The Mississippi Territory and the Southwest Frontier, 1795-1817

Robert V. Haynes

Winner of the McLemore Prize, given by the Mississippi Historical Society

Narrated by W. B. Ward

Available from Audible

Book published by The University Press of Kentucky

Originally inhabited by Native American tribes, territorial Mississippi has a complex history rife with fierce contention. Since 1540, when Hernando de Soto of Spain journeyed across the Atlantic and became the first European to stumble across its borders, the territory has been the center of passionate international disagreements. After numerous boundary shifts, Mississippi was finally admitted as the twentieth state of the Union on December 10, 1817.

In The Mississippi Territory and the Southwest Frontier, 1795–1817, Robert V. Haynes does more than recount history; he explores the political and diplomatic situations that led to the formation and expansion of the Mississippi Territory. Extensively researched and exceptionally written, Haynes details critical events in Mississippi’s rich history, such as ongoing border violence, the arrest of infamous traitor Aaron Burr, and the bloody Creek War.

Robert V. Haynes is former professor of history at Western Kentucky University, and the author of A Night of Violence: The Houston Riot of 1917.

REVIEWS:

“Rarely do we encounter an author who has so thoroughly mastered the sources, who so clearly understands the complex issues, and who shows such total familiarity with the major players. In addition, Haynes’s prose is a genuine pleasure to read.”

—John D. W. Guice, coauthor of The Old Southwest, 1795–1830: Frontiers in Conflict

“Examines the turbulence of the territory’s society in the last decades before statehood.”

—Chronicle of Higher Education

“Haynes relates the story of the Mississippi territory during the time when it was the southwest corner of the United States.... [He] writes in an engaging style that makes this accessible to general readers.”

—Book News

“This work will appeal to anyone interested in the political history of the Mississippi/Alabama area.”

—Choice

“Haynes has written a rich book, which will be of much value to historians of the region and to historians of American expansion more broadly.”

—Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

“A crowning achievement for a scholar who has devoted decades to studying the region... [this book] is essential reading for anyone interested in the emergence of statehood in the Old Southwest... [and] for those interested in learning more about the difficultuies in creating a modern society in post-Revolutionary America.”

—Southern Historian

“An essential book on the complex and colorful period between the organization of the Mississippi Territory in 1795 and its division into the state of Mississippi and the Alabama Territory in 1817.”

—Alabama Review