Title Page The Munsons of Texas — an American Saga, Second Edition, by Thurmond A. Williamson







© 1987, 2005 Thurmond A. Williamson; Internet format © 2005 Laura Munson Cooper All Rights Reserved ContentsTable of Contents











© 1987, 2005 Thurmond A. Williamson; Internet format © 2005 Laura Munson Cooper All Rights Reserved IndicesIndex Links











© 1987, 2005 Thurmond A. Williamson; Internet format © 2005 Laura Munson Cooper All Rights Reserved LinksOther sites and files of interest to the Munson family









© 1987, 2005 Thurmond A. Williamson; Internet format © 2005 Laura Munson Cooper All Rights Reserved PreviousInset 7
French Designs on the Mississippi Valley









© 1987, 2005 Thurmond A. Williamson; Internet format © 2005 Laura Munson Cooper All Rights Reserved NextInset 9
The United States Acquires the Louisiana Territory








© 1987, 2005 Thurmond A. Williamson; Internet format © 2005 Laura Munson Cooper All Rights Reserved

The Munsons of Texas — an American Saga

Inset 8

EUROPEAN POWER STRUGGLES OVER THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY

By the mid-1700s, Britain and France were at war over control of the American continent. After seven years of the French and Indian Wars, the British were victorious with the capture of Quebec in 1760. At the resulting Treaty of Paris in 1763, France ceded to Britain all of its claims to Canada and all of its claims to land east of the Mississippi River. This is how Canada became a member of the British Commonwealth; and this is why, when the American colonies won their independence from Britain in 1781, they were recognized as having gained all of the land between British Canada and Spanish Florida, and between the Atlantic coast and the Mississippi River — a remarkably huge area of land for thirteen small colonies.

Curiously, in a secret treaty in 1762 with its ally, Spain, France had ceded all of its claims to land west of the Mississippi River, plus New Orleans, to Spain. This was done, no doubt, in an effort to keep it out of the hands of archenemy England. The considerable number of French inhabitants of Louisiana disliked the transfer to Spain, and, in 1768, they attempted a revolution against the Spanish authority. This uprising was sternly put down and the French colonial dream in America was ended.

Thus, at the time of Jesse and Robert's move to the Natchez District in 1792, Spain maintained control of Florida (which they claimed extended the length of the Gulf coast to New Orleans) plus all of the lands west of the Mississippi River. They also claimed and controlled New Orleans and the Mississippi Territory as far north as present Vicksburg, which area was also claimed by the United States. A Spanish governor continued to administer the District of Natchez until Spain acknowledged U. S. ownership and vacated in 1798, and Spain continued to control "West Florida" until 1810.

Under this Spanish administration, Louisiana made considerable economic and cultural development, partly due to the immigration of Tory sympathizers and other settlers from the southern states of the United States. The Spanish governor had extended an invitation to settlers from the American Colonies and had encouraged them with large grants of land. Thus it was that in 1787 Jesse and Robert Munson were to obtain their land grants from Spain and to live under Spanish administration in the Natchez District for some years thereafter.