Editing Oxford, Mississippi (section)

===19th century===
Oxford and Lafayette County were formed from lands ceded by the [[Chickasaw people]] in the [[Treaty of Pontotoc Creek]] in 1832. The county was organized in 1836, and in 1837 three pioneers—John Martin, John Chisom, and John Craig—purchased land from Hoka, a female Chickasaw landowner, as a site for the town.<ref>Jack Lamar Mayfield. ''Oxford and Ole Miss''. Arcadia Publishing, 2009, p. 7.</ref> They named it "Oxford", intending to promote it as a center of learning in the [[Old Southwest]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=History |url=https://www.oxfordms.net/reference/history |access-date=September 3, 2022 |website=www.oxfordms.net |archive-date=September 3, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220903151642/https://www.oxfordms.net/reference/history |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1841, the Mississippi legislature selected Oxford as the site of the state university, which opened in 1848.

During the [[American Civil War]], Oxford was occupied by [[Union Army]] troops under Generals [[Ulysses S. Grant]] and [[William T. Sherman]] in 1862; in 1864 Major General [[Andrew Jackson Smith]] burned the buildings in the town square, including the county courthouse. In the postwar [[Reconstruction era]], the town recovered slowly, aided by federal judge [[Robert Andrews Hill]], who secured funds to build a new courthouse in 1872.

During this period many African American [[freedman|freedmen]] moved from farms into town and established a neighborhood known as "Freedmen Town", where they built houses, businesses, churches and schools, and exercised all the rights of U.S. citizenship.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.historymarkersofms.com/Lafayette/Freedmen_Town.JPG |title=Archived copy |access-date=June 1, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080805025400/http://www.historymarkersofms.com/Lafayette/Freedmen_Town.JPG |archive-date=August 5, 2008 }}</ref> Even after Mississippi [[Disenfranchisement after the Reconstruction era|disenfranchised]] most African Americans in the 1890 [[Constitution of Mississippi]], they continued to build their lives in the face of discrimination.