Mississippi

Name	Mississippi
Fullname	State of Mississippi
Flag	Flag of Mississippi.svg
Bird	Mockingbird
Tree	Magnolia
Flower	Magnolia Blossom
Flaglink	Flag
Seal	Mississippi-StateSeal.svg
Seallink	Seal
Map	Map of USA MS.svg
Nickname	The Magnolia State; The Hospitality State
Motto	Virtute et armis
Mottoenglish	By Valor and Arms
Former	Mississippi Territory
Demonym	Mississippian
Capital	Jackson
Officiallang	English
Largestcity	capital
Largest metro	Jackson metropolitan area
Governor	Haley Barbour (R)
Lieutenant governor	Phil Bryant (R)
Legislature	Mississippi Legislature
Upperhouse	State Senate
Lowerhouse	House of Representatives
Senators	Thad Cochran (R)Roger Wicker (R)
Representative	3 Republicans, 1 Democrat
Postalabbreviation	MS
Tradabbreviation	Miss.
Arearank	32nd
Totalareaus	48,430
Totalarea	125,443
Landareaus	46,952
Landarea	121,607
Waterareaus	1,521
Waterarea	3,940
Pcwater	3%
Poprank	31st
2000pop (old)	2,910,540
2000pop	2,967,297 (2010 US Census)
Densityrank	32nd
2000densityus	60.7
2000density	23.42
Medianhouseholdincome	$36,338
Incomerank	50th
Admittanceorder	20th
Admittancedate	December 10, 1817
Timezone	Central: UTC-6/-5
Latitude	30° 12′ N to 35° N
Longitude	88° 06′ W to 91° 39′ W
Widthus	170
Width	275
Lengthus	340
Length	545
Highestpoint	Woodall Mountain
Highestelevus	806
Highestelev	246
Meanelevus	300
Meanelev	91
Lowestpoint	Gulf of Mexico The state symbol is the magnolia grandiflora tree.
1800	7600
1810	31306
1820	75448
1830	136621
1840	375651
1850	606526
1860	791305
1870	827922
1880	1131597
1890	1289600
1900	1551270
1910	1797114
1920	1790618
1930	2009821
1940	2183796
1950	2178914
1960	2178141
1970	2216912
1980	2520638
1990	2573216
2000	2844658
2010	2967297
Footnote	Source: 1910-2010

The Census Bureau considers race and Hispanic ethnicity to be two separate categories. These data, however, are only for non-Hispanic members of each group: non-Hispanic Whites, non-Hispanic Blacks, etc. Americans of Scots-Irish, English and Scottish ancestry are present throughout the state, and are thought to be much larger groups than are reported. English, Scottish and Scots-Irish are generally the most under-reported ancestry groups in both the South Atlantic States and the East South Central States; it is estimated that up to 20% of Mississippi's population is of English ancestry and another large percentage of Scottish, but many Mississippians of English and Scottish stock self-identify simply as American because their families have been in North America for so long, in many cases since the early 18th century. For more information on race and the Census, see here. On September 27, 1830, the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was signed between the U.S. Government and Native American Choctaws. The Choctaws agreed to selling their traditional homelands in Mississippi and Alabama with just compensation, which opened it up for European-American immigrant settlement. Article 14 in the treaty allowed the Choctaws to remain in the state of Mississippi and to become the first major non-European ethnic group to become U.S. citizens. Today approximately 9,500 Choctaws live in Neshoba, Newton, Leake, and Jones counties. Federally recognized tribes include the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.

Until the 1930s, African Americans made up a majority of Mississippians. Due to the Great Migration, when more than 360,000 African Americans left the state during the 1940s and after to leave segregation and disfranchisement, and for better economic opportunities in the northern and western states, Mississippi's African-American population declined. The state in 2010 had the highest proportion of African Americans in the nation. Recently, the African-American percentage of population has begun to increase due mainly to a higher birth rate than the state average. Due to patterns of settlement, in almost all of Mississippi's public school districts, a majority of students are of African descent. African Americans are the majority ethnic group in the northwestern Yazoo Delta and the southwestern and the central parts of the state, chiefly areas where the group owned land as farmers or worked on cotton plantations and farms.

According to the 2000 census, the largest ancestries are: American (14.2%) Irish (6.9%) English (6.1%) German (4.5%) French (2.3%) Scots-Irish (1.9%) Italian (1.4%) Scottish (1.2%)

People of French Creole ancestry form the largest demographic group in Hancock County on the Gulf Coast. The African-American; Choctaw, mostly in Neshoba County; and Chinese-American segments of the population are almost entirely native born.

Although some ethnic Chinese were recruited as indentured laborers from Cuba during the 1870s and later 19th c., the majority immigrated directly from China to Mississippi between 1910–1930. They were recruited as laborers. While planters first made arrangements with the Chinese for sharecropping, most Chinese soon left that work. Many became small merchants and especially grocers in towns throughout the Delta.

Religion

Under French and Spanish rule beginning in the 17th century, the few Europeans in what is now Mississippi were Roman Catholics. The prosperity after 1815 brought in tens of thousands of European-American settlers each year, though few were Catholic. Due to such migration, there was rapid growth in Protestant churches, especially Methodist, Presbyterian and Baptist. In 2000 the Southern Baptist Convention was the largest religious denomination in the state with 916,440 adherents, followed by the United Methodist Church with 240,576 and the Roman Catholic Church with 115,760.

The revivals of the Great Awakening in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries initially attracted the "plain folk" by reaching out to all members of society, including women and African Americans.

In the post-Civil War years, religion became even more influential as the South became known as the "Bible Belt". By 1900 many ministers, especially in the towns, subscribed to the Social Gospel movement, which attempted to apply Christian ethics to social and economic needs of the day. Prohibition, especially, was the favorite weapon to attack sin.

African-American Baptist churches grew to include more than twice the number of members as their white Baptist counterparts. The African American call for social equality resonated throughout the Great Depression in the 1930s and World War II in the 1940s. The American Civil Rights Movement had many roots in religion; both sides cited religious reasons for their viewpoints. The end of Jim Crow led to the reintegration of some churches, but most today remain all black or all white. Since the 1970s, fundamentalist conservative churches have grown rapidly, fueling Mississippi's conservative political trends. Of these, 2,251 are male partner households and 2,523 are female partner households. 41% contained at least one child. South Dakota and Utah were the only other states in which 40 percent or more of same-sex couple households had at least one child living in the household.

Health and public safety

The state is ranked 50th or last place among all the states for health care, according to the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit foundation working to advance performance of the health care system. For three years in a row, more than 30 percent of Mississippi's residents have been classified as obese. In a 2006 study, 22.8 percent of the state's children were classified as obese. Mississippi had the highest rate of obesity of any U.S. state from 2005–2008 and also ranks first in the nation for high blood pressure, diabetes, and adult inactivity. In a 2008 study of African American women, contributing risk factors were shown to be: lack of knowledge about body mass index (BMI), dietary behavior, physical activity and lack of social support, defined as motivation and encouragement by friends. A 2002 report on African American adolescents noted a 1999 survey which suggests that a third of children were obese, with higher ratios for those in the Delta.

The study stressed that "obesity starts in early childhood extending into the adolescent years and then possibly into adulthood". It noted impediments to needed behavioral modification included the Delta likely being "the most underserved region in the state" with African Americans the major ethnic group; lack of accessibility and availability of medical care; and an estimated 60% of residents living below the poverty level.

Economy

The Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that Mississippi's total state product in 2006 was $84 billion. Per capita personal income in 2006 was $26,908, the lowest per capita personal income of any state, but the state also has the nation's lowest living costs. Although the state has one of the lowest per capita income rates in the United States, Mississippians consistently rank as one of the highest per capita in charitable contributions. A 2009 report by the American Legislative Exchange Council ranked Mississippi as having the nineteenth best economic outlook of all U.S. states.

Before the Civil War, Mississippi was the fifth-wealthiest state in the nation, its wealth generated by cotton plantations along the rivers. Slaves were then counted as property and the rise in the cotton markets since the 1840s had increased their value. A majority – 55 percent – of the population of Mississippi was enslaved in 1860. Ninety percent of the Delta bottomlands were undeveloped and the state had low population overall.

Largely due to the domination of the plantation economy, focused on the production of agricultural cotton, the state was slow to use its wealth to invest in infrastructure such as public schools, roads and railroads. Industrialization did not come in many areas until the late 20th century. The planter aristocracy, the elite of antebellum Mississippi, kept the tax structure low for themselves and made private improvements. Before the war the most successful planters, such as Confederate President Jefferson Davis, owned riverside properties along the Mississippi River. Most of the state was undeveloped frontier away from the riverfronts.

During the Civil War, 30,000 mostly white Mississippi men died from wounds and disease, and many more were left crippled and wounded. Changes to the labor structure and an agricultural depression throughout the South caused severe losses in wealth. In 1860 assessed valuation of property in Mississippi had been more than $500 million, of which $218 million (43 percent) was estimated as the value of slaves. By 1870, total assets had decreased in value to roughly $177 million.

Poor whites and landless former slaves suffered the most from the postwar economic depression. The constitutional convention of early 1868 appointed a committee to recommend what was needed for relief of the state and its citizens. The committee found severe destitution among the laboring classes. It took years for the state to rebuild levees damaged in battles. The upset of the commodity system impoverished the state after the war. By 1868 an increased cotton crop began to show possibilities for free labor in the state, but the crop of 565,000 bales produced in 1870 was still less than half of prewar figures.

Blacks sold timber and developed bottomland to achieve ownership. In 1900, two-thirds of farm owners in Mississippi were blacks, a major achievement for them and their families. Due to the poor economy, low cotton prices and difficulty of getting credit, many of these farmers could not make it through the extended financial difficulties. Two decades later, the majority of African Americans were sharecroppers. The low prices of cotton into the 1890s meant that more than a generation of African Americans lost the result of their labor when they had to sell their farms to pay off accumulated debts. In addition, when conservative white Democrats regained control, they passed the 1890 constitution that discouraged industry, a legacy that would slow the state's progress for years.

Democratic Party paramilitary militias and groups such as the Red Shirts and the Knights of the White Camelia terrorized African American Republicans and suppressed voting. The Democrats regained political control of the state in 1877. The legislature passed statutes to establish segregation and a new constitution that effectively disfranchised most blacks, Native Americans and many poor whites by changes to electoral and voter registration rules. The state refused for years to build human capital by fully educating all its citizens. In addition, the reliance on agriculture grew increasingly costly as the state suffered loss of crops due to the devastation of the boll weevil in the early 20th century, devastating floods in 1912–1913 and 1927, collapse of cotton prices after 1920, and drought in 1930. Federally recognized Native American tribes have established gaming casinos on their reservations, which are yielding revenue to support education and economic development.

On October 17, 2005, Governor Haley Barbour signed a bill into law that allows casinos in Hancock and Harrison counties to rebuild on land (but within of the water). The only exception is in Harrison County, where the new law states that casinos can be built to the southern boundary of U.S. Route 90.

Mississippi collects personal income tax in three tax brackets, ranging from 3% to 5%. The retail sales tax rate in Mississippi is 7%. Additional local sales taxes also are collected. For purposes of assessment for ad valorem taxes, taxable property is divided into five classes.

On August 30, 2007, a report by the United States Census Bureau indicated that Mississippi was the poorest state in the country. Many cotton farmers in the Delta have large, mechanized plantations, some of which receive extensive Federal subsidies, yet many other residents still live as poor, rural, landless laborers. Of $1.2 billion from 2002–2005 in Federal subsidies to farmers in the Bolivar County area of the Delta, 5% went to small farmers. There has been little money apportioned for rural development. Small towns are struggling. More than 100,000 people have left the region in search of work elsewhere. The state had a median household income of $34,473.

As of January 2010, the state's unemployment rate is 10.9%.

Federal subsidies and spending

Despite Mississippi's fiscal conservatism, in which Medicaid, welfare, food stamps, and other social programs are often cut, eligibility requirements are tightened, and stricter employment criteria are imposed, Mississippi still ranks as having the 2nd highest ratio of spending to tax receipts of any state. In 2005, Mississippi citizens received approximately $2.02 per dollar of taxes in the way of federal spending. This ranks the state 2nd highest nationally, and represents an increase from 1995, when Mississippi received $1.54 per dollar of taxes in federal spending and was 3rd highest nationally.

A proportion of federal spending in Mississippi is directed toward large federal installations such as Camp Shelby, John C. Stennis Space Center, and Keesler Air Force Base, in a state with a relatively low population density and one of the lowest proportions of urban dwellers. In addition, 2005 was the year that Hurricane Katrina's unusually high storm surge devastated the Mississippi coast, and its winds struck much further inland than a typical hurricane.

Law and government

As with all other U.S. states and the federal government, Mississippi's government is based on the separation of legislative, executive and judicial power. Executive authority in the state rests with the Governor, currently Haley Barbour (R). The Lieutenant Governor, currently Phil Bryant (R), is elected on a separate ballot. Both the governor and lieutenant governor are elected to four-year terms of office. Unlike the federal government, but like many other U.S. States, most of the heads of major executive departments are elected by the citizens of Mississippi rather than appointed by the governor.

Mississippi is one of five states that elects its state officials in odd-numbered years (the others are Kentucky, Louisiana, New Jersey and Virginia). Mississippi holds elections for these offices every four years, always in the year preceding Presidential elections. Thus, the last year when Mississippi elected a Governor was 2007, and the next gubernatorial election will occur in 2011.

Laws

In 2004, Mississippi voters approved a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and prohibiting Mississippi from recognizing same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. The amendment passed 86% to 14%, the largest margin in any state.

Section 265 of the Constitution of the State of Mississippi declares that "No person who denies the existence of a Supreme Being shall hold any office in this state."

On January 18, 2010, Mississippi passed in the state Senate a copycat law of Arizona SB 1070, Mississippi SB 2179 by a vote of 34-15. Next, the bill goes to the state House and if it passes the House, it will go to Governor Haley Barbour for his signature.

Transportation

design, introduced in October 2007.]]

Road

In March 2011, Mississippi ranked as the third bottom "Worst" state (next to Louisiana and Kentucky) in the American State Litter Scorecard. The Hospitality State suffers from an overall poor effectiveness and quality of its statewide public space cleanliness (primarily from roadway and adjacent litter/debris)--in state and related eradication standards. NHTSA showed at least 19 persons in Mississippi were killed each year in motor vehicle collisions with non-fixed objects, including debris, dumped litter, animals and their carcasses.

Rail

Passenger

Amtrak provides scheduled passenger service along two routes, the Crescent and City of New Orleans.

Freight

All but two of the United States Class I railroads serve Mississippi (the exceptions are the Union Pacific and Canadian Pacific):

Canadian National Railway's Illinois Central Railroad subsidiary provides north-south service.

BNSF Railway has an east-west line across northern Mississippi.

Kansas City Southern Railway provides east-west service in the middle of the state and north-south service along the Alabama state line.

Norfolk Southern Railway provides service in the extreme north and southeast.

CSX has a line along the Gulf Coast.

Water

Major rivers

Mississippi River

Big Black River

Pascagoula River

Pearl River

Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway

Yazoo River

Major lakes

Arkabutla Lake – of water; constructed and managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Vicksburg District Grenada Lake – of water; became operational in 1954; constructed and managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Vicksburg District Ross Barnett Reservoir – Named for Ross Barnett, the 52nd Governor of Mississippi; of water; became operational in 1966; constructed and managed by The Pearl River Valley Water Supply District, a state agency; Provides water supply for the City of Jackson. Sardis Lake – of water; became operational in October 1940; constructed and managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Vicksburg District

Education

Until the Civil War era, Mississippi had a small number of schools and no educational institutions for African Americans. The first school for black people was established in 1862.

During Reconstruction in 1871, black and white Republicans were the first to establish a system of public education in the state. The state's dependence on agriculture and resistance to taxation limited the funds it had available to spend on any schools. As late as the early 20th century, there were few schools in rural areas. With seed money from the Julius Rosenwald Fund, many rural black communities across Mississippi raised matching funds and contributed public funds to build new schools for their children. Essentially, many black adults taxed themselves twice and made significant sacrifices to raise money for the education of children in their communities.

Blacks and whites attended separate public schools in Mississippi until the 1960s, when they began to be integrated following the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education that racially segregated public schools were unconstitutional.

In the late 1980s, the state had 954 public elementary and secondary schools, with a total yearly enrollment of about 369,500 elementary pupils and about 132,500 secondary students. Some 45,700 students attended private schools. In 2008, Mississippi was ranked last among the fifty states in academic achievement by the American Legislative Exchange Council's Report Card on Education, with the lowest average ACT scores and sixth lowest spending per pupil in the nation. In contrast, Mississippi had the 17th highest average SAT scores in the nation. According to the report, 92% of Mississippi high school graduates took the ACT and 3% took the SAT, in comparison to the national averages of 43% and 45%, respectively.

In 2007, Mississippi students scored the lowest of any state on the National Assessments of Educational Progress in both math and science.

Mississippi is currently ranked at the bottom of the American Human Development Index.

Jackson, the state's capital city, houses the state residential school for deaf and hard of hearing students. The Mississippi School for the Deaf was established by the state legislature in 1854.

The Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science (MSMS) is a public residential high school for academically gifted students located in Columbus, Mississippi on the campus of the Mississippi University for Women. MSMS was founded in 1987 by appropriations from the Mississippi Legislature and is the fourth public, residential high school for academically gifted students in the United States.[3] The school only enrolls students in the last two years of high school. Tenth grade students from across the state interested in the school apply and are selected to attend.

Culture

While Mississippi has been especially known for its music and literature, it has embraced other forms of art. Its strong religious traditions have inspired striking works by outsider artists who have been shown nationally.

Jackson established the USA International Ballet Competition, which is held every four years. This ballet competition attracts the most talented young dancers from around the world.

The Magnolia Independent Film Festival, still held annually in Starkville, is the first and oldest in the state.

George Ohr, known as the "Mad Potter of Biloxi" and the father of abstract expressionism in pottery, lived and worked in Biloxi, MS.

The New Southern View Ezine, first published in the summer of 2001, is the state's first online magazine.

Music

Musicians of the state's Delta region were historically significant to the development of the blues. Their laments arose out of the region's hard times after Reconstruction. Although by the end of the 19th century, two-thirds of the farm owners were black, continued low prices for cotton and national financial pressures resulted in most of them losing their land. More problems built up with the boll weevil infestation, when thousands of agricultural jobs were lost. Many Mississippi musicians migrated to Chicago and created new forms of jazz and other genres there.

Jimmie Rodgers, a native of Meridian and white guitarist/singer/songwriter known as the "Father of Country Music", played a significant role in the development of the blues. He and Chester Arthur Burnett were friends and admirers of each other's music. Rodgers was supposed to have given Burnett his nickname of Howlin' Wolf. Their friendship and respect is an important example of Mississippi's musical legacy. While the state has had a reputation for being the most racist in the United States, individual musicians created an integrated music community. Mississippi musicians created new forms by combining and creating variations on musical traditions from Africa with the musical traditions of white Southerners, a tradition largely rooted in Scots–Irish music.

The state is creating a Mississippi Blues Trail, with dedicated markers explaining historic sites significant to the history of blues music, such as Clarksdale's Riverside Hotel, where Bessie Smith died after her auto accident on Highway 61. The Riverside Hotel is just one of many historical blues sites in Clarksdale. The Delta Blues Museum there is visited by tourists from all over the world. Close by are "Ground Zero" and "Madidi", a contemporary blues club and restaurant co-owned by actor Morgan Freeman.

Mississippians have contributed to American music. Elvis Presley, who created a sensation in the 1950s as a crossover artist and contributed to rock 'n' roll, was a native of Tupelo. From opera star Leontyne Price to the alternative rock band 3 Doors Down, to gulf and western singer Jimmy Buffett, to rappers David Banner and Afroman, Mississippi musicians have been significant in all genres.

(see: List of people from Mississippi)

Sports

Biloxi, Mississippi is home to the Mississippi Surge ice hockey team. The team is a member of the Southern Professional Hockey League and began its first season of play in 2009.

Clinton, Mississippi is home to the Mississippi Brilla soccer team. The Brilla are a member of the USL Premier Development League.

Pearl, Mississippi is home to the Mississippi Braves baseball team. The Braves are an AA minor league affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. They play in the Southern League.

Southaven, Mississippi is home to the Mississippi RiverKings hockey team, formerly known as the Memphis RiverKings. The RiverKings are a member of Central Hockey League.

Notable natives

Mississippi has produced a number of notable and famous individuals, especially in the realm of music and literature. Among the most notable are:

Actors:Lacey Chabert, Morgan Freeman, Jim Henson, James Earl Jones, Gerald McRaney, Parker Posey, Sela Ward, and Oprah Winfrey

Artists: Walter Inglis Anderson and George E. Ohr

Athletes: Cool Papa Bell, Brett Favre, Al Jefferson, Archie Manning, Deuce McAllister, Steve McNair, Travis Outlaw, Walter Payton, and Jerry Rice

Authors: William Faulkner, John Grisham, Thomas Harris, Eudora Welty, Tennessee Williams, and Richard Wright

Civil rights leaders: Medgar Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer, Aaron Henry, and Anne Moody

Musicians: 3 Doors Down, David Banner, Lance Bass, Brandy, Jimmy Buffett, Bo Diddley, Faith Hill, Howlin' Wolf, Robert Johnson, B.B. King, Denise LaSalle, Elvis Presley, Leontyne Price, Charlie Patton, Charlie Pride, LeAnn Rimes, Jimmie Rodgers, Britney Spears, Conway Twitty, Muddy Waters, Hayley Williams, Randy Houser, and Tammy Wynette

Cultural references

Children in the United States and Canada often count "One-Mississippi, two-Mississippi" during informal games such as hide and seek to approximate counting by seconds.

On March 12, 1894, the Biedenharn Candy Company bottled the first Coca-Cola in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Root beer was invented in Biloxi in 1898 by Edward Adolf Barq, the namesake of Barq's Root Beer.

The Teddy bear gets its name from President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt. On a 1902 hunting trip to Sharkey County, Mississippi, he ordered the mercy killing of a wounded bear.

In 1935, the world's first night rodeo held outdoors under electric lights was produced by Earl Bascom and Weldon Bascom in Columbia, Marion County, Mississippi

In 1936, Dr. Leslie Rush, of Rush Hospital in Meridian, Mississippi performed the first bone pinning in the United States. The "Rush Pin" is still in use.

Burnita Shelton Matthews from near Hazlehurst, Mississippi was the first woman appointed as a judge of a U.S. district court. She was appointed by Harry S. Truman on October 21, 1949.

Marilyn Monroe won the Miss Mississippi finals in the 1952 movie We're Not Married.

Texas Rose Bascom, of Columbia, Mississippi, became the most famous female trick roper in the world, performing on stage and in Hollywood movies. She toured the world with Bob Hope, billed as the "Queen of the Trick Ropers," and was the first Mississippian to be inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame.

In 1963, Dr. James D. Hardy of the University of Mississippi Medical Center performed the first human lung transplant in Jackson, Mississippi. In 1964, Dr. Hardy performed the first heart transplant, transplanting the heart of a chimpanzee into a human, where it beat for 90 minutes.

"At 10:00 a.m. on October 22, 1964, the United States government detonated an underground nuclear device in Lamar County, in south Mississippi. (...) The Project Salmon blast was about one-third as powerful as the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945. (...) The Project Sterling blast, on December 3, 1966, was considerably weaker than the blast two years earlier, as it was intended to be."

Several warships have been named USS Mississippi.

The comic book character Rogue, from the well-known series X-Men, is a Mississippian and self-declared southern belle. Her home town is located in the fictional county of Caldecott.

For the past seven years, the Sundancer Solar Race Team from Houston, MS, has won first place in the Open Division of the Dell-Winston School Solar Car Challenge.

See also

References

External links

Mississippi State Databases – Annotated list of searchable databases produced by Mississippi state agencies and compiled by the Government Documents Roundtable of the American Library Association.

Mississippi Travel and Tourism

Mississippi Development Authority

The "Mississippi Believe It" Campaign

Mississippi State Facts

University Press of Mississippi

Mississippi as Metaphor State, Region, and Nation in Historical Imagination," Southern Spaces, 23 October 2006.

==Related information==

Category:States of the United States Category:States of the Confederate States of America Category:States of the Southern United States Category:States and territories established in 1817 Category:Former British colonies