CHOCTAW BANDS circa 1836/ROADS

This Musing 12 is a follow on to Musing 11. In Musing 11 we documented the Choctaw Bands and showed their spatial relationship to the Rivers of Mississippi. Remember the rivers were where H.B. Cushman indicated that these Choctaw moved to develop their cattle industry after the American Revolution (See Musings 1 and 11). Note in Musing 11 neither the Tombigbee River nor its tributaries were shown that would have provided river access in eastern Lauderdale and Kemper Counties. Also, the Strong River, a Pearl River tributary, was not shown. The Strong River flowed through Simpson, southeastern Rankin, Smith, and southwestern Scott Counties.

Now, we add ten roads that influenced the Choctaw bands and homeland; see Figure 1. Were these roads accessible to the Choctaw Bands? What impact did these roads mean to the Choctaw Bands? To repeat the Choctaw Bands on Figure 1 are sized about four miles diameter and located at the center or my perceived center of their extent. The roads, like the rivers, are shown on Figure 1 near two miles in width to highlight their locations.

The Athens Road, Charley's Trace, Elliot to Mayhew Road, Factory Road, Winchester Road, Robinson Road and Treaty Road are full length. The remaining roads' lengths are not complete. For example, the Natchez Road continues north to Nashville, so we stopped the road where it entered Chickasaw territory. On the south end the United States original surveyors' did not note the road in several counties. Likewise, the Military Road stops on the north end shy of the Tombigbee River at Columbus, even though the road continued to Nashville. On the south end we stopped the road in Smith County as the original county survey was completed prior to the road's creation. Lastly, the Rankin to Memphis Road as the name suggests ran from Rankin to Memphis; however, we only show a portion of the road in the middle of its length. The reason? The original United States survey plats and notes in Rankin and southern Holmes, etc. counties predate the road's construction, and as you go north from Tallahatchie County you enter Chickasaw territory.

Continuing with airing my dirty laundry, I would have liked to have added Carroll's Trace (Road) and the Federal Road or Post Road. As regards Carroll's Trace, the road coursed from the Natchez Road in Hinds County to near Covington, Louisiana. The cause of its omission is the lower Mississippi counties were surveyed before the road was constructed. However, from early Mississippi maps we note that Carroll's Trace location in Copiah and Lawrence Counties ran north to south just west of the Pearl River a few miles.

There were surveying issues with the Federal Road that ran from St. Stephens, Alabama to Natchez with the road entering Mississippi in northeastern Wayne County. Due to poor quality of the original survey documents the road is partially visible on about every other township plat in Jones, Covington and Jefferson Davis Counties to the Pearl River. West of the Pearl River the road per early Mississippi maps followed the 1805 Choctaw Boundary or the northern boundaries of Lawrence County west but was not documented on the original United States survey records on the BLM GLO website. Even so, the Federal Road and Carroll's Trace existed in 1836.

With these explanations, generally most of the Choctaw Bands in Figure 1 were near a road that existed in 1836. The bands in Jones, Forrest, Perry, Hancock, Harrison and Jackson Counties did not have ready access to these roads. Factoring the Roads and Rivers together, Jones, Hancock and Harrison Counties' Choctaw Bands appear the most isolated.

It is interesting to note that Lawrence County which was founded in 1814 from lands the United State obtained from the Choctaw Treaty of Mount Dexter in 1805 had bands that could have lasted 30 years. The same may be said of those bands in Jefferson Davis, Covington and Jones Counties. In other words, the Choctaw Bands persisted despite the white settlers. It could be that the Choctaw cattle industry found ready customers with the settlers.

However, change was rapid in early Mississippi. As white settlers moved into the counties, the original white settlements gave way to county seats and new roads. From these new and existing roads came more settlements. By the 1850s the railroads changed the landscape as the rails dictated whether white settlements survived in place or moved to be near the rails. These changes put more pressure on the Choctaw of the Choctaw Bands.