Natchez, Mississippi the United States acquired this area from the British after the American Revolutionary War, the city served as the capital of the American Mississippi Territory and then of the state of Mississippi. It predates Jackson by more than a century; the latter replaced Natchez as the capital in 1822, as it was more centrally located in the developing state. The strategic location of Natchez, on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River, ensured that it would be a pivotal center of trade, commerce, and the interchange of ethnic Native American, European, and African cultures in the region; it held this position
Nathan S. S. Beman Park, located just north of the RPI campus, is named in his honor. Nathan S. S. Beman Nathan Sidney Smith Beman (1785 - 1871) was the fourth president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He was born in what is now New Lebanon, New York on November 26, 1785. He graduated from Middlebury College in 1807. He then studied theology and preached in Portland, Maine and Mount Zion, Georgia. In 1818, he became president of Franklin College in Athens, Georgia, which was the founding college of the University of Georgia, although he only served a year in that position. He then returned