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THE MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY
Betty Fagan Burr
At the time of the American Revolution, Great Britain was in possession of most of the Eastern part of what is now the United States; and Spain claimed Florida and a large part of the west, including what is now Texas and Louisiana. Most of the colonies	held by	Great Britain	extended	to the Mississippi,
although actually the land between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River was left for the Indians. The land along the Mississippi River was mostly settled by the Spanish and the French , until 1803 when the United States purchased Louisiana from France.	During the American Revolution, what is now
Kentucky	was part of	Virginia,	and what	is now Tennessee was
part of North Carolina. South Carolina claimed a narrow strip adjoining Tennessee running West to the Mississippi, and Georgia claimed all of the territory lying between 30 degrees and 35 degrees Latitude west to the Mississippi. The area lying between 32 degrees 28 minutes north and 31 degrees north, which comprised the Mississippi Territory in 1798, was claimed by Georgia and also	by	Spain as	a part of	West Florida and the
Louisiana	Territory.	In all of	this vast	area there were only
two white settlements, one at Natchez and ‘the other at St. Stepens on the Tombigbee River. The dispute over this land was settled in favor of the United States by a treaty with Spain in 1795.
Shortly before the settlement of the boundary dispute, the Georgia Legislature in 1789 sold 15.5 million acres of land for 1.5 cents per acre to three land companies formed by land speculators. It encompassed the area of northern Alabama and all of Mississippi north of the mouth of the Yazoo River. Most of this land was occupied by four civilized tribes of Indians: the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, and Creeks. However, there were some white settlers, traders, trappers, Indian agents, and Tories, who had fl,ed their homes in Virginia, the Carolinas, and Gorgia, either during or after the Revolution.
There were three methods by which settlers came into this vast area that was to become the Mississippi Territory. The earliest was by means of ocean-going vessels which brought French and Spanish settlers to the coast where the first towns were located. Many of the wealthier residents of the Atlantic tidewater used this method of travel to relocate, settling along the coast and on unclaimed river lands in southern Alabama and Mississippi and aldng the Tennessee River. Both Alabama and Mississippi are blessed with numerous rivers and streams. Because of ease of movement, the river valleys were also areas of early white settlement. In Alabama, it was along the Tennessee, Tombigbee, Alabama, and Coosa Rivers; in Mississippi, it 'was along the Pearl, Yazoo, and Mississippi Rivers. Finally, settlers came in along the Indian trails. As passageways were