Natchez National Historical Park offers visitors the opportunity to explore the complex history of Natchez, Mississippi from European settlement, African enslavement, the American cotton economy, and the Civil Rights struggle in the lower Mississippi River Valley and the American South.
Natchez National Historical Park is composed of five NPS-owned properties:
- Forks of the Road, site of the second largest slave market in the Deep South, of national importance in telling the story of human trafficking and the domestic slave trade. (under ownership by NPS as of June 18, 2021)
- Fort Rosalie Site, site of a French fortification, c. 1716, making Natchez one of the oldest continuously occupied settlements in the Lower Mississippi River Valley.
- Melrose, a suburban estate and National Historic Landmark, once home to a wealthy White planter family and 22 enslaved people who lived and worked there.
- Natchez Visitor Center, a local and state welcome center as well as the southern terminus visitor center for the Natchez Trace Parkway, providing visitor information and services.
- William Johnson House, once home to the Barber of Natchez, a free man of color whose diary provides insight into the world of the non-enslaved in the mid-19th century South.
