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The Fortenberry saga, Chapter 1: James R. Fortenberry, slave-holder and reluctant warrior

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For the prelude to this chapter, see here . James R Fortenberry, 2nd great-grandfather of Congressman Jeff Fortenberry, was born in 1826 or thereabouts, in Copiah Co., Mississippi. Copiah County Mississippi in the 1820s was the sticky southern edge of the American frontier, a bug-infested alligator-ridden swamp on the far edge of the new Republic. Whites had only recently stolen this particular swath of Native American land. The ‘treaty’ of Doak’s Stand secured what is now the western part of Mississippi for the whites. It was ceded to the United States after murderous thug and soon-to-be second-worst-president-ever Andrew Jackson threatened to destroy the Choctaw Nation if they refused to sign. The land became the huge Hind’s County is 1821; and was then broken up into manageable chunks in 1823, the southernmest corner becoming Copiah County. Copiah was the Choctaw word for calling panthe r. Wypipo for sentimental reasons liked to name newly settled land in the language of the people