Natchez has always been a city of two levels. The upper town, perched on the loess bluffs high above the Mississippi, became the domain of planters and merchants who built their mansions with commanding views of the river valley. Below, at the waterline, Natchez-Under-the-Hill earned a reputation as one of the wildest river landings in the South, a place of taverns, flatboatmen, and commerce both legitimate and otherwise. The Natchez people, for whom the city is named, had recognized the strategic value of these bluffs long before European arrival. Their Grand Village, a complex of ceremonial mounds, stood nearby and served as the center of their civilization. The French built Fort Rosalie on the bluffs in 1716, but the Natchez people destroyed it in 1729 in a devastating uprising. The settlement changed hands among the French, British, and Spanish before becoming American territory, each power leaving its mark on the town's character.

By the 1830s and 1840s, the cotton economy had transformed Natchez into one of the wealthiest communities in the United States. The town had more millionaires per capita than any other American city before the Civil War. That wealth was built on the labor of enslaved people, and the planters poured their profits into architectural showpieces that still line the streets. Longwood, an extraordinary octagonal mansion designed by Philadelphia architect Samuel Sloan for cotton planter Haller Nutt, stands as the most striking example. Construction halted when the Civil War began in 1861, and the house was never finished above the first floor -- its upper stories remain frozen in mid-construction, tools still resting where workers left them. Natchez surrendered to the Union in 1862, a pragmatic decision that spared its buildings from destruction. The result is the largest collection of antebellum homes in the United States, more than two dozen of which are open for tours.

The grand houses tell only part of the Natchez story. The Forks of the Road slave market, about a mile east of downtown, was the second-largest slave market in the United States after New Orleans. More than four thousand enslaved people passed through it annually during the 1830s. In 2021, the National Park Service acquired the site as part of Natchez National Historical Park. Natchez also produced remarkable figures who defied the structures of oppression. William Johnson, known as the Barber of Natchez, was a freed slave who became a prosperous businessman and kept a detailed diary that remains one of the most important first-person accounts of antebellum Southern life. Robert H. Wood became the first African American mayor in the United States when he was elected to lead Natchez during Reconstruction. John R. Lynch served as one of the earliest African American members of Congress and the first Black Speaker of the Mississippi House.

Natchez has long attracted writers and filmmakers drawn to its layered contradictions. Richard Wright, author of Native Son and Black Boy, lived in Natchez as a child. Greg Iles has set many of his best-selling novels in the city. The Coen Brothers filmed The Ladykillers here in 2003, and the James Brown biopic Get On Up used Natchez streets in 2014. Musicians from blues slide guitarist Hound Dog Taylor to country singer Mickey Gilley and R&B vocalist Alexander O'Neal were born here. Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, born in Natchez in 1824, became one of the most celebrated Black concert singers of the nineteenth century. The city's annual Natchez Pilgrimage, during which private antebellum homes open their doors to visitors, has been drawing tourists since the 1930s and remains one of the signature cultural events of the Deep South.

Natchez sits at the southern terminus of the Natchez Trace Parkway, a 444-mile scenic road that follows the ancient path connecting Natchez to Nashville, Tennessee. For centuries, this trail was walked by Native Americans, colonial explorers, traders, and "Kaintucks" -- boatmen who floated goods downriver and walked home. The Trace brought commerce to Natchez, but it also brought the slave trade inland from the river landings. Today, the parkway is one of the most beautiful drives in the eastern United States. The city itself sits at the intersection of U.S. Routes 61, 84, and 98, served by Hardy-Anders Field for general aviation. With a population of around 14,000, modern Natchez is a fraction of its antebellum-era economic stature, but its architectural legacy, its difficult history, and its position above the great river make it one of the most resonant small cities in America.