Territory of Mississippi
| Territory of Mississippi | ||||||
| Organized incorporated territory of the United States | ||||||
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| Government | Organized incorporated territory | |||||
| History | ||||||
| • | Established | April 7, 1798 | ||||
| • | Georgia recognizes its present borders | 1802 | ||||
| • | Georgia cession added to Mississippi Territory | 1804 | ||||
| • | Mobile District annexed | 1812 | ||||
| • | Alabama Territory created | Dec. 10, 1817 | ||||
| • | Statehood | December 10, 1817 | ||||
The Territory of Mississippi was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from April 7, 1798, until December 10, 1817, when the western half of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Mississippi and the eastern half became the Alabama Territory until its admittance to the Union as the State of Alabama on December 14, 1819.
The United States and Spain disputed these lands east of the Mississippi River, until Spain ceded its claim with the Treaty of Madrid, initially signed in 1795 by the two countries' representatives. The Mississippi Territory was organized in 1798 from these lands, in an area extending from 31° N latitude to 32°28' North — or approximately the southern half of the present states of Alabama and Mississippi.
The state of Georgia maintained a claim over almost the entire area of the present states of Alabama and Mississippi (from 31° N to 35° N), until it surrendered its claim in 1802 following the Yazoo land scandal. In 1804, Congress extended the boundaries of the Mississippi Territory to include all of the Georgia cession.
In 1812, declaring that it had been included in the Louisiana Purchase (1803), the United States annexed the Mobile District of West Florida, between the Perdido River and the Pearl River. Spain disputed this and maintained its claim over the area. The following year, a Federal statute was secretly enacted authorizing the President to take full possession of this area with the use of military force as deemed necessary. Accordingly, General James Wilkinson occupied this district with a military contingent; the Spanish colonial commandant offered no resistance. This annexation extended the Mississippi Territory south to the Gulf of Mexico, with the northern border being the boundary of the state of Tennessee, taking in all of what is now Alabama and Mississippi.
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