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
LeFleur's Bluff State Park was once part of the Choctaw Nation. Under pressure from the United States government, the Choctaw Native Americans agreed to removal from their lands east of the Mississippi River, under the terms of the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830. Although many Choctaws then moved to present-day Oklahoma, a significant number chose to stay in Mississippi. In 1821, the Mississippi Legislature, meeting in the then-capital of Natchez, sent Thomas Hinds, James Patton, and William Lattimore to look for a location on which to establish a more centrally located state capital. After surveying areas north and east of what is