves, December 24, 1766 . .104 Vita . 120 iii List of Tables 1. The Colonial Population in the Lower Mississippi Valley, 1785 . 29 2. Population of Natchez, 1726 . 29 3. Total Population of Adams, Claiborne, Jefferson, and Wilkinson Counties, 1800-1860 . 44 iv List of Maps 1. The Natchez District . 5 2. Territorial Division of North America after the Treaty of Paris, 1763 and the Proclamation Line of 1763 . .17 v Abstract This study examines the events, conditions, and circumstances that influenced the development of the Natchez District of West Florida from its acquisition by Great Britain in 1763 until the eve of the Civil War. The strong relationship between West Florida and the “original thirteen” colonies created a dynamic area of Revolutionary and antebellum era growth in West Florida, and particularly in the Natchez District. Eighteenth century westward migration of seaboard colonists exerted pressure on native Americans. At the same time, the British troops remaining in America following the French and Indian War applied social and economic pressure to colonists. Colonial officials recognized the need to disperse the population in order to ease tensions while still keeping colonists close enough to prevent them from feeling truly independent of England. West Florida provided a safety valve to mitigate these pressures. The exceptional quality of the land and climate in the Natchez District attracted settlers who created a successful agricultural economy based on a slave labor system. When the focus shifted to cotton after 1790, the plantation system built around previous tobacco culture was already in place. Beginning about 1795, cotton production drove the economy of the Natchez District and encouraged the expansion of an elite planter class at least as affluent and progressive as those in more established colonies farther north. Until approximately 1830 Protestantism vied with the civil religion of land, slaves, and cotton for primacy in the Natchez District. After that, evangelicals and the wealthy moved closer to agreement on issues of slavery and wealth. Evangelicals, the planter elite, and slaves approached religion in their own ways, both secular and traditional, and adhered to systems of worship that corresponded to their own particular needs. vi By the eve of the Civil War the combination of these factors created a dynamic agricultural area with a cosmopolitan feel, yet firmly entrenched in the Bible Belt. vii Introduction Studies of colonial America frequently focus on the thirteen colonies located on the eastern seaboard of the North American continent. More recent scholarship has discovered an appreciation for areas outside the North American continent; the interaction between the mainland colonies, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic World have recently become topics newly relevant in the rapidly evolving age of the global economy.1 The influence of Indian groups with regard to settlement viability, trade, and European political goals also represents a growing theme of interest in historical scholarship; Karen Ordahl Kupperman’s Indians & English: Facing Off in Early America provides a comprehensive look at this relationship.2 Works on colonial slaves and women, two areas particularly difficult to document, continue to appear.3 However, the settlement of colonies outside the “original thirteen,” such as the British colonies of East and West Florida, and particularly the region of West Florida called the Natchez District, frequently remain at the fringe of colonial study, just as the territory occupied a physical space on the fringe of the North American continent.4 Although physically separated from the northern colonies by vast expanses of Turnerian wilderness and from the Caribbean islands by the Gulf of Mexico, from the acquisition of West Florida by the British in 1763 the area experienced many of the same political and social forces as the older colonies, and played an important part in the creation of the American Republic and, eventually, the distinctive nature of the American South. In his 1976 book, Tories, Dons, and Rebels: The American Revolution in British West Florida, J. Barton Starr noted the paucity of work on the history of west Florida until the 1940s. Starr’s 1 One of the newer sources is T.H. Breen, Colonial America in an Atlantic World: A Story of Creative Interaction (New York: Pearson-Longman, 2004). 2 Karen Ordahl Kupperman, Indians & English: Facing Off in Early America (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000.) 3 For example, see Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England, 1650-1750 (New York: Vintage Books, 1991). 4 One recent exception is Paul E. Hoffman, Florida’s Frontiers (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002). 1 book, in addition to works by Robin Fabel, Robert Rea, and Cecil Johnson, represent studies of various aspects of West Florida history.5 However, more recent publications regarding the synthesis of political, cultural, economic, social, and religious factors in the early Natchez District are scarce, and the subject merits additional study. This study examines the development of the Natchez District from its acquisition by England in 1763 until the antebellum period, and focuses upon the political, geographic, economic, social, and religious factors that transformed it from a sparsely settled frontier into an important region in the cotton South. Perhaps one of the greatest errors that occurs from the Natchez District’s exclusion from colonial study is the failure to acknowledge its connection to the American Revolution. The forces of republicanism, liberty, and freedom that contributed to the split between England and her American colonies certainly flourished in the Natchez District, but British efforts to maintain loyalty and to circumvent revolution literally helped to create this focal point of the antebellum cotton South. Through land-granting policies that included allotments based on military rank to a royal mandamus system that resulted in individual grants of thousands of acres each, British officials hoped to curry and maintain favor with loyal subjects. The granting of lands far from the seat of American conflict had additional effects as well: the practice eased population pressure on colonists and local Indian groups, answered requests for fresh land, and provided an escape route for loyalists and others wishing to flee the brewing conflict. The establishment and growth of the Natchez District evolved directly from some of the same conflicts that influenced the Revolutionary War. Many factors drove the colonization of North America in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. European nations, particularly Spain, France, and Great Britain, constantly 5 J. Barton Starr, Tories, Dons, and Rebels: The American Revolution in British West Florida (Gainesville: University Presses of Florida, 1976), v-vi. 2 struggled for political, economic, and military superiority in an imperialistic search for newly explored lands, gold, and prestige. Spain staked her claim in the Caribbean and the southeastern edge of the continent, as well as parts of Mexico and the west coast; France took some Caribbean islands as well, and coastwise lands along the Gulf of Mexico extending north a short distance along the Mississippi River; the Dutch also procured West Indian islands and established their presence in the northeastern part of the North American continent.