The 20th state admitted to the US was Mississippi on December 10th, 1817. The name, Mississippi, came from an Ojibwe word meaning "Great River". This river was key in the trade route of goods like fur and in trading Africans as slaves. Mississippi is known as "The Magnolia State" because of the Magnolia Trees that grow all throughout the state. It is also known for agriculture, manufacturing, mining, and fishing. It is said that Mississippi residents go to church more than people from any other state. This may be because it has more churches per capita than any other state in the country. The capital is Jackson. The state bird is the Mockingbird. The state tree is the Magnolia, and the state flower is the Magnolia as well.
Indigenous peoples inhabited Mississippi over 12,000 years ago. Tribes from the Choctow, Chickasaw, Quapaw, Osage, Caddo, Natchez, and Tunica occupied lower Mississippi, while the Sioux, Sauk and Fox, Ojibwe (Chippewa), Pottawatomie, Illini, Menominee, and Ho-chunk (Winnebago) occupied upper Mississippi. In 1716, the first French settlers arrived in Natchez, the oldest city on the Mississippi River. France would eventually cede their control over large parts of Mississippi to Spain and Britain. In 1718, French officials created rules for allowing Africans to be imported into the Biloxi region. By 1719, the very first African slaves arrived as Caribbean Creoles. Between 1763 and 1779, British tradesmen brought over Jamaican-born Africans to the Natchez region. The late 1700's and early 1800's became a time of Indian slave trading. Some tribes raided others to offer slaves to sell to the Europeans. By the early 1800's, the Indian slave trade died out, and the African slave trade became the focus. Indigenous Native Indians traded fur with the white settlers, until the Indian Removal Act of 1830. About one third of them found a way to stay in their homes, and in 1832, they led a running battle led by Black Hawk that ended in a massacre with over 150 members of Black Hawk's band that were killed on the banks of the Mississippi.
By 1860, Mississippi was the largest producer of cotton with over half of the population as slaves. On March 23rd, 1861, it seceded from the Union as one of the seven Confederate States, and was restored to the Union on February 23rd, 1870 after the Civil War. During the late 1800's, there was a Reconstruction era when many freed men became farm owners, but by 1890, a disfranchising constitution resulted in the exclusions of African Americans from politics. It wasn't restored until the mid-1960's. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950-1960's created rights to public facilities, universities, public office, and the ability to vote or run for office as an African American. As for the Indigenous tribes that first lived on the land, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians are the only federally recognized Native American tribe in the state.
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