A TIME LINE OF EVENTS FROM 1540-1995
|
| 1540 |
Hernando de Soto leads an expedition into the area now known as Mississippi. The
expedition finds the Mississippi River but not the gold they sought. |
| 1699 |
Pierre le Moyne
d'Iberville leads a French expedition which cements France's claim to the area. French
settlements soon follow at Biloxi, Fort Rosalie, and Fort Maurepas. |
| 1763
|
After
losing the Seven Years War, France cedes its possessions in the lower Mississippi Valley
to Great Britain. The British divide their new lands into two colonies. The future state
of Mississippi lies in the colony known as West Florida. |
| 1798 |
The United States
creates the Mississippi Territory. This area runs about 100 miles north to south, west
from the Mississippi River to the Chattahoochee River in the east. |
| 1804 |
Congress
increases the size of Mississippi Territory so that it runs from Tennessee in the north to
the Gulf of Mexico in the south. |
| 1812 |
Congress increases
the size of Mississippi Territory. |
| 1817 |
The
western part of Mississippi Territory becomes the State of Mississippi. |
| 1819 |
The eastern half of
Mississippi Territory becomes the State of Alabama. |
| 1822 |
The
capital of Mississippi is moved from Washington to Jackson; territorial capital had long
been Natchez. |
| 1830 |
The population of
Mississippi is 136,621. 65,659 are slaves (48%). |
| 1840 |
The
population of Mississippi is 375,651. 195,211 are slaves (52%). |
| 1850 |
The 1850 and 1860
Slave Schedules enumerate the state's slave population but generally provide only
slaveholder's name, not names of slaves in the household. The population of Mississippi
this year is 606,526. 309,878 are slaves (51%). |
| 1860 |
The
population of Mississippi is 791,305. 436,631 are slaves (55%). |
| 1861 |
January 9 -
Mississippi is second state to secede from the Union. |
| 1863-1865 |
More than
18,000 Mississippi black men volunteer to serve in 11 USCT regiments during the Civil War.
Most are ex-slaves freed by the Union Army. |
| 1865 |
Approximately 54,000
Confederate soldiers are killed in action during the Civil War and another 40,000 are
mortally wounded. Another 140,000 die of various diseases, while 26,000 die in Northern
prisons. 226,000 Confederate soldiers are wounded but survive, some of them as amputees. |
| 1866 |
Nearly 1/2
of the state budget is used to buy prosthesis or crutches for Mississippi soldiers who
lost limbs during the Civil War. A shortage of these items causes a need for some amputees
to create their own until manufactured ones become available. |
| 1867 |
Some former
Confederate soldiers and politicians must apply for presidential pardons to have their
citizenship restored. |
| 1890 |
Census of
Union veterans and their widows is taken. Confederate veterans were sometimes accidentally
enumerated in this census. |
| 1907 |
The state does a
census of veterans-records available from Mississippi Department of Archives and History. |
| 1910 |
Federal
Census denotes if man is a Union or Confederate veteran with a "U" or a
"C" in the appropriate column. A boll weevil infestation of Mississippi cotton
fields causes some black Mississippi farmers and agricultural workers to head north for
jobs in industrial centers like Chicago and Detroit. |
| 1915 |
The so-called
"Great Migration" begins shortly before the start of World War I and continues
into the 1940s. The migration is fueled by racial, economic and ecological factors (see
"Ethnic Spotlight"). |
| 1912 |
The State
Department of Vital Records begins keeping copies of birth, death, and marriage records
sent in by the county courthouses. |
| 1917-1918 |
World War I brings to
a halt arrival of European immigrants who had been filling industrial jobs in the North;
many black Mississippians head north to take those jobs. |
| 1926 |
The State
Department of Vital Records has records of divorces dating from January 1, 1912, but only
the counties can make certified copies of divorce records. |
| 1927 |
The great Mississippi
River Flood of 1927 displaces thousands of farmers and agricultural workers. Many join the
"Great Migration." |
| 1995 |
Mississippi
ratifies 13th Amendment abolishing slavery 130 years after its original ratification. |
