Founded in 1716 by the French, Natchez is the oldest city on the Mississippi River. Located strategically in the heart of cotton country and serving as a port on the Mississippi River’s trading corridor, it soon became the commercial and cultural capital of the Old South.

By 1785, boatmen from the Ohio River regions of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky had begun floating merchandise down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to markets in Natchez and New Orleans. Known as “Kaintucks”, their barges and keelboats were loaded with goods including coal, tobacco, country hams, livestock, agricultural products and barrels of whiskey. Since this was a one way trip, after the goods reached market, the boats were sold for lumber. By 1810, it is estimated that more than 10,000 “Kaintucks” made the journey down river each year. They needed a way home.