Mississippi's Historic Sites
Mississippi is home to a rich tapestry of historic sites that reflect its diverse cultural and political heritage. These sites range from significant landmarks of the Civil War to important locations in African American history and literary significance. For instance, Beauvoir, the former home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, and the Old Mississippi State Capitol in Jackson, which played a pivotal role in the disenfranchisement of African Americans, highlight the state's complex political history.
In addition to political landmarks, Mississippi's literary contributions are epitomized by Rowan Oak, the residence of Nobel Prize-winning author William Faulkner, who explored themes of social and racial dynamics in his works. The state also preserves crucial aspects of Native American history, as seen at the Dancing Rabbit Creek Treaty Site, where the forced removal of the Choctaw nation began. Moreover, sites like the Highland Park Dentzel Carousel and Alcorn University emphasize the cultural heritage and educational strides of African Americans.
With over a dozen notable historic sites, Mississippi offers visitors a chance to delve into the state's multifaceted past, showcasing its evolution and the enduring legacies of its diverse communities.
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Mississippi's Historic Sites
Beauvoir
Location: Biloxi, Harrison County
Relevant issues: Civil War, political history
Statement of significance: From 1877 until his death, this was the residence of Jefferson Davis (1808-1889), president of the Confederacy. Davis spent the last twelve years of his life at Beauvoir writing The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government (1881), which was in part a summation of his life. Beauvoir is an example of the “raised cottage,” which takes advantage of the Gulf winds to provide the house with natural ventilation.
Dancing Rabbit Creek Treaty Site
Location: Macon, Noxubee County
Relevant issues: American Indian history, western expansion
Statement of significance: On September 27, 1830, at Dancing Rabbit Creek, a traditional gathering place of the Choctaw people, an infamous treaty was signed for the removal of the Choctaw people from their homeland. This treaty was the most important of the pacts between the United States and the Choctaw as it resulted in the removal of a large part of the tribe from their traditional Southeastern homeland in present-day Mississippi. The Dancing Rabbit Creek Treaty served as a model for treaties of removal with the Chickasaw, Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole tribes. The treaty led to the extinguishing of all Choctaw title to land east of the Mississippi River owned by the Choctaw nation. It also led to the opening of a vast territory to American settlement.
Faulkner House
Location: Oxford, Lafayette County
Relevant issues: Literary history
Statement of significance: From 1930 until his death, this two-story Greek Revival structure was the residence of William Faulkner (1897-1962). Through stories and novels dealing with the decay and sterility of the old aristocracy, the crassness and amorality of the rising commercial class, the burden of guilt in race relations, the endurance and courage of the downtrodden African American, and the incompatibility of nature and organized society, Faulkner is credited with creating a parable of the Deep South. For his accumulated work, he received the Nobel Prize (1950), as well as the Pulitzer Prize (1955 and 1963).
Highland Park Dentzel Carousel
Location: Meridian, Lauderdale County
Relevant issues: Cultural history
Statement of significance: This wooden carousel (c. 1892-1899) is likely the oldest of the three earliest Dentzel menagerie carousels which remain virtually intact. Over one hundred of these carousels were produced by the Dentzel Company of Philadelphia, founded in the mid-nineteenth century by the son of a German carousel crafter. It is the only one of the three still in a historic “shelter” or carousel house. Built from a Dentzel blueprint, the carousel house is a rare survivor.
Holly Bluff Site
Location: Holly Bluff, Yazoo County
Relevant issues: American Indian history
Statement of significance: This is the type of site for the Lake George phase of the prehistoric Temple Mound period of the area. The site is important in that it is on the southern margin of the Mississippian cultural advance down the Mississippi River and on the northern edge of that of the Cole’s Creek and Plaquemine cultures of the South.
Jaketown Site
Location: Belzoni, Humphreys County
Relevant issues: American Indian history
Statement of significance: Located in northwestern Mississippi, Jaketown Site is the remains of a complex regional trade center dating from 2000-600 B.C.E., an era known as the Poverty Point period within the Late Archaic prehistory of the United States. Significant as a settlement important in trade in raw materials and manufacture of finished items distributed throughout the Eastern United States, it consists as deeply stratified archaeological deposits, well-preserved earthen mounds, and hidden features which represent extensive and intensive occupation over a long period.
Lamar House
Location: Oxford, Lafayette County
Relevant issues: Civil War, political history
Statement of significance: From about 1868 to 1888, this was the home of Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar (1825-1893), Mississippi statesman. In 1861, Lamar resigned his seat in Congress and drafted the Mississippi Secession Ordinance. During the war, he served the Confederacy as a soldier and diplomat; afterward, he was a leading Southern spokesman for reconciliation during Reconstruction. Exponent of Southern industrial progress and leader of the “New South” movement, late in his career Lamar served in the U.S. Senate, as secretary of the interior, and on the Supreme Court.
Monmouth
Location: Natchez, Adams County
Relevant issues: Political history
Statement of significance: Governor John Anthony Quitman, outstanding Mexican War general, states’ rights advocate, and staunch defender of slavery, resided at Monmouth from 1826 until his death in 1858. Monmouth represents Quitman’s economic and social status as a wealthy, influential lawyer and planter with a great financial stake in slavery.
Montgomery House
Location: Mound Bayou, Bolivar County
Relevant issues: African American history
Statement of significance: From 1910 to 1924, this was the residence of Isaiah Thornton Montgomery, who with his cousin Benjamin Green founded the town of Mound Bayou in July, 1887. The community founded by these two former enslaved people was one of a number of settlements established during the post-Reconstruction period in which African Americans could exercise self-government. The success of Mound Bayou is attributable to its location along the railroad, the fertile Mississippi Delta soil, and the leadership of Montgomery.
Oakland Memorial Chapel
Location: Alcorn, Claiborne County
Relevant issues: African American history, education
Statement of significance: Constructed in 1838 by skilled Black craftsmen, this Greek Revival-style structure symbolizes the importance of Alcorn University as the first African American land grant college in the country. Alcorn was founded in 1871 expressly for the education of African Americans, on the site of Oakland College, which had been established for the education of the white youth of the area. Alcorn’s first president was Hiram Rhoades Revels (1827-1901), one of the most distinguished African Americans of the Reconstruction Era.
Old Mississippi State Capitol
Location: Jackson, Hinds County
Relevant issues: African American history, political history
Statement of significance: Of interest for its architecture, this building’s major national significance arises from its association with historical events, the most important of which was the enactment of a comprehensive system of disenfranchisement of African Americans by the state constitution approved in 1890, which was widely emulated by other Southern states. The structure served as the state capitol from 1839 to 1903. Restored in 1959-1960, it now serves as the State Historical Museum.
Siege and Battle of Corinth Sites
Location: Corinth, Alcorn County
Relevant issues: Civil War, military history
Statement of significance: The 1862 Union victories in the siege (April 28-May 30) and battle (October 3-4) at Corinth, one of the Confederacy’s most strategically located railroad junction towns, figured importantly in the ebb and flow of Confederate military fortunes during that year. The Union victory in the latter episode, one of the key events in an overall reversal in the course of the war in favor of the Union, followed a summer during which a string of Confederate victories appeared to presage recognition by the United Kingdom. After the renewed Union successes in the early fall, including that at Corinth, this prospect slipped out of the Confederacy’s hands. A number of major Union and Confederate leaders were engaged in the actions at Corinth. Today, among other elements, there remain well-preserved lines of earthworks; batteries; rifle pits; four houses used as military headquarters during the engagements; and the Corinth National Cemetery, where more than 5,600 Civil War interments, most of them unknown, were made.
"Civil War Sites in Mississippi." Visit Mississippi, 2024, visitmississippi.org/things-to-do/civil-war/. Accessed 3 June 2024.
"Mississippi." National Park Service, 2024, www.nps.gov/state/ms/index.htm. Accessed 3 June 2024.
"Old Capitol Museum." Mississippi Department of Archives and History, 2024, www.mdah.ms.gov/explore-mississippi/old-capitol-museum. Accessed 3 June 2024.