Editing Issaquena County, Mississippi (section)

==History==
"Issaquena" (''isi okhina'') is a [[Choctaw]] word meaning "Deer River"; it is the Indian name for [[Deer Creek (Mississippi)|Deer Creek]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Baca |first=Keith A. |url=https://epdf.pub/native-american-place-names-in-mississippi.html |title=Native American Place Names in Mississippi |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-60473-483-6 |page=44}}</ref>  The Choctaw people were the first inhabitants of the county, and were removed from their land in 1820.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Franks |first=Bob |year=2010 |title=Introduction |url=http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~msissaq2/ |publisher=Issaquena Genealogy and History Project}}</ref>  Non-Native settlers began arriving in the early 1830s.

Issaquena county was established on January 23, 1844, from the southern portion of Washington County. The first county seat was located in [[Skipwith's Landing, Mississippi|Skipwith]], and then moved to [[Duncansby, Mississippi|Duncansby]] (both communities are now ghost towns). In 1848, the county seat moved to [[Tallula, Mississippi|Tallula]], and in 1871, to Mayersville.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hellmann |first=Paul T. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EQ-R4O2L3nEC&dq=%22gipson%27s+landing%22&pg=PP5 |title=Historical Gazetteer of the United States |publisher=Routledge |year=2005 |isbn=9780203997000}}</ref>

The county lies entirely in the [[Mississippi Alluvial Plain]], and hardwood forest known as "bottomland" grows thick in the 
nutrient-rich, high-clay "buckshot" soil. Early settlers cleared many forests, and by the early 1890s about {{convert|50,000|acre|ha|abbr=on}} of the county was growing corn, cotton, and oats. About that same time, the [[Louisville, New Orleans and Texas Railway]] was completed along a north–south route through the center of the county.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Mississippi |url=http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~msissaq2/history.html |access-date=November 16, 2013 |website=General County History and Information |publisher=Issaquena Genealogy and History Project}}</ref>

In 1876, [[Sharkey County, Mississippi|Sharkey County]] was created from portions of Issaquena, Warren, and Washington counties.<ref>{{Cite web |title=About Sharkey County |url=http://sharkey.msghn.org/ |access-date=November 16, 2013 |publisher=Mississippi Genealogy & History Network}}</ref>

===Slavery===
In 1860,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Map showing the distribution of the slave population of the southern states of the United States. Compiled from the census of 1860 |url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3861e.cw0013200/?r=0.325,0.35,0.215,0.107,0 |website=[[Library of Congress]]}}</ref> 92.5% of Issaquena County's total population were [[Slavery in the United States|enslaved people]], the highest concentration anywhere in the United States.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Blake |first=Tom |year=2001 |title=Largest Slaveholders from 1860 Slave Census Schedules |url=http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ajac/msissaquena.htm |publisher=Ancestry.com}}</ref>  The U.S. Census for that year showed that 7,244 slaves were held in Issaquena County, and of 115 slave owners, 39 held 77 or more slaves.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Franks |first=Bob |year=2010 |title=Issaquena County Slave Research |url=http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~msissaq2/ |publisher=Issaquena Genealogy and History Project}}</ref>  [[Stephen Duncan]] of Issaquena County held 858 slaves, second only to [[Joshua John Ward]] of South Carolina.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Blake |first=Tom |year=2004 |title=THE SIXTEEN LARGEST AMERICAN SLAVEHOLDERS FROM 1860 SLAVE CENSUS SCHEDULES |url=http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ajac/biggest16.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130719043247/http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ajac/biggest16.htm |archive-date=July 19, 2013 |access-date=June 9, 2013 |publisher=Ancestry.com}}</ref>  This large "value of slave property" made Issaquena County the second richest county in the United States, with "mean total wealth per freeman" at $26,800 in 1860 ({{Inflation|US-GDP|26800|1860|fmt=eq|r=-3|cursign=$}}).<ref name="cobb">{{Cite book |last=Cobb |first=James C. |title=[[The Most Southern Place on Earth: The Mississippi Delta and the Roots of Regional Identity]] |publisher=Oxford |year=1992 |isbn=9780199762439}} - [https://books.google.com/books?id=WF3hl9UAODAC&pg=PP1 Read at] [[Google Books]]</ref>  By 1880—just 15 years after the abolition of slavery—the county had developed "a strong year-round market for wage labor", and Issaquena was the only county in Mississippi to report "no sharecropping or sharerenting whatsoever".<ref name="cobb" />

===Civil War===
{{Main|Steele's Bayou Expedition}}
During the winter of 1862 and spring of 1863, Union Army General [[Ulysses S. Grant]] conducted a series of amphibious operations aimed at capturing the Confederate stronghold of [[Vicksburg, Mississippi|Vicksburg]], located south of Issaquena County.

The Steele's Bayou Expedition occurred on waterways within Issaquena County, including Steele Bayou, [[Little Sunflower River]], [[Sunflower River|Big Sunflower River]], [[Deer Creek (Mississippi)|Deer Creek]], Black Bayou, Little Black Bayou, and the [[Yazoo River]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Steele's Bayou Expedition |url=http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~msissaq2/civilwar4.html |access-date=November 16, 2013 |publisher=Rootsweb}}</ref>

The shallow waterways proved difficult for the large Union boats, and Confederate defenses were robust. The Steele's Bayou Expedition was a defeat for Union forces in Issaquena County.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Steele's Bayou Expedition |url=http://www.mycivilwar.com/campaigns/630314E.html |access-date=November 16, 2013 |publisher=Mycivilwar.com}}</ref>

=== Weather events ===
{{Full article|1971 Inverness tornado}}
In 1971, a large and long-tracked [[tornado]] destroyed multiple towns in Issaquena County.