Mississippi

Mississippi's fertile river valleys were home to the Natchez, Choctaw and Chickasaw nations, whose earthwork mounds still rise across the state, before French, British and Spanish colonial powers vied for control of the lower Mississippi River. The territory entered the Union in 1817 as the 20th state, its economy quickly built on cotton plantations and the forced labour of enslaved people, a legacy central to understanding the state's history.

Mississippi seceded in 1861 and endured devastating Civil War battles, most notably the siege of Vicksburg, which split the Confederacy along the river in 1863. The 20th century brought the civil rights movement to a head here, from Freedom Summer to the murders that shocked the nation, alongside the birth of an entirely new art form: the Mississippi Delta blues, later reshaping American music through rock and roll and soul.

Modern Mississippi honours that layered past through museums in Jackson and Vicksburg, blues heritage sites in Clarksdale, and the restored antebellum architecture of Natchez, while the Gulf Coast around Biloxi has rebuilt its beaches and casinos after hurricanes, offering a warm, unhurried alternative to its more famous Gulf neighbours.