Although a Mississippi grand jury in February 1807 had found no evidence that former Vice-President Aaron Burr had committed treason, Burr knew that President Thomas Jefferson was seeking his prosecution and feared that General James Wilkinson was out to assassinate him. 

Even before a Mississippi Territory grand jury convened in early 1807 to hear treason allegations against former vice-president Aaron Burr, there was a sense throughout Natchez country that Burr was being mistreated. 

Aaron Burr loved women, and according to those who knew him, he also had great respect for them. When he was in Natchez country in 1807, while staying with his friend Benijah Osmun, Burr reportedly had a brief romance with a woman who may have been three decades younger than he. 

The power of the President, the ruling of a court, the rights of a citizen and freedom of speech are discussed in countless articles and newscasts throughout America every day. 

At sundown in late November 1803 – after passing safely through the treacherous bend at Grand Gulf -- four weary river travelers docked their bateaux at the mouth of Bayou Pierre in Claiborne County, Miss. 

 A few years before the death of Col. Aaron Burr, a lawyer from Natchez paid him a visit in New York City. 

A hundred years ago, the historic old cypress cabin still stood. But today it seems certain that the weathered structure has long ago vanished from the Jefferson County, Miss., landscape. 

Saturday. January 17, 1807. 

At Longwood in Natchez during the summer of 1850, 41-year-old Seargent Smith Prentiss spent his final days in a room populated by his loving wife, Mary, and friends. The fragrance of roses filled the air. 

Seargent S. Prentiss, the famous lawyer and orator of the 19th century who hailed from Maine, was dying in 1850. He was only 47, but chronic cholera had taken its toll. 

In January 1848, Seargent S. Prentiss – a Maine native, who practiced law in Natchez and Vicksburg before relocating to New Orleans – was challenged to a duel by the grandson of Henry Clay, the revered orator and statesman from Kentucky. Clay served three terms as U.S. Speaker of the House y…

In December 1848, an epidemic of cholera plagued New Orleans where Seargent S. Prentiss had recently moved. Prentiss, too, had fallen victim to the scourge, at one point coming very close to death. 

On March 3, 1842, Seargent S. Prentiss – then a Vicksburg lawyer – married Mary Jane Williams of Natchez. Mary’s father was the late James C. Williams, owner of Longwood plantation. 

Almost a decade had passed since Seargent S. Prentiss had last seen his beloved mother, but in the summer of 1835 he saw her again. 

On the Fourth of July 1835, a Warren County militia group in Vicksburg, Miss., joined local citizens there in celebrating American independence. 

In the days when lawyers banded together two centuries ago to travel from court to court in Mississippi – before the days of the railroad – they traveled together on horseback. 

Seargent S. Prentiss would live only 41 years before his death in Natchez in 1850. But during those four decades he excelled at many things – as a lawyer, politician and public speaker. He also made – and lost – a lot of money. 

“At this time there stood, near the Woodville road, about two miles southeast of Natchez, a plain country mansion, surrounded by the primeval forest, but its natural beauty was enhanced by art and cultivation. I know not whether it took its name from the prison home of Napoleon, but it was s…

Seargent S. Prentiss, a native of Maine who moved to Natchez at age 19 in 1827, later relocated to Vicksburg, a new town on the Mississippi that experienced rapid growth during the 1820s-30s. 

In 1833, Mississippi attorney Seargent S. Prentiss went to Washington City to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court that had a Catahoula Parish, La., connection. 

In mid-October 1833, Seargent S. Prentiss wrote his brother, William: 

In 1833, attorneys Seargent S. Prentiss and Henry S. Foote faced each other in a contentious case in a Mississippi courtroom. 

"I got on the Sultana at Fort Adams when S. S. Prentiss was aboard on his bridal trip—married that morning at Natchez, and the whole bridal troupe went down to New Orleans,” recalled Dr. A.R. Kilpatrick, a Black River planter in Concordia Parish in a letter years after the event to historian…

Seargent Smith Prentiss, who arrived in Natchez from Maine at the age of 19 in 1827, was destined to become one of the most popular leaders of Mississippi during his era and one of the most powerful orators in the country’s history. 

In 1828, Seargent Smith Prentiss began a brief stint as a school teacher at Rokeby, the name of a home and plantation along Fairchild’s Creek in southern Jefferson County not far from Church Hill, Mississippi. 

In last week’s spotlight, I wrote about the upcoming grant workshop that Franklin Parish Economic Development would be hosting on last Friday, June 11. I think that the workshop was a huge success for many reasons, but mostly because of our supportive community and that is what I want to spo…

With five dollars to his name, 19-year-old Seargent S. Prentiss arrived in Natchez on Friday, November 2, 1827. 

Seargent Smith Prentiss was one of the nation’s greatest orators before the 41-year-old’s death in 1850 at Longwood mansion in Natchez. 

On August 22, 1801, in a letter to the President of the United States, William Dunbar of Natchez delivered bad news. 

In 1801, Philip Nolan’s men were transported to Mexican prisons where they feared they would spend the rest of their lives. 

In Texas in March 1801, Philip Nolan warned his men: Fight for a chance to escape. Otherwise, the Spanish will put you in chains and imprison you for life. 

Few men were as well known among the movers and shakers in the new American government in the Mississippi Territory than an enslaved man named Cesar, who could speak and interpret the languages of the Native Americans, particularly the Choctaw. 

In south Texas in 1846 during the Mexican-American War, a young Army lieutenant observed mustang herds so large that he didn’t think all of the animals could “have been corralled in the State of Rhode Island, or Delaware, at one time.”