Hernando, Mississippi 5.69

Hernando is a city in and the county seat of DeSoto County, which is on the northwest border of Mississippi, United States. The population was 14,090 at the 2010 census, up from 6,812 in 2000. DeSoto County is the second-most-populous county in the Memphis metropolitan area.U.S. Route 51 and the I-55 freeway traverse the city from north to south, and the I-69 freeway crosses the city from east to west. Hernando's historic downtown square, which surrounds the county courthouse, is located at the intersection of Commerce Street and what is now U.S. 51.HistoryAt the time of encounters by French and Spanish colonists, the Chickasaw people had long inhabited this area. France had developed colonial settlements along the Gulf Coast, as well as to the north in what was called the Illinois Country. An 18th-century French colonial log house (see first photo in gallery below) in Hernando is a reminder of their settlements higher along the Mississippi area as well. The French and French Canadians had a wide trading network with various American Indian tribes along this river, for instance in Natchez.Following the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and under pressure from the United States, the Chickasaw finally signed a treaty to cede most of their lands in this area. Most of the tribe were removed to west of the Mississippi River in Indian Territory.This town was originally called Jefferson when it was settled by European Americans. It was renamed as Hernando in 1832, after the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto. He was the first European to discover the Mississippi River. Like other floodplain areas along the Mississippi, the area of the county was developed by European Americans during the antebellum years for cotton plantations, dependent on the enslaved labor of African Americans.