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==History== [[File:Lithographic print made 1854 of New Madrid Missouri.jpg|thumb|left|Lithographic print made 1854 depicting New Madrid shore from the Mississippi]] The first more or less permanent settlement at present-day New Madrid was established by bands of [[Shawnee people|Shawnee]], [[Delaware people|Delaware]], [[Creek people|Creek]], and [[Cherokee people|Cherokee]] who were turned into refugees due to the U.S. War for Independence. These refugee Native American bands accepted Spanish offers to settle on the west bank of the Mississippi River in the early 1780s. These mixed Native American groups established a settlement and informal trading post where a northward, horseshoe bend of the Mississippi met the Chepusa creek, which provided an easy place for landing boats. Native American hunters and European-American merchants made the settlement a location for processing the bounty of hunts, including the valuable but messy fat of bears and buffalo, which was used in preparing skins and furs. The settlement quickly acquired the name L’Anse a la Graise — “Cove of Grease” or “Greasy Cove.” European Americans renamed the settlement New Madrid around 1780 under the auspices of [[Louisiana (New Spain)|Spanish]] Governor [[Bernardo de Gálvez]], who was appointed to rule [[Louisiana (New Spain)|Spanish Louisiana]] (the land west of the Mississippi River),<ref name="Morrow">Lynn Morrow, "New Madrid and its Hinterland: 1783-1826," ''Bulletin of the Missouri Historical Society'' (1980) 36#4 pp. 241-250</ref> and [[Manuel Pérez (Lieutenant Governor of Upper Louisiana)|Manuel Pérez]], [[Lieutenant Governor]] of Upper Louisiana in [[Saint Louis, Missouri|Saint Louis]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Foley|first=William E.|title=Manuel Pérez (1735–1819)|url=https://missouriencyclopedia.org/people/perez-manuel|journal=Missouri Encyclopedia}}</ref> They welcomed settlers from the United States, but required them to become subjects of (i.e. swear allegiance to) the Spanish crown. In addition, they had to agree to live under the guidance of his appointed [[empresario]], Colonel [[George Morgan (merchant)|George Morgan]], an [[American Revolutionary War]] veteran from [[New Jersey]]. Morgan recruited a number of American families to settle at New Madrid, attracting a few hundred people to the region. Settlement in the 1790s and early 1800s remained relatively low due to the physical geography of New Madrid and its hinterlands. Morgan made commitments to nearby natives that settlers would not be permitted to hunt game for the purposes of large-scale fur trading, thus they would not be an economic threat to natives who relied on hunting.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Savelle |first=Max |date=1932 |title=The Founding of New Madrid, Missouri |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1896649 |journal=The Mississippi Valley Historical Review |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=30–56 |doi=10.2307/1896649 |issn=0161-391X}}</ref> The Mississippi frequently washed away the town's river banks, and a Spanish fort was washed away. Surrounded by low, swampy land, New Madrid developed a well-earned reputation for diseases, especially in the summer and fall. Spanish census data from the late 1790s show around 800 residents at the village of New Madrid. New Madrid continued to operate as a site of exchange between Native Americans in the St. Francis River Valley and European American traders operating out of New Madrid.<ref name="Morrow" /> In 1800, Spain traded the territory back to France in the [[Third Treaty of San Ildefonso]]. After trying to regain control of [[Saint-Domingue]] (the present [[Haiti]]), where [[Haitian Revolution|a slave rebellion]] was underway, Napoleon gave up on his North American colonies, agreeing to sell this territory to the United States in 1803 as part of the [[Louisiana Purchase]]. By 1810, a fort, two blocks, and a portion of a third block was washed away by expansion of the Mississippi river.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Reps |first=John W. |date=1959 |title=New Madrid on the Mississippi |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/987891 |journal=Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=21–26 |doi=10.2307/987891 |issn=0037-9808}}</ref> The area is noted as the site of a [[1811–1812 New Madrid earthquakes|series of nearly 2,000 earthquakes in 1811 and 1812]], ranging up to approximately [[moment magnitude scale|magnitude]] 8, the most powerful non-[[subduction|subduction zone]] earthquake ever recorded in the United States. New Madrid lies far from any [[plate tectonics|plate]] boundaries, but it is on the [[New Madrid Seismic Zone]].<ref>The series of earthquakes took place in December 1811 and January 1812. They created, among other land features, Reelfoot Lake. See Stewart and Knox, ''The earthquake that never went away,'' pp. 17–25.</ref> The major earthquake was felt as far away as the [[East Coast of the United States|East Coast]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/states/events/1811-1812.php#february_7|title=Historic Earthquakes|author=United States Geological Survey|author-link=United States Geological Survey|access-date=25 April 2008}}</ref> Starting in 1838, New Madrid was on the [[Trail of Tears]] that saw thousands of Indians forcefully removed from Eastern lands and moving to Oklahoma.<ref>{{Cite web |title=New Madrid and the Trail of Tears (U.S. National Park Service) |url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/new-madrid-and-the-trail-of-tears.htm |access-date=2024-10-05 |website=www.nps.gov |language=en}}</ref> During the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], the [[Battle of Island Number Ten]] took place on the Mississippi River near New Madrid. In the antebellum period, this fertile [[floodplain]] area was developed for [[cotton]] [[Plantations in the American South|plantations]], based on the labor of enslaved African Americans. They were emancipated after the Civil War and worked to make new lives. As whites struggled to re-establish dominance after the Reconstruction era, they intimidated and attacked blacks under the guise of [[Jim Crow]] laws, working to suppress voting and control their activities. Three African-American men are documented as being [[Lynching in the United States|lynched]] by whites in New Madrid, the county seat, near the turn of the century: Unknown Negro, on November 29, 1898; Louis Wright, a musician in a [[minstrel show]] accused of altercations with whites, hanged on February 17, 1902;<ref name="minstrel">{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20180616103322/http://www.thiscruelwar.com/black-minstrel-lynched-in-new-madrid/ "A Black Minstrel Lynched in New Madrid, Missouri (1902)"]}}, This Cruel War blog, 16 February 2017; accessed 12 April 2018</ref> and unknown Negro, May 30, 1910.<ref>[http://cousin-collector.com/projects/index.php/saline-county/history/1754-lynching-in-missouri "Lynching in Missouri"], Saline County, Missouri/MOGenWeb Project, 1996-2018; accessed 12 April 2018</ref> By the turn of the 20th century, some industry was being developed in New Madrid, which contained two [[lumber mill]]s, a [[grist mill]], a [[stave (wood)|stave]] and [[heading (metalworking)|heading]] factory, and a [[cotton gin]]. It was considered a rough town.<ref name="minstrel"/> There were four Protestant churches, two with independent African-American congregations, and one Catholic church.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/statemissouri00willgoog|title=The State of Missouri|author=Williams, Walter|year=1904|page=[https://archive.org/details/statemissouri00willgoog/page/n501 459]}}</ref>
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