United States historic place in Mississippi
United States historic place
The
Natchez Revolt
of 1729 with Fort Rosalie in the background from a panoramic painting by John Egan, circa 1850
A postcard of the ruins of Fort Panmure, 1907
The site where the fort once stood
Fort Rosalie
was built by the French in 1716 within the territory of the
Natchez
Native Americans
as part of the
French colonial empire
in the present-day city of
Natchez, Mississippi
.
Early history
[
edit
]
As part of the peace terms that ended the First Natchez War in 1716,
Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville
required the Natchez to build a fort by providing materials and labor. Sited close to the main Natchez settlement of
Grand Village
, Fort Rosalie served as the primary French stronghold and
trading post
among the Natchez.
French settlements and
tobacco
plantations
were established in Natchez territory, with the fort serving as the local seat of colonial government. Growing tension between the French and the Natchez erupted into violence several times during the 1720s, culminating in a massive
Natchez attack
on November 29, 1729.
[1]
They destroyed the entire French settlement, killing nearly all the men and taking hundreds of women and children captive.
The Natchez seized and occupied Fort Rosalie.
Retaliation by the French and allied
Choctaw
forces in early 1730 forced the Natchez to evacuate, leaving the fort in ruins. Through 1731, the French, with their more numerous Indian allies, continued to war with the Natchez until 1731, killing, capturing or dispersing most of the Natchez until they ceased to exist as a tribe. The French sold many of the surviving Natchez into slavery, many destined for French plantations in the
Caribbean
. Some escaped and found refuge among the
Chickasaw
,
Creek
, and
Cherokee
of the region. The French rebuilt Fort Rosalie in the early 1730s.
Fort Panmure
[
edit
]
Following the
Treaty of Paris
in 1763 after the British won the
Seven Years' War
, the French ceded the fort and part of present-day Louisiana to British control (with
New Orleans
and the land west of the
Mississippi River
going to
Spain
). The British renamed the fort
Fort Panmure.
The British fort was named after
William Maule
who was the
Earl of Panmure
.
[3]
Capture of Fort Panmure
[
edit
]
The British controlled the fort for 16 years?from that cession (1763) until the Spanish campaign under Galvez in 1779. After
Bernardo de Galvez
conquered Baton Rouge (1779), Fort Panmure capitulated without further Spanish action. Spanish military intervention was only required in 1781 to put down a rebellion by local settlers loyal to Britain.
[4]
Galvez was the Governor of
Spanish Luisiana
and Commander of the troops of the
Catholic Majesty
.
[5]
During the
American Revolutionary War
, Spain declared war against
Great Britain
and held control of the fort from 1779 to 1798. After 1798, the
United States
took over, establishing the
Mississippi Territory
with Natchez as its first territorial capital.
Today
[
edit
]
The U.S. abandoned the fort in 1804. The city of Natchez traces its origin to the founding of Fort Rosalie in 1716. Today the site of the fort is part of
Natchez National Historical Park
.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Register, James (1969).
Fort Rosalie, the French at Old Natchez: 1682?1762
. Shreveport, Louisiana: Mid-South Press. pp. 94?100.
- ^
Leeper, Clare D'Artois (19 October 2012).
Louisiana Place Names: Popular, Unusual, and Forgotten Stories of Towns, Cities, Plantations, Bayous, and Even Some Cemeteries
. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: LSU Press. p. 102.
ISBN
978-0-8071-4740-5
.
- ^
Rowland, Dunbar
(1925).
History of Mississippi, the Heart of the South
. Vol. 1. Chicago, Illinois: S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. p. 289.
- ^
Rowland, Dunbar
, ed. (1907).
Encyclopedia of Mississippi History: Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons
. Vol. 1. Madison, Wisconsin: Selwyn A. Brant. pp. 736?739.
Sources
[
edit
]
- "Fort Rosalie"
.
North American Forts East: Mississippi
. Retrieved
August 4,
2021
.
- Barnett, Jim.
"The Natchez Indians"
.
Mississippi History Now
. Archived from
the original
on August 20, 2007.
- DuVal, Kathleen (2006).
"Interconnectedness and Diversity in French Louisiana"
(PDF)
. In Waselkov, Gregory A. (ed.).
Powhatan's Mantle: Indians in the Colonial Southeast, Revised and Expanded Edition
. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press.
ISBN
0-8032-9861-7
.
- Eakin, Sue; Culbertson, Manie (2006).
Louisiana: The Land and Its People
(4th ed.). Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing.
ISBN
978-1-4556-0789-1
.
- Gayarre, Charles
(1854).
History of Louisiana: The French Domination
. Vol. 1. New York, New York: Redfield.
- James, D. Clayton (1993).
Antebellum Natchez
. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: LSU Press.
ISBN
978-0-8071-1860-3
.
- Lorenz, Karl G. (2000). "The Natchez of Southwest Mississippi". In McEwan, Bonnie G. (ed.).
Indians of the Greater Southeast: Historical Archaeology and Ethnohistory
. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida.
ISBN
0-8130-1778-5
.