密西西比州小档案：
人口：约300万
面积：约123，584平方公里，排名第32位
州府：杰克逊Jackson
密西西比州，名称来自印第安语，其意义为“大河”Large River。
本州历史背景很复杂：其中有印第安人、西班牙人、法国人及英国人的文化。印第安人在雅助河Yazoo R．流域，人口甚多。1540年，西班牙人进入本州。1699年，法国人也来殖民。1716年英国开始殖民。1763年英国占有本州。1798年成为美国领土。1817年12月10日成为美国第20州。本州别名叫做“木兰之州”Magnolia State。以木兰花为州花。本州箴言：“靠勇气与武器”By Valor and Arms。
州府是杰克逊Jackson，位于本州中部。本州大专院校共有17所。其中最著名的是位于牛津Oxford之密西西比大学，在本州北部，创于1848年。
本州特征有二：第一，是黑人占万分比甚高之州。第二，是平均每人收入最低之州。
本州西部之雅助河，是地形学上“衰弱河”的一个实例。它与密西西比河平行南流，已无侵蚀能力，通过长距离后，才注入密西西比河。它的上游在丘陵区内，落差较大，已修筑许多水，作灌溉及发展水电之用。本州西部属于密西西比河平原，但密西西比河三角洲平原，不在本州之内，而在路易斯安那州。本州中部是低丘陵区，形成一条南北向分水岭。本州东部是河谷平原。有许多小河，南流入海。主要作物是棉，其次是大核桃及甘薯。
本州也出产石油。近年来，积极发展工业，人民收入增加。平均而论，本州收益之中，工业方面占27％，公务员薪金占15．6％，进出口贸易占15％，农产品占13％。
Introduction简介
Three major groups of Native Americans lived in the Mississippi region when European exploration of the area began．The Chickasaw lived in the north and east，the Choctaw in the central part，and the Natchez［纳齐兹部族人（印第安人部落，原居美国密西西比州西南部的印第安人的一个部落，现已灭绝）］in the southwest．
First explored for Spain by Hernando De Soto，who discovered the Mississippi River in 1540，the region was later claimed by France．Robert Cavelier，Sieur de la Salle，traveled down the Mississippi River in 1682．He claimed the entire Mississippi Valley，including present－day Mississippi，for France and named it Louisiana in honor of（向……表示敬意）King Louis XIV．
In 1699a French expedition led by Pierre le Moyne d’Iberville established France’s claim to the lower Mississippi valley with the first permanent settlement，Old Biloxi，near present－day Ocean Springs．They saw it as a strategically－located area ripe for settlement and commercial value（市场价值）．French settlements were soon established at Fort Maurepas，Mobile，Biloxi，Fort Rosalie，and New Orleans．
During the early 1700s，thousands of settlers moved to Mississippi．
When the Natchez rose up against the colonists in 1729，France rallied to destroy most of the Indian tribe the following year．In 1736，the Chickasaw［契卡索人（美国马斯科吉印第安人一个部落成员，过去住在密西西比州北部和田纳西州的部分地区，现在住在俄克拉荷马州）］and British soldiers defeated the French in northeast Mississippi．This led to the French and Indian War（1754—1763）．The Treaty of Paris，signed after the war，gave England all the land east of the Mississippi River．Mississippi was divided into two main parts；the southern section to a British province called West Florida and the remaining portion to the Georgia colony．
Following the French and Indian War，which ended in 1763，France ceded its possessions（占有）in the lower Mississippi valley，except New Orleans，to Great Britain，which also gained possession of Spanish Florida and divided that territory into two colonies．One of those was West Florida，which included the area between the Apalachicola（阿帕拉契科拉河，美国佛罗里达州西北部的一条河流，从乔治亚洲边界向南注入墨西哥湾的海口阿伯拉契科拉海湾，流程约180公里）and Mississippi rivers．The original northern boundary of West Florida was the 31parallel，but it was extended in 1764to the 3228’parallel．Fort Rosalie was renamed Fort Panmure，and the Natchez District was established as a subdivision（一部）of West Florida．Natchez flourished during the early 1770s．After the outbreak of the U．S．War of Independence，Spain regained possession of Florida and occupied Natchez．
This gave the Brits a huge presence in the area．To better govern such a large geographic area，the Brits divided the territory into two colonies．One colony was West Florida，which included the area between the Apalachicola and Mississippi rivers．The original northern boundary of West Florida was the 31st parallel，but in 1764this moved north to the 32．28′parallel．The Brits renamed Fort Rosalie Fort Panmure．They made the Natchez District a subdivision（一部）of West Florida．After the U．S．War of Independence broke out，Spain regained possession of Florida and occupied Natchez．In 1783，the Treaty of Paris made the 31st parallel as the northern boundary between Spanish Florida and the United States．Despite this，Spain continued to occupy Natchez．The two countries settled the occupation dispute in 1798．
The original Mississippi Territory created by the U．S．Congress in1798was a strip of（剥夺）land extending about 100miles north to south and from the Mississippi River to the Chattahoochee（查塔胡奇河发源于美国佐治亚州北部的河流，流程约702公里（436英里），流向大致为西南向，然后向南在佐治亚州和佛罗里达州的边界流入弗林特河）on the Georgia border．The territory was increased in 1804and 1812to reach from Tennessee to the Gulf．In 1817the western part achieved statehood as Mississippi（the eastern part became the state of Alabama in 1819）．Natchez，the first territorial capital，was replaced in 1802by nearby Washington，which in turn was replaced by Jackson in 1822．This encouraged growth of the newly formed territory，because the river allowed Mississippi trading ships to sail to the Gulf of Mexico．
In 1817，Congress divided the Mississippi Territory into the state of Mississippi and the Alabama Territory．On Dec．10，1817，Mississippi joined the Union and became the 20th state．Its population had almost reached 60，000people．
The 1820s and 1830s were marked by the decline of the Jeffersonian Republicans，the ascendancy（优势，支配（或统治）地位）of the Jacksonian Democrats，and the removal of the Indians to Oklahoma and set the stage for the Civil War．Cotton continued to grow in importance with the invention of the cotton gin（起重装，轧棉机）in 1793．The farmers used slave labor to operate the large cotton plantations．By 1860，Mississippi’s black slaves outnumbered（比……多）white people 437，000to 354，000．Slavery had become an intense debate between the Northern and Southern states．When Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the U．S．in 1860，many southerners feared he would end slavery in the South．Mississippi seceded（正式脱离或退出，分离）on Jan．9，1861，the second of eleven to secede and within a year the state was in the midst of war．．．These states formed the Confederate States of America．Mississippian Jefferson Davis became the Confederacy’s first and only president．
