Episode 364: Road Trip 2023: An Early History of the Mississippi Gulf Coast

The Mississippi Gulf Coast was the home of many different peoples, cultures, and empires during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. According to some historians, the Gulf Coast region may have been the most diverse region in early North America.

Matthew Powell, a historian of slavery and southern history and the Executive Director of the La Pointe-Krebs House & Museum in Pascagoula, Mississippi, joins us to investigate and explore the Mississippi Gulf Coast and a prominent family who has lived there since about 1718.

This episode was originally posted as Episode 303.

About the Show

Ben Franklin’s World is a podcast about early American history.

It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.

Ben Franklin’s World is a production of Colonial Williamsburg Innovation Studios.

Episode Summary

Matthew Powell, a historian of slavery and southern history and the Executive Director of the La Pointe-Krebs House & Museum, leads us on an investigation of the Mississippi Gulf Coast during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

During our exploration, Matthew reveals information about the different Indigenous and European peoples who lived along the Mississippi Gulf Coast during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; Details about the La Pointe-Krebs family, the house they built, and the plantation they operated throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; And, what small historic sites and museums, like the La Pointe-Krebs House & Museum, can add to our knowledge about early American history.

What You’ll Discover

Historical significance of the La Pointe-Krebs House
Tabby architecture and construction
Indigenous inhabitants of early Mississippi
The Pascagoula people
French arrival in the Gulf Coast
French interactions with Native American peoples
Joseph Simon de la Pointe and his arrival in Mississippi
Documenting historic lives and objects in museums
Information about France’s Gulf Coast colony and settlements
Details about the La Pointe Plantation
Indigo and indigo cultivation
Slavery on the La Pointe Plantation
Uncovering and recovering the lives of the enslaved
Hugo Ernestus Krebs & the La Pointe Plantation
Early cotton gin
Financial success of the La Pointe Plantation
German migration to the Gulf Coast region
Mississippi as a French, British, Spanish, and United States territory
Ways changing governance in Mississippi impacted those who lived in Mississippi
Creation of the La Pointe-Krebs Museum
Historic building restoration
What small house museums can add to our knowledge of early America

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Time Warp Question

‌In 1775, a hurricane destroyed a good portion of the original structures on the La Pointe-Krebs Plantation. Had the hurricane never happened, and in turn, these structures still existed in some form, how might our understanding of the La Pointe-Krebs historic site be different today?