This text was obtained via automated optical character recognition.
It has not been edited and may therefore contain several errors.

---

CONTENTS
Preface........................................................... i
Introduction...................................................... x
Chapter	I	Prehistory of the Gulf Coast Area.................	1
Chapter	II	European Exploration and Discovery................	21
Chapter	III	French Exploration and Exploitation...............	35
Chapter	IV	Indigenous Indian Tribes..........................	58
Chapter	V	French Colonial Period:	Settlement...........	76
Chapter	VI	The English Colonial Period:...................... 103
Chapter	VII	The Spanish Colonial Period:	Continued
Spanish occupation; pirates and outlaws.......... 120
Chapter	VIII	Post-Colonial Transition: the West Florida
Commonwealth; Viloxi Parish in the Orleans Terr i tory;..................................... 17 3
Chapter	IX	The War of 1812: indian wars; the battle	of
Pass Christian;.................................. 19 4
Chapter	X	The Mississippi Territory:	the formation
of Hancock County; the postwar period;
Napoleon's brother............................... 239
Chapter	XI	Early Statehood:	the incorporation of
Shieldsboro; the Pearl river towns;
expulsion of the Indians......................... 267
Chapter	XII	The Late Antebellum Period:	Dawn of the
Sawmill era; the Copeland Gang; religious organization; the re-incorporation of Shieldsboro...................................... 308
Chapter	XIII	The Civil War..................................... 368
Chapter	XIV	The Reconstruction Years.......................... 402
Chapter	XV	The Coastal Railroad and Resurgence............... 431
Chapter	XVI	The Ascent of the Lumber Barons: the lumber
mill towns in the 1870s & 1880s.................. 456
vi i i