Fort Rosalie
Fort Rosalie was a French fort built in 1716 in the territory of the Natchez Native Americans. The present-day city of Natchez, Mississippi developed at this site. As part of the peace terms that ended the Natchez War of 1716, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville required the Natchez to build the fort by providing materials and labor. Sited close to the main Natchez settlement, called the Grand Village of the Natchez, Fort Rosalie served as the primary French stronghold and trading post among the Natchez.
French settlements and tobacco plantations were established in Natchez territory, with the fort serving as the local seat of colonial government. Growing tension between the French and the Natchez erupted into violence several times during the 1720s, culminating in a massive Natchez attack on November 29, 1729. They destroyed the entire French settlement, killing nearly all the men and taking hundreds of women and children captive. The Natchez seized and occupied Fort Rosalie.
Retaliation by the French and allied Choctaw forces in 1730 forced the Natchez to evacuate, leaving the fort in ruins. By 1731 the French, with their more numerous Indian allies, had killed, captured, or dispersed most of the Natchez, and they ceased to exist as a tribe. The French sold surviving Natchez into slavery, many destined for French plantations in the Caribbean. Some escaped and found refuge among the Chickasaw, Creek, and Cherokee of the region. The French rebuilt Fort Rosalie in the early 1730s.
Following the Treaty of Paris in 1763 after the British won the Seven Years' War, the French ceded the fort and part of present-day Louisiana to British control (with New Orleans and the land west of the Mississippi River going to Spain). The British renamed the outpost Fort Panmure.
During the American Revolutionary War, Spain declared war against Great Britain and took control of the fort, holding it from 1779 to 1798. After 1798, the United States took over, establishing the Mississippi Territory with Natchez as its first territorial capital.
The U.S. abandoned the fort in 1804. The city of Natchez traces its origin to the founding of Fort Rosalie in 1716. Today the site of the fort is part of Natchez National Historical Park.
References
- DuVal, Kathleen (2006). "Interconnectedness and Diversity in French Louisiana". In Gregory A. Waselkov (ed.). Powhatan's Mantle: Indians in the Colonial Southeast, Revised and Expanded Edition. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-9861-7.
- Lorenz, Karl G. (2000). "The Natchez of Southwest Mississippi". In Bonnie G. McEwan (ed.). Indians of the Greater Southeast: Historical Archaeology and Ethnohistory. University Press of Florida. ISBN 0-8130-1778-5.
- The Natchez Indians, Mississippi History Now
- "Fort Rosalie", Mississippi, North American Forts,
Coordinates: 31°33′38″N 91°24′11″W / 31.56056°N 91.40306°W