Port Gibson, Mississippi | |
|---|---|
 Claiborne County Courthouse and Confederate monument in Port Gibson | |
 Flag | |
| Motto: "Too beautiful to burn" | |
 Location of Port Gibson, Mississippi | |
  Port Gibson, Mississippi Location in the United States | |
| Coordinates:31°57′22″N90°58′59″W / 31.95611°N 90.98306°W /31.95611; -90.98306 | |
| Country |  United States |
| State |  Mississippi |
| County | Claiborne |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Willie A. White |
| Area | |
• Total | 1.76 sq mi (4.55 km2) |
| • Land | 1.76 sq mi (4.55 km2) |
| • Water | 0 sq mi (0.00 km2) |
| Elevation | 118 ft (36 m) |
| Population (2020) | |
• Total | 1,269 |
| • Density | 723.1/sq mi (279.18/km2) |
| Time zone | UTC-6 (Central (CST)) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-5 (CDT) |
| ZIP code | 39150 |
| Area code | 601 |
| FIPS code | 28-59560 |
| GNIS feature ID | 0676254 |
Port Gibson is a city and thecounty seat ofClaiborne County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 1,567 at the2010 census.[2][3] It is bordered on the west by theMississippi River.
The first European settlers in Port Gibson were French colonists in 1729; it was part of theirLa Louisiane. After the United States acquired the territory from France in 1803 in theLouisiana Purchase, the town was chartered that same year. To develop cottonplantations in the area afterIndian Removal of the 1830s, planters who moved to the state brought with them or imported thousands of enslaved Africans from the Upper South, disrupting many families. Well before the Civil War, the majority of the county's population were enslaved.
Several notable people are natives of Port Gibson. The town saw action during theAmerican Civil War. Port Gibson has several historical sites listed on theNational Register of Historic Places (National Register of Historic Places listings in Claiborne County, Mississippi).
In the twentieth century, Port Gibson was home toThe Rabbit's Foot Company. It had a substantial role in the development ofblues in Mississippi, operating taverns and juke joints now included on theMississippi Blues Trail.
In the second half of the twentieth century many jobs in agriculture were lost because of industrialization, which, combined with a lack of other jobs, has led to a substantial loss of population and to poverty in the city and the surrounding county. Port Gibson's population peaked in 1950. The last major employer, the Port Gibson Oil Works, a cottonseed mill, closed in 2002.
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Port Gibson is the third-oldest European-American settlement in Mississippi. Its development began in 1729 by French colonists and was then within French-claimed territory known asLa Louisiane. The British acquired this area after the French ceded their colonies east of the Mississippi River in 1763,[4] following their defeat in theSeven Years' War.
Following the U.S. acquisition of former French territory through the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, more Americans entered the area. Port Gibson was chartered as a town that year on March 12, 1803. The federal government carried outIndian Removal in the 1830s, pushing theFive Civilized Tribes, including the Choctaw and Chickasaw peoples, west of the Mississippi River toIndian Territory. It took over their lands in the Southeast for sale and development by European Americans.
Planters developed cotton plantations in the fertile river lowlands of the Mississippi Delta and other riverfront areas, dependent on the labor of enslaved Africans, initially brought from the Upper South. The African Americans comprised a majority in the county before the Civil War, and this continued.
With international demand high for cotton, such planters prospered. As the planter population increased, they founded thePort Gibson Female College in 1843 to educate their daughters. The college later closed and one of its buildings now serves as the city hall.[5] Similarly, they foundedChamberlain-Hunt Academy in 1879, a military preparatory boarding school which became co-ed in 1971. CHA was the legacy of Oakland College founded in 1830 in nearby Lorman. Oakland was closed during the Civil War and the Oakland campus was sold to the State of Mississippi to createAlcorn A&M College, the first land-grant college for African Americans. Chamberlain-Hunt closed its doors in 2014. In 1990, the first African American students graduated from Chamberlain-Hunt.
Port Gibson was the site of several clashes during theAmerican Civil War and figured in Union GeneralUlysses S. Grant'sVicksburg Campaign. He was attempting to gain control over the Mississippi River. TheBattle of Port Gibson occurred on May 1, 1863, and resulted in the deaths of more than 200Union andConfederate soldiers. The Confederate defeat resulted in their losing the ability to hold Mississippi and defend against anamphibious attack.
Reportedly, many of the historic buildings in the town survived the Civil War because Grant proclaimed the city to be "too beautiful to burn". These words appear on the sign marking the city limits.[6]
Despite postwar economic upheaval, the city continued as a center of trade and economy associated with cotton. In 1882, thePort Gibson Oil Works started operating, established as one of the firstcottonseed oil plants in the United States.[7] This historic industrial building was listed on theNational Register of Historic Places in 1979.[8] The mill finally closed in 2002.[4]
Gemiluth Chessed synagogue, built in 1892, had an active congregation when the town was thriving as the county seat and a trading center. It had attracted nineteenth-century Jewish immigrants from the German states and Alsace-Lorraine. After starting as peddlers, the later generations of men became cotton brokers and merchants. This is the oldestsynagogue and the onlyMoorish Revival building in the state.[9] It is topped by a Russian-style dome. As the economy changed, the Jewish population gradually moved to larger cities and areas offering more opportunity, and none remain in Port Gibson.
The Rabbit's Foot Company was established in 1900 byPat Chappelle, an African-American theatre owner inTampa, Florida. This was the leading travelingvaudeville show in thesouthern states, with an all-black cast of singers, musicians, comedians, and entertainers.[10]
After Chappelle's death in 1911, the company was taken over byFred Swift Wolcott, a white planter. After 1918, he based the touring company at his plantation near Port Gibson, with offices in town. He continued to manage it until 1950, when he sold it. The Rabbit's Foot Company remained popular, but as some white performers joined and usedblackface, it was no longer considered "authentic".[10]
In 2002 theNew York Times characterized Port Gibson as 80 percent black and poor, with 20 percent of families living on incomes of less than $10,000 a year, according to the2000 Census.[11]
AMississippi Blues Trail marker was placed in Port Gibson to commemorate the contribution the Rabbit's Foot Company made to the development of theblues in Mississippi, in its decades of operation after the founder's death.[12]
In 2006, an exhibition,The Blues in Claiborne County: From Rabbit Foot Minstrels to Blues and Cruise, was shown in Port Gibson, exploring the history of the show, with artifacts and memorabilia.[13]
According to theUnited States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1.8 square miles (4.7 km2), all land.
| Climate data for Port Gibson, Mississippi (1991–2020, extremes 1893–present) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °F (°C) | 88 (31) | 87 (31) | 94 (34) | 94 (34) | 99 (37) | 104 (40) | 104 (40) | 107 (42) | 105 (41) | 97 (36) | 89 (32) | 84 (29) | 107 (42) |
| Mean daily maximum °F (°C) | 59.5 (15.3) | 63.7 (17.6) | 71.0 (21.7) | 77.9 (25.5) | 84.9 (29.4) | 90.5 (32.5) | 92.9 (33.8) | 93.4 (34.1) | 89.1 (31.7) | 80.1 (26.7) | 69.1 (20.6) | 61.5 (16.4) | 77.8 (25.4) |
| Daily mean °F (°C) | 47.6 (8.7) | 50.9 (10.5) | 58.4 (14.7) | 65.2 (18.4) | 73.2 (22.9) | 79.8 (26.6) | 82.3 (27.9) | 82.2 (27.9) | 77.2 (25.1) | 66.6 (19.2) | 55.9 (13.3) | 49.8 (9.9) | 65.8 (18.8) |
| Mean daily minimum °F (°C) | 35.7 (2.1) | 38.1 (3.4) | 45.9 (7.7) | 52.5 (11.4) | 61.5 (16.4) | 69.1 (20.6) | 71.8 (22.1) | 70.9 (21.6) | 65.3 (18.5) | 53.1 (11.7) | 42.7 (5.9) | 38.1 (3.4) | 53.7 (12.1) |
| Record low °F (°C) | −5 (−21) | −1 (−18) | 15 (−9) | 26 (−3) | 34 (1) | 45 (7) | 51 (11) | 51 (11) | 35 (2) | 23 (−5) | 15 (−9) | 4 (−16) | −5 (−21) |
| Averageprecipitation inches (mm) | 6.10 (155) | 5.06 (129) | 6.01 (153) | 5.45 (138) | 4.47 (114) | 4.05 (103) | 3.94 (100) | 3.56 (90) | 3.75 (95) | 4.11 (104) | 4.44 (113) | 5.32 (135) | 56.26 (1,429) |
| Average snowfall inches (cm) | 0.2 (0.51) | 0.2 (0.51) | 0.1 (0.25) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.5 (1.3) |
| Average precipitation days(≥ 0.01 in) | 9.9 | 8.4 | 8.8 | 7.6 | 7.9 | 8.9 | 9.4 | 8.3 | 6.8 | 5.8 | 7.4 | 8.8 | 98.0 |
| Average snowy days(≥ 0.1 in) | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 |
| Source:NOAA[14][15] | |||||||||||||
| Census | Pop. | Note | %± |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1890 | 1,524 | — | |
| 1900 | 2,113 | 38.6% | |
| 1910 | 2,252 | 6.6% | |
| 1920 | 1,691 | −24.9% | |
| 1930 | 1,861 | 10.1% | |
| 1940 | 2,748 | 47.7% | |
| 1950 | 2,920 | 6.3% | |
| 1960 | 2,861 | −2.0% | |
| 1970 | 2,589 | −9.5% | |
| 1980 | 2,371 | −8.4% | |
| 1990 | 1,810 | −23.7% | |
| 2000 | 1,840 | 1.7% | |
| 2010 | 1,567 | −14.8% | |
| 2020 | 1,269 | −19.0% | |
| U.S. Decennial Census[16] | |||
| Race | Num. | Perc. |
|---|---|---|
| White | 122 | 9.61% |
| Black or African American | 1,122 | 88.42% |
| Other/Mixed | 20 | 1.58% |
| Hispanic orLatino | 5 | 0.39% |
As of the2020 United States census, there were 1,269 people, 554 households, and 290 families residing in the city.
Port Gibson is served by theClaiborne County School District.[18]Port Gibson High School is the comprehensive high school of the district.
TheChamberlain-Hunt Academy, a private military boarding school, opened in Port Gibson in 1879. It was promoted as a Christian school in the late twentieth century. Nonetheless, it suffered declining enrollment and closed in 2014.[19]
Port Gibson travel guide from WikivoyageMunicipalities and communities ofClaiborne County, Mississippi,United States | ||
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