Mississippi History Timeline

Fort Maurepas was built in present day Ocean Springs by Frenchmen Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville and his brother, Jean Baptiste de Bienville, among the Biloxi, Pascagoula, Acolapissa, Quinipissa, Mugulasha, and other coastal groups.

Saint-Cosme was with the Natchez from 1700 to 1706. He was killed in late 1706 by Chitimacha Indians while traveling on the Mississippi.

They opened trade with the Choctaws who were desperate for arms under pressure from the Chickasaws.   Henri de Tonti attempted to broker peace between Choctaws and Chickasaws, and established a one or two year cease fire.

D’Iberville died of sickness while fighting the English in the Caribbean during Queen Anne’s War (War of Spanish Succession).

They settled on the lower Yazoo River north of present-day Vicksburg.  Shortly thereafter, the Tunica moved out of Mississippi to Portage de la Croix on the  Mississippi River, just south of Wilkinson County.

The brides carried a plague that killed 22 of the settlers.

The women were unhappy with the hard life in the colony and wanted to return to France, but they were not allowed to leave.

He did not arrive until 1713.  Bieville was demoted to lieutenant governor.

The king gave Antoine Crozat a monopoly on trade and manufacturing over colony.

The French discovered that the British were already trading with the Natchez.

The war was in response to the British Indian slave trade. Charlestowne and Port Royal were partially burned, and townspeople survived by retreating to ships at anchor in bay. Many English traders were killed in the Indian towns across the Southeast. Chickasaws and some upper Creeks alone protected their British traders. The Chickasaws allowed their British traders to be killed.

Over the next thirteen years, the French colony at Natchez grew. However, disputes and misunderstandings between the French and the Natchez later resulted in a series of conflicts.

The French crown had awarded the Louisiana concession to Antoine Crozat in 1712. When Crozat surrendered his monopoly, it went to John Law’s Company of the West. Law’s company was renamed Company of the Indies in 1719.

They were brought to Mississippi by the Company of the West.

After Crozat lost his charter, Law began a joint-stock company, the Mississippi Company,  and received a charter of his own, promising high profits to share-holders.

The Chickasaw interrupted French traffic on the Mississippi River, and the French continued to place bounty on Chickasaw scalps. Many smaller tribes aligned with and moved to either tribe.

The code regulated slavery, requiring masters to provide food and clothing and forbidding the sale of husbands and wives separately.

Chickasaw and English involvement was suspected in the massacre, which took place on the lower Yazoo River north of present-day Vicksburg.

The Natchez massacred French settlers and garrison, including Commandant Sieur de Chepart, at Fort Rosalie in an effort to drive out Europeans. Hundreds of slaves were set free.

The French besiege the Natchez on St. Catherine’s Creek, driving the Natchez from their homes.  The Natchez splintered and sought refuge in Louisiana, with the Chickasaws at Tupelo, and eventually among Upper Creeks, Cherokees, and Catawbas.

The surviving Tunicas moved further downriver to location at Trudeau, Louisiana.

Bienville led French troops in an attack on the Chickasaw Indians near present-day Lee County.  Chickasaw defeated French at the Battle of Ackia and the Battle of Ogoula Tchetoka.

War broke out between French and British trading factions. Hundreds were killed, and many towns were burned. The war ended in 1750.