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== History == {{More citations needed section|date=March 2022}} [[File:Market Street-Suburb Ste. Mary Historic District-569.JPG|thumb|right|Market Street-Suburb Ste. Mary Historic District]] Port Gibson is the third-oldest European-American settlement in Mississippi. Its development began in 1729 by French colonists and was then within French-claimed territory known as ''[[La Louisiane]]''. The British acquired this area after the French ceded their colonies east of the Mississippi River in 1763,<ref name="kilborn"/> following their defeat in the [[Seven Years' War]]. Following the U.S. acquisition of former French territory through the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, more Americans entered the area. Port Gibson was chartered as a town that year on March 12, 1803. The federal government carried out [[Indian Removal]] in the 1830s, pushing the [[Five Civilized Tribes]], including the Choctaw and Chickasaw peoples, west of the Mississippi River to [[Indian Territory]]. It took over their lands in the Southeast for sale and development by European Americans. Planters developed cotton plantations in the fertile river lowlands of the Mississippi Delta and other riverfront areas, dependent on the labor of enslaved Africans, initially brought from the Upper South. The African Americans comprised a majority in the county before the Civil War, and this continued. With international demand high for cotton, such planters prospered. As the planter population increased, they founded the [[Port Gibson Female College]] in 1843 to educate their daughters. The college later closed and one of its buildings now serves as the city hall.<ref name="BlackBarnwell2002">{{cite book|author1=Patti Carr Black|author2=Marion Barnwell|title=Touring Literary Mississippi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0KeMcsq5fgEC&pg=PA179|access-date=August 19, 2012|year=2002|publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi|isbn=978-1-57806-368-0|page=179}}</ref> Similarly, they founded [[Chamberlain-Hunt Academy]] in 1879, a military preparatory boarding school which became co-ed in 1971. CHA was the legacy of Oakland College founded in 1830 in nearby Lorman. Oakland was closed during the Civil War and the Oakland campus was sold to the State of Mississippi to create Alcorn A&M College, the first land-grant college for African Americans. Chamberlain-Hunt closed its doors in 2014. In 1990, the first African American students graduated from Chamberlain-Hunt. Port Gibson was the site of several clashes during the [[American Civil War]] and figured in Union General [[Ulysses S. Grant]]'s [[Vicksburg Campaign]]. He was attempting to gain control over the Mississippi River. The [[Battle of Port Gibson]] occurred on May 1, 1863, and resulted in the deaths of more than 200 [[Union Army|Union]] and [[Confederate States Army|Confederate]] soldiers. The Confederate defeat resulted in their losing the ability to hold Mississippi and defend against an [[amphibious attack]]. === Later nineteenth century to present === Reportedly, many of the historic buildings in the town survived the Civil War because Grant proclaimed the city to be "too beautiful to burn". These words appear on the sign marking the city limits.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hendrickson|first=Paul|title=Sons of Mississippi|publisher=[[Alfred A. Knopf]]|year=2003|place=New York|isbn=0-375-40461-9|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/sonsofmississipp00paul}}</ref> Despite postwar economic upheaval, the city continued as a center of trade and economy associated with cotton. In 1882, the [[Port Gibson Oil Works Mill Building|Port Gibson Oil Works]] started operating, established as one of the first [[cottonseed oil]] plants in the United States.<ref name="PGOWMBNom">{{Citation | last1 = Gold | first1 = Jack A. | date = January 1979 | title = Historic Sites Survey: Port Gibson (cottonseed crushing) Oil Works Mill Building | url = {{NRHP url|79003422}} | access-date = August 5, 2018 | format = PDF }}.</ref> This historic industrial building was listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 1979.<ref name="NPG">{{citation | last = National Park Service | authorlink = National Park Service | title = NPGallery: Port Gibson Oil Works Mill Building | url = https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/79003422 | access-date = August 5, 2018 }}.</ref> The mill finally closed in 2002.<ref name="kilborn">{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/18/us/a-vestige-of-king-cotton-fades-out-in-mississippi.html|title=A Vestige of King Cotton Fades Out in Mississippi|last=Kilborn |first=Peter T. |work=New York Times| date=18 October 2002|access-date=8 October 2021}}</ref> [[File:PortGibsonSynagogeExxon.jpg|thumb|''[[Gemiluth Chessed]]'' synagogue]] ''[[Gemiluth Chessed]]'' synagogue, built in 1892, had an active congregation when the town was thriving as the county seat and a trading center. It had attracted nineteenth-century Jewish immigrants from the German states and Alsace-Lorraine. After starting as peddlers, the later generations of men became cotton brokers and merchants. This is the oldest [[synagogue]] and the only [[Moorish Revival]] building in the state.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/29/us/small-town-south-clings-to-jewish-history.html|work=[[New York Times]]|title=Small-Town South Clings to Jewish History|author=Peter Applebome|date=September 29, 1991|access-date=September 1, 2011}}</ref> It is topped by a Russian-style dome. As the economy changed, the Jewish population gradually moved to larger cities and areas offering more opportunity, and none remain in Port Gibson. [[The Rabbit's Foot Company]] was established in 1900 by [[Pat Chappelle]], an African-American theatre owner in [[Tampa, Florida]]. This was the leading traveling [[vaudeville]] show in the [[Southern states of the United States|southern states]], with an all-black cast of singers, musicians, comedians, and entertainers.<ref name=abbott/> After Chappelle's death in 1911, the company was taken over by [[Fred Swift Wolcott]], a white planter. After 1918, he based the touring company at his plantation near Port Gibson, with offices in town. He continued to manage it until 1950, when he sold it. The Rabbit's Foot Company remained popular, but as some white performers joined and used [[blackface]], it was no longer considered "authentic".<ref name=abbott>[https://books.google.com/books?id=u4rc-BKNCyoC&dq=%22Pat+Chappelle%22&pg=PA248 Lynn Abbott, Doug Seroff, ''Ragged But Right: Black Traveling Shows, Coon Songs, and the Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz''], University Press of Mississippi, 2009, pp.248-268</ref> In 2002 the ''[[New York Times]]'' characterized Port Gibson as 80 percent black and poor, with 20 percent of families living on incomes of less than $10,000 a year, according to the [[2000 United States Census|2000 Census]].<ref name ="kilbornb">PETER T. KILBORN, "A Vestige of King Cotton Fades Out in Mississippi", ''New York Times'', October 18, 2002.</ref>
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