Ellis Cliffs, Mississippi

Last updated
Ellis Cliffs, Mississippi
Ellis Cliffs, Mississippi.jpg
A view of Ellis Cliffs in 1896
USA Mississippi location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Ellis Cliffs, Mississippi
Location within the state of Mississippi
Coordinates: 31°24′06″N91°27′07″W / 31.40167°N 91.45194°W / 31.40167; -91.45194 Coordinates: 31°24′06″N91°27′07″W / 31.40167°N 91.45194°W / 31.40167; -91.45194
Country United States
State Mississippi
County Adams
Elevation
66 ft (20 m)
Time zone UTC-6 (Central (CST))
  Summer (DST) UTC-5 (CDT)
GNIS feature ID691838 [1]

Ellis Cliffs is a ghost town in Adams County, Mississippi, United States. [1]

Situated atop a high chalky bluff overlooking the Mississippi River, the white cliffs were frequently mentioned by early river voyagers. [2]

The settlement was located approximately 14 mi (23 km) south of Natchez, and approximately 1 mi (1.6 km) northeast of Hutchins Landing.

History

The settlement is named for Richard Ellis, a native of Virginia who moved to the area with his family around 1785. [2] [3] Prior to Ellis, the Lieutenant Governor of West Florida, Montfort Browne, received a grant of land at this place and planned to locate the civil government at the site. [4]

The Ellis family were one of the first to permanently settle in southwestern Mississippi, which was then still under Spanish rule. [2]

Ellis established a plantation known as "White Cliffs", where "towering cliffs lined the east side of the river, providing a floodproof access to the water and vast acres of virgin land and timber". [5] :8 [1] [2] The foundations of the family's first home were still visible in the early 1900s. [5]

When Ellis died in 1792, he had accumulated 6,000 acres (2,400 ha) of land, and more than 150 slaves. [2]

By 1800, both the settlement and the cliffs were known as "Ellis Cliffs". [2]

British artist William Constable visited America between 1806–08 and painted View Down the Mississippi from Ellis's Cliffs, 28 Feby. 1807. [6] [7] Artist John Rowson Smith traveled the Mississippi River before the Civil War and painted The Cotton Region, which included a scene of "the house of a colored slave owner at Ellis Cliffs". [8] :87 Henry Lewis also painted the river, and described Ellis Cliffs as "strikingly bold, wild, and picturesque". [8] :87

During the Civil War, Confederate batteries were installed at the top of Ellis Cliffs. [9]

The former settlement is today covered by forest, and bordered to the north by the St. Catherine Creek National Wildlife Refuge.

Related Research Articles

American Civil War 1861–1865 conflict in the United States

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy. The central cause of the war was the status of slavery, especially the expansion of slavery into territories acquired as a result of the Louisiana Purchase and the Mexican–American War. On the eve of the Civil War in 1860, four million of the 32 million Americans (~13%) were enslaved black people, almost all in the South.

Louisiana Purchase 1803 acquisition by the U.S. of Frances claim to the territory of Louisiana

The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. In return for fifteen million dollars, or approximately eighteen dollars per square mile, the United States nominally acquired a total of 828,000 sq mi. However, France only controlled a small fraction of this area, most of it inhabited by Native Americans; for the majority of the area, what the United States bought was the "preemptive" right to obtain "Indian" lands by treaty or by conquest, to the exclusion of other colonial powers. The total cost of all subsequent treaties and financial settlements over the land has been estimated to be around 2.6 billion dollars.

French and Indian War North American theater of the worldwide Seven Years War

The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the start of the war, the French colonies had a population of roughly 60,000 settlers, compared with 2 million in the British colonies. The outnumbered French particularly depended on the natives.

Kaskaskia, Illinois Village in Illinois, United States

Kaskaskia is a village in Randolph County, Illinois. Having been inhabited by indigenous peoples, it was settled by France as part of the Illinois Country. It was named for the Kaskaskia people. Its population peaked at about 7,000 in the 18th century, when it was a regional center. During the American Revolutionary War, the town, which by then had become an administrative center for the British Province of Quebec, was taken by the Virginia militia during the Illinois campaign. It was designated as the county seat of Illinois County, Virginia, after which it became part of the Northwest Territory in 1787. Kaskaskia was later named as the capital of the United States' Illinois Territory, created on February 3, 1809. In 1818, when Illinois became the 21st U.S. state, the town briefly served as the state's first capital until 1819, when the capital was moved to more centrally located Vandalia.

Queen Annes War North American theater of the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-13)

Queen Anne's War (1702–1713) was the second in a series of French and Indian Wars fought in North America involving the colonial empires of Great Britain, France, and Spain; it took place during the reign of Anne, Queen of Great Britain. In Europe, it is generally viewed as the American theater of the War of the Spanish Succession; in the Americas, it is more commonly viewed as a standalone conflict. It is also known as the Third Indian War. In France it was known as the Second Intercolonial War.

Natchez, Mississippi Incorporated city in Mississippi, United States

Natchez is the county seat and only city of Adams County, Mississippi, United States. Natchez has a total population of 15,792. Located on the Mississippi River across from Vidalia in Concordia Parish, Louisiana, Natchez was a prominent city in the antebellum years, a center of cotton planters and Mississippi River trade.

Northwest Ordinance American organic legislation creating Northwest Territory

The Northwest Ordinance, enacted July 13, 1787, was an organic act of the Congress of the Confederation of the United States. It created the Northwest Territory, the new nation's first organized incorporated territory, from lands beyond the Appalachian Mountains, between British North America and the Great Lakes to the north and the Ohio River to the south. The upper Mississippi River formed the territory's western boundary. Pennsylvania was the eastern boundary.

Mississippi Delta Northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi

The Mississippi Delta, also known as the Yazoo–Mississippi Delta, or simply the Delta, is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi that lies between the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers. The region has been called "The Most Southern Place on Earth", because of its unique racial, cultural, and economic history. It is 200 miles (320 km) long and 87 miles (140 km) across at its widest point, encompassing about 4,415,000 acres (17,870 km2), or, almost 7,000 square miles of alluvial floodplain. Originally covered in hardwood forest across the bottomlands, it was developed as one of the richest cotton-growing areas in the nation before the American Civil War (1861–1865). The region attracted many speculators who developed land along the riverfronts for cotton plantations; they became wealthy planters dependent on the labor of enslaved African Americans, who composed the vast majority of the population in these counties well before the Civil War, often twice the number of whites.

History of Mississippi History of the US state of Mississippi

The history of the state of Mississippi extends back to thousands of years of indigenous peoples. Evidence of their cultures has been found largely through archeological excavations, as well as existing remains of earthwork mounds built thousands of years ago. Native American traditions were kept through oral histories; with Europeans recording the accounts of historic peoples they encountered. Since the late 20th century, there have been increased studies of the Native American tribes and reliance on their oral histories to document their cultures. Their accounts have been correlated with evidence of natural events.

Dartmouth founded in 1750, is a Metropolitan Area and former city in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.

Raid on Dartmouth (1751) Massacre of British-Canadians during Father Le Loutres War

The Raid on Dartmouth occurred during Father Le Loutre's War on May 13, 1751, when a Miꞌkmaq and Acadian militia from Chignecto, under the command of Acadian Joseph Broussard, raided Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, destroying the town and killing twenty British villagers and wounding British regulars. The town was protected by a blockhouse on Blockhouse Hill with William Clapham's Rangers and British regulars from the 45th Regiment of Foot. This raid was one of seven the Natives and Acadians would conduct against the town during the war.

Father Le Loutres War Colonial war between Britain and France

Father Le Loutre's War (1749–1755), also known as the Indian War, the Mi'kmaq War and the Anglo-Mi'kmaq War, took place between King George's War and the French and Indian War in Acadia and Nova Scotia. On one side of the conflict, the British and New England colonists were led by British officer Charles Lawrence and New England Ranger John Gorham. On the other side, Father Jean-Louis Le Loutre led the Mi'kmaq and the Acadia militia in guerrilla warfare against settlers and British forces. At the outbreak of the war there were an estimated 2500 Mi'kmaq and 12,000 Acadians in the region.

Thomas S. Hinde American minister and businessman

Thomas Spottswood Hinde was an American newspaper editor, opponent of slavery, author, historian, real estate investor, Methodist minister and a founder of the city of Mount Carmel, Illinois. Members of the Hinde family were prominent in Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, and Illinois. His sons Charles T. Hinde became a shipping magnate and Edmund C. Hinde an adventurer. He was the father-in-law of judge Charles H. Constable.

Washington Bogart Cooper American painter

Washington Bogart Cooper was an American portrait painter, sometimes known as "the man of a thousand portraits".

African Americans in Mississippi or Black Mississippians are residents of the state of Mississippi who are of African American ancestry. As of the 2019 U.S. Census estimates, African Americans were 37.8% of the state's population which is the highest in the nation.

Rosswood is a historic Southern plantation located off of Mississippi Highway 552, in Lorman, Jefferson County, Mississippi, USA. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

Stephen Duncan American planter and banker

Stephen Duncan was an American planter and banker in Mississippi during the Antebellum South. He was born and studied medicine in Pennsylvania, but moved to Natchez District, Mississippi Territory in 1808 and became the wealthiest cotton planter and the second-largest slave owner in the United States with over 2,200 slaves. He owned 15 cotton and sugar plantations, served as President of the Bank of Mississippi, and held major investments in railroads and lumber.

Edward McGehee Mississippi judge and planter (1786–1880)

Edward McGehee was an American judge and major planter in Wilkinson County, Mississippi. He owned nearly 1,000 slaves to work his thousands of acres of cotton land at his Bowling Green Plantation.

History of Natchez, Mississippi

The city of Natchez, Mississippi, was founded in 1716 as Fort Rosalie, and renamed for the Natchez people in 1763.

Mound Landing is a ghost town in Bolivar County, Mississippi, United States.

References

  1. 1 2 3 U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Ellis Cliffs
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Bragg, Marion (1977). "Historic Names and Places on the Lower Mississippi River" (PDF). Mississippi River Commission. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-05-04.
  3. Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Mississippi. Goodspeed. 1891. pp.  473.
  4. Great Britain. Historical Manuscripts Commission. Dartmouth, William Legge, Earl of, 1731-1801. (1972). The manuscripts of the Earl of Dartmouth. Vol. 2, American papers. Boston, Mass. : Gregg Press. Series: British accounts of the American Revolution. The American Revolutionary series. pp. 125-126, p. 212.
  5. 1 2 Miller, Mary Carol (2010). Lost Mansions of Mississippi. Vol. 2. University Press of Mississippi. p. 8. ISBN   9781604737875.
  6. Black, Patti Carr (2007). The Mississippi Story. University Press of Mississippi. p. 43. ISBN   9781887422147.
  7. "William Constable (1783-1861)". Spartacus Educational. April 9, 2004.
  8. 1 2 Black, Patti Carr (1998). Art in Mississippi, 1720-1980 . University Press of Mississippi. pp.  87.
  9. "Two Narrow Escapes on the Mississippi". Civil War Daily Gazette. Retrieved May 4, 2015.[ permanent dead link ]