Settling the Mississippi Territory: The Origin of Two States

The Territory That Built Two States

The Mississippi Territory existed as a political entity for nearly two decades. It stretched from the Tennessee border southward to the Gulf of Mexico and was bounded on the east by the state of Georgia and the west by the mighty Mississippi River. This enormous swath of America’s southwestern frontier in 1817 was divided into the state of Mississippi and the Alabama Territory. Two years later, Alabama entered the Union as a state. Between 1798 and 1817, the territory transitioned from a sparsely inhabited backwoods frontier to a thriving and dynamic centerpiece in one of the fastest-developing regions of the country. Mike Bunn and Clay Williams chronicle that story in a richly illustrated introduction and guide to discovery of this pivotal era.

Mike Bunn serves as the director of Historic Blakeley State Park in Spanish Fort, Alabama. He is the author or coauthor of several books, including Fort Stoddert: American Sentinel on the Mobile River, 1799-1814, Fourteenth Colony: The Forgotten Story of the Gulf South During America’s Revolutionary Era and The Assault on Fort Blakeley: ＂The Thunder and Lightning of Battle.＂ Clay Willams graduated from Mississippi State University with a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in history and public policy administration. He has cowritten two books, Battle for the Southern Frontier: The Creek War and the War of 1812 and Old Southwest to Old South: Mississippi, 1798-1840. He currently serves as program manager for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.