The Natchez Revolt

Early on the morning of November 28th, 1729, a group of 30 Natchez Indians led by their hereditary chief, the Great Sun, arrived at Fort Rosalie armed with muskets and said they would bring the French meat from their deer hunt that day, while small groups of Natchez men went to French settlers' homes under various pretenses to trade chickens and corn for powder and bullets. Suddenly, the group at Fort Rosalie raised their muskets and killed all the French soldiers, and the gunfire signaled attacks at the French houses, where white males were killed by musket fire or war clubs and then scalped and beheaded. Some French women and children were also killed, but most were taken as slaves and hostages along with many of the colony's 200 enslaved Africans. A number of the Africans took the opportunity to fight for their own freedom by assisting the Natchez in their uprising against the French. Only about 20 Frenchmen escaped the massacre. The Natchez looted and burned the wooden French fort, the houses and storehouses of the settlement, raided the French galley loaded with European trade merchandise docked Under-the-Hill, and struck the hundreds of acres of shoulder-high tobacco in the fields.

Vidalia, Louisiana · United States