Unincorporated community in Mississippi, United States
June 1864 sketch map of Fort Adams, Mississippi
Fort Adams
is a small, river
port
community in
Wilkinson County
,
Mississippi
,
United States
,
[1]
about 40 miles (64 km) south of
Natchez
. It is notable for having been the U.S.
port of entry
on the
Mississippi River
, before the acquisition of
New Orleans
; it was the site of an early
fort
by that name.
The town was called Wilkinburg and was incorporated in 1798. Prior to that time, the community was known as Loftus Heights and formerly had been a
Jesuit
mission called the Rock of Davion, first settled as such circa 1689?1700.
This is also the site where the
Choctaw
Treaty of Fort Adams
was signed in 1801.
History
[
edit
]
Around 1700, a
French
priest
named Father Albert Davion established a
mission
on the Mississippi River bluffs at or near the site of Fort Adams. The mission, which was established to bring
Christianity
to local
Indians
, became a landmark and stopping place for people traveling on the river or on the overland trails that connected Natchez with
New Orleans
. Davion left the mission by 1720, but the site continued to be called
Roche Davion
(Davion's Rock) for many years thereafter. It acquired the name Loftus Heights in 1764, when a British expeditionary force led by Major Arthur Loftus was ended after being attacked by Indians at this site.
[2]
The site became Fort Adams after the United States and
Spain
settled a
boundary dispute
over parts of what is now southern Mississippi. The
Treaty of San Lorenzo
(Pinckney's Treaty), signed in 1795, established
latitude
31 N as the boundary between
Spanish West Florida
and
Mississippi Territory
. U.S. General
James Wilkinson
selected Loftus Heights for a military post in 1798 on the advice of Captain Isaac Guion. The site, on a
bluff
overlooking the Mississippi River about six miles upriver from the new international boundary, was judged to be a good position for observing and thwarting military movements on the river and was described by Wilkinson as the "most southerly tenable position within our limits." The new fort was named for the sitting
U.S. President
,
John Adams
.
[2]
In December 1801, Fort Adams was the site of the negotiation and signing of a treaty between the
Choctaw
and the United States government. The
Treaty of Fort Adams
was the first in a series of treaties that ceded Choctaw land to the U.S. government and eventually led to the expulsion of the Choctaw Nation from lands east of the Mississippi River. In exchange for 2,641,920 acres (10,691.5 km
2
) of land, the Choctaws received merchandise worth about $2,000 plus three sets of tools for
blacksmithery
.
[3]
[4]
[5]
In subsequent years, the river channel shifted away, leaving Fort Adams far from the Mississippi River. As of 1993, Fort Adams was a small community and the site of businesses that provided supplies to hunting and fishing camps in the region.
[2]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Fort Adams, Mississippi"
.
Geographic Names Information System
.
United States Geological Survey
,
United States Department of the Interior
.
- ^
a
b
c
Museum of Geoscience,
Louisiana State University
,
Cultural Resources Survey of Fort Adams Reach Revetment, Mile 312.2 to 306.0-L, Mississippi River, Wilkinson County, Mississippi
Archived
July 27, 2014, at the
Wayback Machine
.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
New Orleans District, COELMN/PD-91/04. August 1993.
- ^
Treaty with the Choctaw, 1801
Archived
2012-11-02 at the
Wayback Machine
. Compiled by Charles J. Kappler. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904. Retrieved from Oklahoma State University Library Electronic Publishing Center, March 4, 2013.
- ^
"Treaty of Fort Adams"
. Mississippi History and Genealogy Project. December 27, 2012. Archived from
the original
on January 6, 2014
. Retrieved
March 5,
2013
.
- ^
Barbara Carpenter (2009).
Ethnic Heritage in Mississippi
. University Press of Mississippi. p. 165.
ISBN
9781617033810
.
31°05′12″N
91°32′53″W
/
31.08667°N 91.54806°W
/
31.08667; -91.54806
External links
[
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]