Steps to Statehood

In 1763 Louisiana east of the Mississippi River was ceded to Great Britain. The area, reaching east to the Apalachicola and Chattahoochee rivers and north to a line drawn from the mouth of the Yazoo River, was named West Florida. During the Revolutionary War, Spain took possession of West Florida, and kept it under the peace treaty of 1783. The northern boundary, however, was moved almost 100 miles (160 km) south. Spain refused at first to withdraw from the 100-mile strip, but relinquished it to the United States in 1798. It was immediately organized as Mississippi Territory, with the capital first at Natchez and after 1802 at nearby Washington.

The land above the northern boundary belonged first to Georgia, but was added to Mississippi in 1804. The United States claimed West Florida as part of the Louisiana Purchase (1803) and in 1810 occupied the portion west of the Pearl River. In 1813 it seized the portion between the Pearl and Perdido rivers and added it to Mississippi Territory, which then included most of the present state of Alabama. In 1817 Mississippi with its present boundaries became the 20th state in the Union. The capital was moved to Jackson in 1821.