Resolutions and Legislations

The American Civil War (1861-1865) left Mississippi in chaos with its social structures overturned, its economy in ruins, and its people shattered.

Historians continue to argue why Mississippi and her southern states chose to leave the Union. Issues such as state’s rights are frequently cited as causes of the war, but Mississippi's defends of the institution of slavery was the ultimate reason the state forfieted  from the Union.

Slavery grew rapialy in Mississippi during the years  before the Civil War. By 1860, its Black slave population was over 430,000 while there were only 350,000 Whites in the state. But, most Whites were not slaveholders and even those who did have slaves (other than plantation owner) had less than ten. The state's economy was primarily based on the production of cotton, which depended on slaves to provide the necessary labor. Slavery was as much a social structure, however, as it was an economic system. Most slaveholders believed in the inferiority of slaves and thought their Black servants to be no more than property.