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Please add profiles of those who were born, lived or died in Issaquena County, Mississippi.
"Issaquena" (isi okhina) is a Choctaw word meaning "Deer River". The Choctaw people were the first inhabitants of the county, and were removed from their land in 1820. Non-Native settlers began arriving in the early 1830s. The county itself was established on January 23, 1844
Issaquena County is notable for its participation in slavery. In 1860, 92.5% of Issaquena County's total population were enslaved people, the highest concentration anywhere in the United States. The U.S. Census for that year showed that 7,244 slaves were held in Issaquena County, and of 115 slave owners, 39 held 77 or more slaves. Stephen Duncan of Issaquena County held 858 slaves, second only to Joshua John Ward of South Carolina. This large "value of slave property" made Issaquena County the second richest county in the United States, with "mean total wealth per freeman" at $26,800 in 1860. By 1880—just 15 years after the abolition of slavery—the county had developed "a strong year-round market for wage labor", and Issaquena was the only county in Mississippi to report "no sharecropping or sharerenting whatsoever".
Adjacent Counties & Parishes
- East Carroll Parish, Louisiana
- Warren County
- Chicot County, Arkansas
- Washington County
- Sharkey County
- Yazoo County
Towns & Communities
- Arcadia
- Baleshed
- Ben Lomond
- Chotard
- Duncansby
- Fitler
- Grace
- Magna Vista
- Mayersville (County Seat)
- Shiloh
- Tallula
- Valley Park
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