The Southwest Territory was formed in 1790 from lands south of the Ohio River, lying between the Mississippi River and the Appalachians. Over the next decade, the region was organized into four discrete territories, with Kentucky (1792) and Tennessee (1796) becoming the first to earn admission to the Union as states, and Alabama (1819) the last.

In 1798, Winthrop Sargent, a Federalist with previous experience as an administrator and interim governor of the Northwest Territory, was appointed the first governor of the Territory of Mississippi. Sargent's duties included the daunting task of organizing the structures of military and political authority, virtually from the ground up. His partisan alignments, however, made him unpopular in the Southwest, and with the departure of the Federalist administration in Washington in 1801, Sargent lost in his bid for reelection. Mississippi was admitted to the Union in 1817.

Scope and contents:

An assemblage of miscellaneous items relating to the territorial and early statehood period in the old Southwest, the Southwest Territory Collection documents the process of establishing civil and military authority in the present states of Mississippi and Tennessee, including the organization of the militia, institution building, and the construction of networks of power.

Almost half of the collection consists of letters written to Winthrop Sargent, first governor of the territory of Mississippi (1798-1801). The majority of these letters are fairly routine, concerning the organization of the militia, letters of introduction, or letters to secure political favor, but the formation of political structures emerges from between the lines. In one letter, for example, Cato West offered his opinion on the erection of the then-signal cultural institution, a prison:

I consider the proposal of building a prison by private subscription on an improper situation no advantage to the dist., but to the contrary, by obligg. numbers to ride many miles out of their way -- I am assured the inhabitants in genl. will not refuse to contribute to that & every other publik building if placed in a nearly proper situation. (1798 November 29)

The effect of the Louisiana Purchase in the Southwest can be judged indirectly in the form of two letters of introduction from December, 1803: the first for a Boston merchant, N. Amory, seeking to establish himself in New Orleans; and the second for Christopher Backus, "an adventurer, having been unfortunate in business" who hoped to reverse his fortunes in the new territory.

Three letters discuss crimes committed in the territory -- horse stealing in Tennessee (1797 June 1), forgery in Mississippi (1798 October 10, committed by the aptly named Joseph Sharp), and in Mississippi, an attempted murder of a white man by an Indian (allegedly drunken) and vice versa (1800 April 11). As reported by William Vousdan, this latter incident reveals the tense relations between whites and Indians in early Mississippi, as well as the cultural negotiations necessary when navigating between American and Native American systems of justice.

The collection includes an important series of four letters of Andrew Jackson, written during the 1st Seminole War, all of which concern the raising of mounted troops (the 1st and 2nd Tennessee Mounted Volunteers) for service against the Seminoles. In a characteristically expansive and aggressive fashion, Jackson provides his perspective on military leadership and the logistical problems of mounting a military operation in the west, and his letters provide several glimpses of his rousing nationalism. A fifth letter of Jackson (1816 August 18) concerns relations with the Chickasaws.

Finally, the collection includes a highly important letter (1818 October 1) from David Folsom, a Choctaw man, discussing his willingness to make efforts to better relations with whites. The letter was written from Pigeon Roost, probably in East Tennessee.

Provenance:

Acquired, 1963 and 1944-1996.

M-1277; M-537; M-1397; M-1582, M-3309
cat. 6/98 rsc

Subject index to the Southwest Territory Collection

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