The Antebellum South Preserved — Natchez has more antebellum mansions per capita than any city in America, the Natchez Trace Parkway begins here at the Mississippi's bluffs, and the city's brutal history as one of the largest inland slave markets in the US makes it essential to understanding the Deep South
Natchez, Mississippi sits on the east bank of the Mississippi River on dramatic 60-metre bluffs — the highest point on the lower Mississippi. The city holds more antebellum mansions per capita than any other American city: Stanton Hall, Longwood (the largest octagonal house in the US, never completed), Monmouth, and 30+ others are preserved and open to tours. The Natchez Trace Parkway (444 miles from Natchez to Nashville) begins at the Natchez Trace Bridge, following the ancient overland path used by Native Americans and traders returning north after floating goods down the Mississippi. Forks…
Natchez was one of the wealthiest cities in the antebellum United States — by 1860, the Natchez district contained more millionaires per capita than any other American region, all wealth produced by enslaved Black labour on cotton plantations. The Natchez people's Grand Village (near the city) was a major pre-Columbian centre; the French colonial massacre of the Natchez (1729–1730) destroyed one of the Mississippi Valley's most significant Indigenous cultures. The Forks of the Road slave market (1835–1863) was the second-largest slave market in the Deep South. Natchez surrendered to Union for…