The attraction of vast amounts of high quality, inexpensive cotton land attracted hordes of settlers, mostly from Georgia and the Carolinas, and from tobacco areas of Virginia and North Carolina at a time when growing tobacco barely made a profit. From 1798 through 1820, the population soared from less than 9,000 to more than 22,000. Migration came in two fairly distinct waves – a steady movement until the outbreak of the War of 1812, and a flood afterward from 1815 through 1819. The postwar flood was caused by various factors, including high prices for cotton, the elimination of Indian titles to much of the land, new and improved roads, and the acquisition of new direct outlets to the Gulf of Mexico. The first migrants were traders and trappers, then herdsmen, and finally planters. The uplands in the Southwest frontier developed a relatively democratic society. In the
1810 United States census, 11 counties in the Mississippi Territory (8 in
Mississippi and 3 in
Alabama) reported the following population counts (after only three reported the following counts in the
1800 United States census): At statehood in 1817 there were 14 counties: Adams, Claiborne, Jefferson (originally named
Pickering), Wilkinson, Amite, Franklin, Warren, Wayne,
Marion,
Greene,
Hancock,
Jackson,
Lawrence, and
Pike.
Cotton After 1800, the development of a cotton economy in the South changed the economic relationship of native Indians with whites and slaves in Mississippi Territory. As Native Americans ceded their lands to whites, they became more isolated from whites and blacks. A great wave of public sales of former Indian land plus white migration (with slaves) into Mississippi Territory guaranteed the dominance of the developing cotton agriculture.
Government President
John Adams appointed
Winthrop Sargent as the first governor of the Mississippi Territory, effective from May 1798 to May 1801.
William C. C. Claiborne (1775–1817), a lawyer and former Democratic-Republican Congressman from Tennessee (1797–1801), was governor and superintendent of Indian affairs in the Mississippi Territory from 1801 through 1803. Although he favored acquiring some land from the
Choctaw and
Chickasaw, Claiborne was generally sympathetic and conciliatory toward the Indians. He worked long and patiently to iron out differences that arose, and to improve the material well-being of the Indians. He was also partly successful in promoting the establishment of law and order, as when his offering of a two thousand dollar reward helped destroy a gang of outlaws headed by
Samuel Mason (1750–1803). His position on issues indicated a national rather than regional outlook, though he did not ignore his constituents. Claiborne expressed the philosophy of the Republican Party and helped that party defeat the Federalists. When a
smallpox epidemic broke out in the Spring of 1802, Claiborne's actions resulted in the first recorded mass vaccination in the territory and saved Natchez from the disease.
George Mathews, a former governor of Georgia, was appointed the governorship, though the appointment was revoked before he took office. The third governor was
Robert Williams, serving from May 1805 to March 1809.
David Holmes was the last governor of the Mississippi Territory, 1809–17. Holmes was generally successful in dealing with a variety of matters, including expansion, land policy, Indians, the
War of 1812, and the constitutional convention of 1817 (of which he was elected president). Often concerned with problems regarding
West Florida, he had a major role in 1810 in negotiations which led to the peaceful occupation of part of that territory. McCain (1967) concludes that Holmes' success was not based on brilliance, but upon kindness, unselfishness, persuasiveness, courage, honesty, diplomacy, and intelligence. The eastern half of the Mississippi Territory was labeled the
Tombigbee District and later Washington County. Ignored by the territorial government, the inhabitants were beset by hostile neighbors, militant Indians, and the usual frontier problems of competing land claims and establishment of law. Solutions to these difficulties came slowly, and were not completely resolved when the territory gained statehood as the U.S. state of
Alabama in 1819.
Law English common law dominated the development of the judicial system in the Mississippi Territory. The citizenry considered the laws imposed by
Winthrop Sargent, the territory's governor, as repressive and unconstitutional. 'Sargent's Code,' however unpopular, established the first court system for the territory and served as the precedent for later revisions. The area was in a dire need of competent judges at the end of the 18th century, at a time when the governor and three judges were supposed to write law to govern the new territory. In 1798, Sargent wrote to
Timothy Pickering, Secretary of State, that this was his "great source of uneasiness"; he was anxiously awaiting the arrival of a new judge,
William McGuire—but McGuire, who did not get to the territory in the fall of 1799, went back to his home in Virginia after only a couple of weeks. The two other judges were
Daniel Tilton, a man who had never practiced law and may have studied law only for a year (he left after an early disagreement with the governor, returning later for a brief spell), and
Peter Bryan Bruin, a merchant of whom Sargent said he was "a worthy and sensible man [but] beyond doubt deficient". "Aside from his innocence of legal knowledge, [he] was so often drunk or absent or both" (and had to resign to avoid impeachment), according to the reviewer of a 1954 study by
William Baskerville Hamilton on
Thomas Rodney, the federal judge who arrived in the territory in 1803 and helped organize it until his death in 1811. An 1802 judiciary act considerably simplified the court system. Several judicial reorganization acts followed in 1805, 1809, and 1814, though a modified form of Sargent's county court system and the considerable power held by judges continued. While the credentials of the members of the first territorial court were questionable, the quality of judges in later courts steadily grew.
War of 1812 The people of the Mississippi Territory favored
war with Britain in 1812. By 1810, belief in the national policy of economic coercion was waning in what was then called the Southwest, while desire for unrestricted trade and a vindication of national honor was rising, intermingled with desire for
Spanish Florida. However, problems of land claims, Indians,
internal improvements, and statehood issues continued to excite more local interest than the coming of war. Most saw no conflict between war issues and local interests; in fact, some foresaw war as a way of resolving certain local problems. Following a successful attack on a
white expedition at the
Battle of Burnt Corn, the
Red Sticks, a hostile faction of the
Creeks, determined to attack and destroy
Fort Mims in the eastern part Mississippi Territory (modern
Alabama). Poor scouting, an attack at noon when most of the garrison was eating, seizure of the portholes by the Indians, and inability to close the main gates were all elements in the defeat on August 30, 1813. Of the 275 to 300 whites and
multiracial people in Fort Mims at the time of the attack, between 20 and 40 escaped; therefore, about 235 to 260 whites and friendly Indians were killed in the battle. Creek losses were at least 100 killed. The massacre had significant short- and long-range effects. It triggered a
major Indian war that involved a substantial build-up of American military force in the area – which probably prevented the British from occupying an undefended
Gulf coast in 1814. More importantly, relations between Americans and the southern
Indians changed drastically. The Creeks, who had been living peacefully and in close contact with the settlers of the Mississippi Territory, lost more than half their land, and within twenty years were forced to move west of the Mississippi River. Brigadier General
Ferdinand L. Claiborne, commander of the Mississippi
militia, was not to blame for the massacre, but Major Daniel Beasley was guilty of gross negligence. At the
Battle of Horseshoe Bend on March 27, 1814, American forces and Indian allies under General
Andrew Jackson defeated the Red Sticks, killing most of the warriors and sending the rest fleeing to Florida, where they joined the
Seminole tribe. ==Public officials==