Editing Natchez Trace (section)

==Early 19th century==
[[Image:NatchezCypressSwamp.jpg|thumb|right|A cypress swamp along the side of the Natchez Trace near [[Jackson, Mississippi|Jackson]], [[Mississippi]]]]

Though the Natchez Trace was briefly used as a major United States route, it served an essential function for years. The Trace was the only reliable land link between the eastern states and the trading ports of Mississippi and [[Louisiana]]. All sorts of people traveled down the Trace: itinerant preachers, [[highwaymen]], traders, and [[peddler]]s among them.<ref name=Devoss/>

As part of the "[[Great Awakening]]" movement that swept the country in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the "spiritual development" along the Trace started from the Natchez end and moved northward. Several [[Methodist Church|Methodist]] preachers began working a [[circuit preacher|circuit]] along the Trace as early as 1800. By 1812 they claimed a membership of 1,067 [[white Americans]] and 267 [[African Americans]].<ref>Daniels, 1962 pp.146-149</ref>  The Methodists were soon joined in Natchez by other [[Protestant]] denominations, including [[Baptist church|Baptist]] [[missionary|missionaries]] and [[Presbyterian church|Presbyterian]]s.

The latter accompanied the migration of Scots-Irish and Scots into the frontier areas. Presbyterians and their frontier offshoot, the [[Cumberland Presbyterian church|Cumberland Presbyterians]], were the most active of the three denominations in this country. They claimed converts among Native Americans. The Presbyterians started working from the south; the Cumberland Presbyterians worked from the north, as they had migrated to Tennessee from Kentucky.

[[File:Another view of the Sunken Trace IMG 7002.JPG|thumb|left|Another view of the Sunken Trace (June 2015)]]

As with the much-unsettled frontier, banditry regularly occurred along the Trace. Much of it centered around the river landing [[History of Natchez, Mississippi#Antebellum (1783-1860)|Natchez Under-The-Hill]], as compared with the rest of the town atop the river bluff. Under-the-Hill, where barges and [[keelboat]]s put in with goods from northern ports, was a hotbed of gamblers, prostitutes, and drunken crew from the boats. Many of the rowdies, referred to as "Kaintucks", were rough Kentucky frontiersmen who operated [[flatboat]]s down the river.<ref name=Devoss/>  They delivered goods to Natchez in exchange for cash and sought gambling contests in Natchez Under-the-Hill. They walked or rode horseback the 450 miles back up the Trace to Nashville. In 1810, an estimated 10,000 "Kaintucks" used the Trace annually to return to the north to start another river journey.<ref name=Devoss/>

Other dangers lurked on the Trace in the areas outside city boundaries. Highwaymen (such as [[John Murrell (bandit)|John Murrell]] and [[Samuel Mason]]) terrorized travelers along the road. They operated large gangs of organized [[brigandage|brigands]] in one of the first examples of land-based [[organized crime]] in the United States.<ref>[[#Coates|Coates, 2014]] pp.107, 115-116, 270</ref><ref>Daniels; 1962; pp.114, 124-128</ref>