The importance of the Natchez Trace in shaping the United States was the focus of Tuesday night’s installment of the “Echoes of History: America 250 Lecture Series” at the Mary Ricks Thornton Cultural Center in Kosciusko.
The lecture, titled “The Natchez Trace,” was presented by Dr. Susan Gaunt Stearns, an associate professor of history at the University of Mississippi. Stearns examined the Trace’s role in the nation’s development, particularly its influence on travel, trade and the economy during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
“This talk examines three components of the role of the Natchez Trace in the development of the United States,” Stearns wrote in the program. “In the 1790s, thousands of boatmen from Kentucky and Tennessee trekked northward along the Trace through the Chickasaw homeland.”
Stearns explained how the migration of travelers transformed the Chickasaw economy and created opportunities for guides, innkeepers and others who provided services along the route. She also discussed how missionaries, settlers and conflicts helped bring stability to the region, while the Forks of the Road in Natchez became the South’s second-largest slave market.
Before the lecture began, Stearns emphasized the Trace’s significance to the nation’s commerce.
“You don’t have the Mississippi River trade without the Natchez Trace,” she said. “And so we’ll be talking about that tonight.”
The “Echoes of History: America 250 Lecture Series,” presented by the Attala Historical Society, continues Tuesday, June 23, with “From Trace to Trade: The Economic Story of Kosciusko & Attala County,” presented by retired Chancellor Judge John Clark Love Jr.
The free lecture series is part of the nationwide America 250 celebration commemorating the 250th anniversary of the United States.
