The county seat and only city of Adams County, Mississippi, Natchez is ocated on the Mississippi River some and 85 miles north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It is named for the Natchez tribe of Native Americans who inhabited the area. Established by French colonists in 1716, Natchez is one of the oldest and most important European settlements in the lower Mississippi River Valley; it later served as the capital of Mississippi Territory and then of the state of Mississippi, before Jackson replaced it as the capital in 1822.
The strategic location of Natchez, on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River, ensured that it would become a pivotal center of trade, commerce, and the interchange of ethnic Native American, European, and African cultures in the region, for the first two centuries of its existence.
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