Editing Greenville, Mississippi (section)

===Early history===
This area was occupied by indigenous peoples for thousands of years. When the [[France|French]] explored here, they encountered the historic [[Natchez people]]. As part of their colony known as ''[[La Louisiane]]'', the French established a settlement at what became [[Natchez, Mississippi]]. Other Native American tribes also lived in what is now known as Mississippi.

The current city of Greenville is the third in the State to bear the name. The first, (known as [[Old Greenville, Mississippi|Old Greenville]]) located to the south near [[Natchez, Mississippi|Natchez]], was the Jefferson County seat from 1803 to 1825<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mississippimarkers.com/uploads/6/1/1/7/6117286/4163493.jpg|title=Old Greenville Historical Marker|website=Mississippimarkers.com|access-date=January 18, 2025}}</ref> but became defunct soon after the [[American Revolution]], as European-American settlement was then still concentrated in the eastern states. This ghost town was in no way related to the second Greenville except that they eventually shared a name.

Many migrants came to the area of the future, second Greenville, located approximately 150 miles north of the first Greenville, from the eastern and [[Upper South]] states, seeking land for developing cotton plantations, and this area became a trading center for the region's plantations. In 1830 the United States Congress passed the [[Indian Removal Act]], which authorized the government to make treaties to extinguish Native American land claims in exchange for lands west of the Mississippi River. They forced most of the Southeastern tribes to [[Indian Territory]] during the following decade.

After it became necessary to move the county seat of Washington County in 1844 due to loss of land to the newly formed Issaquena County, the not-yet established second Greenville was designated to be the future county seat and finally became so upon its founding in 1847.<ref name="auto">{{cite web |title=Washington County Historical Papers |url=https://www.seekingmyroots.com/members/files/H004873.pdf}}</ref> American William W. Blanton filed for land from the United States government and was granted section four, township eighteen, range eight west; this plot now constitutes most of current downtown Greenville (the third). It was named by its founders for General [[Nathanael Greene]], friend of President [[George Washington]], for whom the county was named. This Greenville was thriving hamlet in the antebellum years, as cotton plantations developed in the area generated high profits for major planters. They used indentured Whites, captured Indians and African slaves as farmhands on the plantations.

Washington County's two previous county seats, [[New Mexico, Mississippi|New Mexico]] and [[Princeton, Mississippi|Princeton]], were located along the Mississippi River and had been eroded by the waters, to the point that they were destroyed.<ref name="Woods">{{cite book | last = Woods | first = Woody | title = Delta Plantations: The Beginning | publisher = Troy (Woody) Woods | year = 2010 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=5kCn5zzFIjkC&q=prince&pg=PP1 | pages =  157, 158| isbn = 9780615383958 }}</ref> As county seat, Greenville was the trading, business, and cultural center for the large [[cotton]] [[Plantations in the American South|plantations]] that surrounded it. Most plantations were located directly on the Mississippi and other major navigable tributaries. The interior bottomlands were not developed until after the Civil War. 
[[File:Greenville, Mississippi.jpg|thumb|Greenville, seen from the Mississippi River]]