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The state has a population of approximately 3 million. \u00a0It is the 32nd most extensive and the 32nd most populous of the 50 United States. \u00a0Located in the center of the state, Jackson is the state capital and largest city, with a population of approximately 175,000 people.<\/p>\n The state’s name is derived from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary. Settlers named it after the Ojibwe<\/a> word misi-ziibi (“Great River”).<\/p>\n Mississippi is bordered to the north by Tennessee, to the east by Alabama, to the south by Louisiana and a narrow coast on the Gulf of Mexico; and to the west, across the Mississippi River, by Louisiana and Arkansas.<\/p>\n Mississippi is entirely composed of lowlands, the highest point being Woodall Mountain<\/a>, in the foothills of the Cumberland Mountains<\/a>, 807 feet above sea level.\u00a0 The lowest point is sea level at the Gulf coast. The state’s mean elevation is 300 feet above sea level.<\/p>\n Most of Mississippi is part of the East Gulf Coastal Plain<\/a>. \u00a0The coastal plain is generally composed of low hills, such as the Pine Hills in the south and the North Central Hills. \u00a0The Pontotoc Ridge and the Fall Line Hills in the northeast have somewhat higher elevations. \u00a0Yellow-brown loess soil<\/a> is found in the western parts of the state. The northeast is a region of fertile black earth that extends into the Alabama Black Bel<\/a>t.<\/p>\n The coastline includes large bays at Bay St. Louis<\/a>, Biloxi<\/a>, and Pascagoula<\/a>. \u00a0It is separated from the Gulf of Mexico proper by the shallow Mississippi Sound.<\/p>\n The northwest remainder of the state consists of the Mississippi Delta, a section of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain<\/a>. The plain is narrow in the south and widens north of Vicksburg<\/a>. he region has rich soil, partly made up of silt which had been regularly deposited by the flood waters of the Mississippi River.<\/p>\n Near 10,000 BC Native Americans or Paleo-Indians arrived in what today is referred to as the American South.<\/p>\n After thousands of years, succeeding cultures of the Woodland<\/a> and Mississippian culture<\/a> eras developed rich and complex agricultural societies, in which surplus supported the development of specialized trades. \u00a0Both were mound builder cultures. \u00a0The peoples had a trading network spanning the continent from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast. \u00a0Their large earthworks, which expressed their cosmology of political and religious concepts, still stand throughout the Mississippi and Ohio River valleys.<\/p>\n Descendant Native American tribes of the Mississippian culture in the Southeast include the Chickasaw<\/a> and Choctaw<\/a>. \u00a0Other tribes who inhabited the territory of Mississippi include the Natchez<\/a>, the Yazoo<\/a>, and the Biloxi<\/a>.<\/p>\n The first major European expedition into the territory that became Mississippi was that of the Spanish explorer, Hernando de Soto<\/a>, who passed through the northeast part of the state in 1540, in his second expedition to the New World.<\/p>\n In April 1699, French colonists established the first European settlement at Fort Maurepas<\/a>, built in the vicinity of present-day Ocean Springs<\/a> on the Gulf Coast. \u00a0It was settled by Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville<\/a>. \u00a0In 1716, the French founded Natchez on the Mississippi River (as Fort Rosalie<\/a>); it became the dominant town and trading post of the area. The French called the greater territory “New France”; the Spanish continued to claim part of the Gulf coast area (east of Mobile Bay) of present-day southern Alabama, in addition to the entire area of present-day Florida.<\/p>\n Through the 18th century, the area was ruled variously by Spanish, French, and British colonial governments. \u00a0After Great Britain’s victory in the French and Indian War<\/a> (Seven Years’ War), the French surrendered the Mississippi area to them under the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1763)<\/a>. \u00a0They also ceded their areas to the north that were east of the Mississippi River, including the Illinois Country and Quebec. \u00a0After the Peace of Paris (1783<\/a>), the lower third of Mississippi came under Spanish rule as part of West Florida<\/a>. \u00a0In 1819 the United States completed the purchase of West Florida and all of East Florida in the Adams\u2013On\u00eds Treaty<\/a>, and in 1822 both were merged into the Florida Territory<\/a>.<\/p>\n After the American Revolution, Britain ceded this area to the new United States of America. \u00a0The Mississippi Territory<\/a> was organized on April 7, 1798, from territory ceded by Georgia and South Carolina to the United States. \u00a0Their original colonial charters theoretically extended west to the Pacific Ocean. The Mississippi Territory was later twice expanded to include disputed territory claimed by both the United States and Spain.<\/p>\n From 1800 to about 1830, the United States purchased some lands through the Treaty of Doak’s Stand<\/a>, from Native American tribes for new settlements of European Americans.\u00a0 On September 27, 1830, the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek<\/a> was signed between the U.S. Government and the Choctaw. \u00a0The Choctaw agreed to sell their traditional homelands in Mississippi and Alabama, for compensation and removal to reservations in Indian Territory<\/a>, now Oklahoma.\u00a0 Federally recognized tribes include the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.<\/p>\n On December 10, 1817, Mississippi was the 20th state admitted to the Union.<\/p>\n Plantations were developed primarily along the major rivers, where the waterfront provided access to the major transportation routes. \u00a0This is also where early towns developed, linked by the steamboats that carried commercial products and crops to markets.<\/p>\n When cotton was king during the 1850s, Mississippi plantation owners, especially those of the Delta and Black Belt central regions, became wealthy due to the high fertility of the soil, the high price of cotton on the international market, and free labor gained through their enslavement of African peoples.<\/p>\n On January 9, 1861, Mississippi became the second state to declare its secession from the Union, and it was one of the founding members of the Confederate States. \u00a0The first six states to secede were those with the highest number of slaves. \u00a0During the war, Union and Confederate forces struggled for dominance on the Mississippi River, critical to supply routes and commerce. \u00a0More than 80,000 Mississippians fought in the Civil War, and casualties were extremely heavy. \u00a0Union General Ulysses S. Grant<\/a>‘s long siege of Vicksburg<\/a> finally gained the Union control of the river in 1863.<\/p>\n Starting about 1913, tens of thousands of black Americans left Mississippi for the North in the Great Migration<\/a> to industrial cities such as St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Philadelphia and New York. They sought jobs, better education for their children, the right to vote, relative freedom from discrimination, and better living. \u00a0Most migrants from Mississippi took trains directly north to Chicago and often settled near former neighbors.<\/p>\n In the early 20th century, some industries were established in Mississippi, but jobs were generally restricted to whites, including child workers. \u00a0The lack of jobs also drove some southern whites north to cities such as Chicago and Detroit, seeking employment, where they also competed with European immigrants. \u00a0The state depended on agriculture, but mechanization put many farm laborers out of work.<\/p>\n The Second Great Migration from the South<\/a> started in the 1940s, lasting until 1970. \u00a0Almost half a million people left Mississippi in the second migration, three-quarters of them black. \u00a0Nationwide during the first half of the 20th century, African Americans became rapidly urbanized and many worked in industrial jobs. The Second Great Migration included destinations in the West, especially California, where the buildup of the defense industry offered higher paying jobs to both African Americans and whites.<\/p>\n In 1966, the state was the last to repeal officially statewide prohibition of alcohol.<\/p>\n In 1987, 20 years after the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled in 1967’s Loving v. Virginia<\/a> that a similar Virginian law was unconstitutional, Mississippi repealed its ban on interracial marriage (also known as miscegenation), which had been enacted in 1890. \u00a0It also repealed the segregationist-era poll tax in 1989. \u00a0In 1995, the state symbolically ratified the Thirteenth Amendment<\/a>, which had abolished slavery in 1865.<\/p>\n On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina<\/a>, though a Category 3 storm upon final landfall, caused even greater destruction across the entire 90 miles of the Mississippi Gulf Coast from Louisiana to Alabama.<\/p>\n The Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that Mississippi’s total state product in 2010 was $98 billion.\u00a0 Per capita personal income in 2006 was $26,908, the lowest per capita personal income of any state, but the state also has the nation’s lowest living costs<\/p>\n A largely rural state with agricultural areas dominated by industrial farms, Mississippi is ranked low or last among the states in such measures as health, educational attainment, and median household income.\u00a0 The state’s catfish aquaculture<\/a> farms produce the majority of farm-raised catfish consumed in the United States.<\/p>\n Mississippi’s rank as one of the poorest states is related to its dependence on cotton agriculture before and after the Civil War, late development of its frontier bottomlands in the Mississippi Delta, repeated natural disasters of flooding in the late 19th and early 20th century that required massive capital investment in levees, and ditching and draining the bottomlands, and slow development of railroads to link bottomland towns and river cities.\u00a0 In addition, when Democrats regained control of the state legislature, they passed the 1890 constitution that discouraged corporate industrial development in favor of rural agriculture, a legacy that would slow the state’s progress for years.<\/p>\n The legislature’s 1990 decision to legalize casino gambling along the Mississippi River and the Gulf Coast<\/a> has led to increased revenues and economic gains for the state. \u00a0Gambling towns in Mississippi have attracted increased tourism: they include the Gulf Coast resort towns of Bay St. Louis, Gulfport<\/a> and Biloxi, and the Mississippi River towns of Tunica<\/a> (the third largest gaming area in the United States), Greenville<\/a>, Vicksburg and Natchez.<\/p>\n Before Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, Mississippi was the second-largest gambling state in the Union, after Nevada and ahead of New Jersey.\u00a0 An estimated $500,000 per day in tax revenue was lost following Hurricane Katrina’s severe damage to several coastal casinos in Biloxi in August 2005.<\/p>\n In 2012, Mississippi had the sixth largest gambling revenue of any state, with $2.25 billion.<\/p>\n Mississippi has some major automotive factories, such as the Toyota Mississippi Plant<\/a> in Blue Springs<\/a> and a Nissan Automotive plant in Canton.<\/a><\/p>\n Mississippi has two international airports, one in Jackson (Jackson-Evers International Airport<\/a>) and one in Gulfport (Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport<\/a>).<\/p>\n Mississippi is served by nine interstate highways: I-10<\/a>, I-20<\/a>, I-22<\/a>, I-55<\/a>, I-59<\/a>, I-69.<\/a>.<\/p>\n Amtrak provides scheduled passenger service along two routes, the Crescent<\/a> and City of New Orleans<\/a>. Prior to severe damage from Hurricane Katrina, the Sunset Limited<\/a> traversed the far south of the state; the route originated in Los Angeles, California and it terminated in Florida.<\/p>\n The flag of the state of Mississippi was first adopted in April 1894, replacing the unofficial flag that had been adopted in 1861 when Mississippi was a Confederate state. \u00a0The flag was repealed in 1906 but remained in de facto use. \u00a0When a referendum failed for a new design in April 2001, the state legislature voted to readopt the historic design that same month.\u00a0 Since Georgia adopted a new state flag in 2003, the Mississippi flag is the only U.S. state flag to include the Confederate battle flag’s saltire<\/a>.<\/p>\n Before 1861, Mississippi, like most other states, did not have an official state flag. \u00a0When Mississippi declared its secession from the Union on January 9, 1861, near the start of the American Civil War, spectators in the balcony handed a Bonnie Blue Flag down to the Secession Convention delegates on the floor, and one was raised over the capitol building in Jackson as a sign of independence.<\/p>\n The first official flag of Mississippi was known as the Magnolia Flag. \u00a0It was the official flag of the state from 1861 until 1865. \u00a0It remained in use as an unofficial flag until 1894, when the current state flag was first adopted.<\/p>\n The state of Mississippi did not have an official state flag from 1906-2001. \u00a0Nonetheless, the 1894 flag continued to be used as the de facto state flag until it was officially readopted by the state legislature on April 17, 2001.\u00a0 There had been widespread protests by some African-American and other civil rights groups about adopting the flag with the Confederate emblem.<\/p>\n In January 2001 then-Governor Ronnie Musgrove<\/a> appointed an independent commission which developed a new proposed design.\u00a0 On April 17, 2001, a non-binding state referendum to change the flag was put before Mississippi voters. \u00a0The proposal would have replaced the Confederate battle flag with a blue canton with 20 stars. \u00a0The outer ring of 13 stars would represent the original Thirteen Colonies, the ring of six stars would represent the six nations that have had sovereignty over Mississippi Territory (various Native American nations as a collective nation, French Empire, Spanish Empire, Great Britain, the United States, and the Confederacy), and the inner and slightly larger star would represent Mississippi itself. \u00a0The 20 stars would also represent Mississippi’s status as the 20th member of the United States.\u00a0 The referendum for a new flag was defeated in a vote of 64% to 36% and the 1894 flag was retained.<\/p>\n Several municipalities and schools in Mississippi, including the University of Mississippi<\/a>, Mississippi State University<\/a>, and the city of Biloxi, are now refusing to fly the state flag until the Confederate emblem is removed.\u00a0 Over 20 flag-related bills, some calling for another statewide referendum, were introduced in the state legislature, but none were adopted.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/08\/Jackson-300x110.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
Geography:<\/h2>\n
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History:<\/h2>\n
Pre-History:<\/h3>\n
Native Americans:<\/h3>\n
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Colonia Era:<\/h3>\n
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Mississippi Territory:<\/h3>\n
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Statehood:<\/h3>\n
Civil War:<\/h3>\n
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20th Century to Present:<\/h3>\n
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Economy:<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nTransportation:<\/h2>\n
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Flag of Mississippi:<\/h2>\n
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State Nickname:<\/h2>\n
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