NATCHEZ, a city of Mississippi, U.S.A., on the Mississippi river, near the southern boundary of the State; county seat of Adams county. It is on Federal highway 6r, and is served by the Illinois Central, the Mississippi Central and the Missouri Pacific railways, ferries to Vidalia, La., river steamers and barges. Con struction of a bridge across the Mississippi, to carry both high way and railway traffic, has been authorized. Pop. (1920) 12,608 (54% negroes) ; 13,422 (193o) a gain of 854 or Except for the docks and river-front warehouses, the city is built on bluffs 200 ft. above the river. There are three parks overlooking the river, and in the heart of the city is the Confederate Memorial park. On a neighbouring bluff is a National cemetery. Jefferson Military college (chartered 1802), one of the oldest schools in the south-west, is 6 m. from the city. In the neighbourhood are many beautiful estates, including "Gloster," the home of Winthrop Sargent, first governor of the territory; "Monmouth," the seat of Gen. Quitman; "Somerset" and "Oakland," long in the Chotard family; and "The Briars," girlhood home of Varina Howell, the wife of Jefferson Davis. There are Indian mounds in the vicinity.
Natchez is a trade centre and an important shipping point for cotton and other agricultural products. It has box factories, cottonseed-oil and cotton textile mills, fruit-cake and coffee roasting factories, with a total output in 1925 valued at $3,312,856. Natural gas is piped in from the Louisiana fields.
The Natchez Indians were living here when La Salle and De Tonty visited them in 1662, and when Le Moyne de Bienville in 1716 built a fort, which he named Rosalie, for the duchess of Pont chartrain. In 1764 Ft. Rosalie passed from the French to the English and was renamed Panmure; in 1779 it was turned over to the Spaniards ; in 1798 it was occupied by U.S. troops. The city was chartered in 1803. It was the capital of Mississippi from 1798-1802 and from 1817-21. The first cottonseed-oil mill was built here in 1834. On May 7, 1840, a large part of the city was destroyed by a tornado. At the opening of the Civil War Natchez was a centre of culture and wealth, and an important port of call throughout the golden days of river traffic. It surrendered to Union forces during the Vicksburg campaigns.