Cultural clashes raged throughout the Mississippi Territory in the years preceding statehood. European settlers poured into the region to claim farming land, bringing enslaved Africans with them. Mississippi joined the United States in 1817. What happened to Native Americans during this time? Explore these turbulent years—and the state that they created—in this engaging gallery.
- View symbols of statehood—including a 20-star United States flag and the territorial seal.
- Inspect weapons of “frontier justice,” such as an early Bowie knife and a set of dueling pistols.
- Examine the federal laws that forced the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations to leave their ancestral homelands.