词条 | Natchez |
释义 | Natchez Mississippi, United States ![]() Natchez recovered from its post-Civil War decline to become one of the state's leading industrial centres. The production of wood pulp, lumber, petroleum, and natural gas form the basis of the economy; tourism (including casino gambling) and the manufacture of tires are also important. It retains many features of the antebellum South and is noted for its annual spring and fall pilgrimages, during which several antebellum homes are open to the public, and performances and historical pageants are held. An inn, built about 1798 and restored as the House on Ellicott's Hill, was the gathering place for adventurers who sailed the river or traveled the Natchez Trace. Shops and restaurants now occupy the site of Natchez Under-the-Hill, a 19th-century town of bordellos and taverns that was a haven for outlaws and boatmen. The month-long Natchez Opera Festival is held annually in May. The city is home to a branch of Copiah-Lincoln Community College and Natchez College. A few miles to the east in Washington is Historic Jefferson College (1802–63; 1866–1964), which Jefferson Davis (Davis, Jefferson) briefly attended; it was on its campus under the “Burr Oaks” that Aaron Burr (Burr, Aaron) was given one of his trials for treason (1807), and there the state's first constitutional convention was held (1817) in a Methodist church building. Natchez National Historical Park (authorized 1988) preserves three antebellum properties: Fort Rosalie, Melrose (an estate), and the William Johnson House (owned by a free African American). Homochitto National Forest, Natchez State Park, Grand Village of the Natchez Indians, and Emerald Mound (dating from 1250–1600) are nearby. Inc. 1803. Pop. (1990) 19,460; (2000) 18,464. people North American Indian tribe of the Macro-Algonquian linguistic phylum (Macro-Algonquian languages) that inhabited the east side of the lower Mississippi River. When French colonizers first interacted with the Natchez in the early 18th century, the tribal population comprised about 6,000 individuals living in nine villages between the Yazoo and Pearl rivers near the site of the present-day city of Natchez, Miss. ![]() Traditional Natchez religion venerated the Sun (sun worship), which was represented by a perpetual fire kept burning in a temple. All fires in a village, including the sacred fire, were allowed to die once a year on the eve of the midsummer Green Corn ceremony, or Busk. The sacred fire was remade at dawn of the festival day, and all the village hearths were then lit anew from the sacred flames. Natchez social organization was notable for its caste system; the system drew from and supported Natchez religious beliefs and classified individuals as suns, nobles, honoured people, and commoners. Persons of the sun caste were required to marry commoners; the offspring of female suns and commoners were suns, while the children of male suns and commoners belonged to the caste of honoured people. The heads of villages also claimed descent from the Sun, and the monarch was referred to as the Great Sun. He was entitled to marry several wives and to maintain servants; upon his death his wives and some servants, along with any others who wished to join him in the afterlife, were ritually sacrificed. Relations between the French and the Natchez were friendly at first, but three French-Natchez wars—in 1716, 1723, and 1729—resulted in the French, with the aid of the Choctaw, driving the Natchez from their villages. In 1731 some 400 Natchez were captured and sold into the West Indian slave trade; the remainder took refuge with the Chickasaw and later with the Upper Creeks (Creek) and Cherokee. When the latter tribes were forced to move west into Indian Territory (Oklahoma), the Natchez went with them. Early 21st-century population estimates indicated some 500 individuals of Natchez descent. |
随便看 |
|
百科全书收录100133条中英文百科知识,基本涵盖了大多数领域的百科知识,是一部内容开放、自由的电子版百科全书。