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CONTENTS
Preface........................................................... i
Introduction...................................................... vi
Chapter	I	Prehistory of the Gulf Coast Area.................	1
Chapter	II	European Exploration and Discovery................	21
Chapter	III	French Exploration and Exploitation...............	37
Chapter	IV	Indigenous Indian Tribes..........................	60
Chapter	V	French Colonial Period:	Settlement...........	77
Chapter	VI	The English Colonial Period:...................... 103
Chapter	VII	The Spanish Colonial Period:	Continued
Spanish occupation; pirates and outlaws.......... 117
Chapter	VIII	Post-Colonial Transition: the West Florida
Commonwealth; Biloxi Parish in the Orleans Terr itory;...................................... 166
Chapter	IX	The War of 1812: Indian wars; the battle of
Pass Christian;.................................. 184
Chapter	X	The Mississippi Territory:	the formation
of Hancock County; the postwar period;
Napoleon's brother............................... 229
Chapter	XI	Early Statehood:	the incorporation of
Shieldsboro; the Pearl river towns;
expulsion of the Indians......................... 245
Chapter	XII	The Late Antebellum Period:	Dawn of the
Sawmill era; the Copeland Gang; religious organization; the re-incorporation of Shieldsboro...................................... 283
Chapter XIII The Civil War..............................^......... 334
Chapter	XIV	The Reconstruction Years.......................... 364
Chapter	XV	The Coastal Railroad and Resurgence............... 389
Chapter	XVI	To Partition or not to Partition - There is
No Question:	the premature birth of Pearl
County and its return to the womb for further further gestation. A railroad in the North.. 413
vi