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the daily herald
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Blloxl-Gulfport, Miss., Friday, February 14. 197.~
Coast settlers numbered 500 in 1775
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Editor's note: Many of today’s Mississippi Coast residents are descendents of those hardy early settlers who colonized this area when the European powers were disputing control of the vast new land which eventually became an Independent nation. In this article, M. James Stevens, vice president, history wing, Mississippi Coast Historical and Genealogical Society, tells how the settlers lived and traces the political currents of the day.
French was the language and customs of the approximately 500 people living along Mississippi Sound from the Pearl Elver to the Pascagoula about 1775.
These descendants of the original settlers lived at Pascagoula and up river, at Old and New Biloxi, around Bay St. Louis and up the Wolf River, with such still familiar names scattered thinly occupying huge tracts of land as Ladner {spell it as you will), Morin, Couevas, Saucier, Boisdore, St. Martin, etc.
A great hurricane in 1772 similar to the power of Hurricane Camille in 1969 had swept 30 miles inland. With no aid from the "outside" the people surviving were undoubtedly still trying to restore their homes, implements, live stock, boats, clothing, and food when the American Revolution along the east-
ern seaboard erupted.
Politicelly the coastal area from New Orleans to Pensacola had been French from 1699 to 1763*65 with the British obtaining the government when France at the Treaty of Paris in 1763 ceded all her colonial empire to them.
West Florida boundaries included the Gulf of Mexico on the south, including all islands, Lakes Pontch-artrain and Maurepas and' the Mississippi River as far north as the 31st parallel on the west. Eastern boundary was the Chattahoochee and Apalachicola rivers.
The following year the northern boundary was moved northward to where the Yazoo River entered the Mississippi at present day Vicksburg. Spain received the Isle of New Orleans.
Life was rough in West Florida and conveniences of living were few. Travelers described the dress of the people as very plain consisting of a slight waistcoat vest or shirt of cotton, with trousers of the same. Rarely was a coat worn and then It was short and of the same material. In winter a "surtout" or close fitting overcoat made of a blanket and a pair of Indian boots were added.
There were no printing presses and no newspapers. Reading and writing was unknown to most of the inhabitants. There were no schools, little reli-
gion except when the priest made his irregular rounds, and communication was between people and the tax collector. Boats were used for most travel due to the extensive marshes and streams.
Agriculture Included corn, indigo, potatotes, beans, peas, cotton, tobacco. plus pears, peaches, grapes and plums. Everyone had poultry. Almost all writers spoke of the herds of “black cattle" around Mobile and Biloxi.
Charcoal, pitch, tar, hunting, skins produced items for trade. The French near Biloxi, it was reported, produced naval stores in commercial quantities and smuggled them across the lakes to New Orleans where there was a ready market with the Spanish.
The Gulf Coast people were content to live placidly with no law. British energies primarily were directed toward the better growing lands up the Mississippi River to the Natchez area. Their keel-boats would travel the Sound, through the Rigo-lets into Lakes Pontchar-train and Maurepas. up the Iberville and Amite rivers and in this way bypassing the Spanish at New Orleans. Since Indian trade was very important (including trying to keep peace between tribes as well as the Europeans who were filtering in from the
Atlantic seaboard) inland routes were developed.
REVOLUTIONARY WAR ACTIVITIES
Since the Coast people did not speak English and ignored the British orders to do so and take an oath of allegiance to the Kin;, little information about the aims of eastern colonists reached the common people. British colonizing efforts centered along the Mississippi from Man-chac, to Natchez, to the Yazoo. Some Tories settled on the northern shore of Lake Pontchartrain.
At New Orleans, however, merchant Oliver Pollock early cast his abilities and large fortune in support of the Continental Congress. As a Philadelphia merchant he bought the flour coming down the Mississippi and converted it into powder and muskets to be sent upriver for use at Fort Pitt and Fort Wheeling as early as 1776 which prevented the British and Indians from capturing those important frontier posts.
A skilled diplomat who spoke Spanish fluently, he had the confidence of Spanish Governors Un* zaga and young Bernardo de Galvez.
Allied with France in their hatred of England, Spanish policy favored anything to “twist the British lion’s tail.” Pollock early urged on the Continental Congress and General Washington a plan to send men down the Mississippi and then along the Gulf to capture British headquarters at Pensacola. He felt it would be supported by the Spanish and Indeed forestall them from capturing the coast with its important river mouths leading inland.
In February 1778 James Willing, with a captain's commission obtained through his brother who was a member of Congress. came down the Mississippi River raiding
'«rlish sympathizers at Baton Rouge and
Manchac. His high-handed looting alienated many people otherwise indifferent to the Revolution or even favoring the American cause. It Jolted the set-tlers and caused the British to send reinforcements to West Florida.
Oliver Pollock, with Spanish Governor Galvez' aid, had been supplying George Rogers Clark in his winning of French support in the upper Mississippi Valley to defeat the British and their Indian allies at Vincennes. Kaskaskia, Detroit. As commercial representative for Virginia, Pollock sent powder, guns, clothing, and all needed military supplies up the Spanish controlled Mississippi River providing the tools for victory for the American cause in this western area.
James Willing proved to be a great embarrassment in New Orleans in the sale of his loot there consisting of slaves, furniture, pelts, silverware, livestock, etc. Due to his arousement of the ire of settlers along the River, Willing could not go back to Pittsburgh that way. He was sent by sea in a captured British ship renamed the “Morris'’ which was boarded by an English blockader causing Willing to become a prisoner of war.
On May 8.1779, Spain declared war on England. In doing so she was allied with France but not with the United States. Both Spain and France were afraid of a too powerful United States and Spain had Mississippi Valley and western ambitions. This type action caused the Indians to be much disturbed in the lower South by these quick changes from French to British and then to Spanish control. Since they greatly outnumbered
the Europeans, various leaders attempted Indian confederacies to resist fur* ther land losses. Rum, trade goods, and the fierce independence of the var* ious tribes seemed to prevent a strong Indian nation.
In August 1779 the Spanish, aided by Americans and Indians, captured the British villages on the Mississippi of Manchac, Baton Rouge and Natchez. They also pushed the British boats out of the river.
Financed by Oliver Pollock. a captured English boat was fitted out as a pri-vateer known as the "Morris" which went into Lake Pontchartrain in September 1779. American Captain William Pickles was seeking the English f "West Florida" which for two years had dominated the Sound and Lakes, blockading trade with New Orleans.
Overtaking the "West Florida”, Captain Pickles demanded her surrender which the English refused. Both sides opened fire. The Americans boarded the “West Florida,'* killed four including Captain Paine, and took the re* mainder of the 28 man crew prisoners. Pickles reported his only loss as “Brown, Traitor to our Cause, swimd ashore.**
This was an impressive victory to the Spanish for the “West Florida" was larger, had stronger guns, and had a trained crew.
On the same day that Gov. Bernardo Galvez was bombarding Baton Rouge, Pickles landed on the northern shore of Lake
Pontchartrain, took possession in the name of the United States and obtained an oath of allegiance from the settlers between Bayou ' La Combe and the Tanchipahoa, “we do her* eby acknowledge our* selves to be natives as well as true and faithful subjects to the United Independent States of North America.*’	'*• ~
September 26, 1779* Pickles ferried 122 Indians ac-
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ross the lake to New Orleans. Next day he took a prize near Mobile with 13 negroes aboard valued at $2660.
Captain Pickles later commanded the “West Florida** in the successful capture of Mobile in March 1780. It Is possible it also served with the Spanish in transporting men and munitions in the capture of Pensacola May 9, 1881.
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