Complexion of Empire in Natchez This page intentionally left blank Early American Places is a collaborative project of the University of Georgia Press, New York University Press, Northern Illinois University Press, and the University of Nebraska Press. The series is supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. For more information, please visit www.earlyamericanplaces.com. Advisory Board Vincent Brown, Duke University Cornelia Hughes Dayton, University of Connecticut Nicole Eustace, New York University Amy S. Greenberg, Pennsylvania State University Ramón A. Gutiérrez, University of Chicago Peter Charles Hoffer, University of Georgia Karen Ordahl Kupperman, New York University Mark M. Smith, University of South Carolina Rosemarie Zagarri, George Mason University This page intentionally left blank Complexion of Empire in Natchez Race and Slavery in the Mississippi Borderlands Christian Pinnen The University of Georgia Press Athens © 2021 by the University of Georgia Press Athens, Georgia 30602 www.ugapress.org All rights reserved Most University of Georgia Press titles are available from popular e-book vendors. Printed digitally Library of Congress Control Number: 2020945150 ISBN: 9780820358505 (hardback : alk. paper) ISBN: 9780820358512 (ebook) To Dieter Pinnen This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 1 The Purity of Blood and Dark Complexions: French Empire Building in the Lower Mississippi Valley 19 2 English Bloodlines and the Expansion of Empire: Natchez 1763 to 1779 49 3 Masters of Complexion? Loyalists, Patriots, and Opportunists in the Colonial Backcountry 74 4 Spanish Complexions in the Lower Mississippi Valley: Making Race in Natchez 104 5 Gendered Complexions: Freedom and Interracial Relationships in Spanish Natchez 126 6 New Crop, New Rules of Complexion: From Prince Tobacco to King Cotton 158 7 Mississippi Fever: Fortifying the “Malignant Empire” of Complexion 183 Conclusion 215 Notes 225 Bibliography 277 Index 303