Expert to tell forgotten story of Gulf South during American Revolution at Historical Society meeting Sept. 24

By Roscoe Barnes III
The Natchez Democrat
Published 4:18 pm Wednesday, September 11, 2024 

Mike Bunn
(Click on link to enlarge.)

NATCHEZ — Mike Bunn, director of Historic Blakeley State Park in Spanish Fort, Alabama, will give a lecture at the Tuesday, Sept. 24 meeting of the Natchez Historical Society. 
His topic is, “Fourteenth Colony: The Forgotten Story of the Gulf South during America’s Revolutionary Era.” Bunn’s presentation is part of a lecture series that is funded by a grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council through funding by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
 
The program will be held at Historic Natchez Foundation, 108 S. Commerce St., Natchez. It will begin with a social at 5:30 p.m. and Bunn’s presentation at 6 p.m. It is free to the public. All are welcome, members and non-members alike.
 
“The Gulf South played an important part in America’s revolutionary period, though most of us are not as acquainted with this chapter of regional history as we perhaps should be,” Bunn said. “I’m excited to share my research into this important era of our past in historic Natchez, a place which has its own special connection to this remarkable story.”
 
The forgotten 14th colony of the America’s Revolutionary era was “the British colony of West Florida, which once stretched from the mighty Mississippi to the shallow bends of the Apalachicola and portions of what are now the states of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana,” noted Bunn. His presentation will include a discussion of the affairs in Natchez during the Revolutionary era.
 
Bunn is the author or co-author of several books, including “Fort Stoddert: American Sentinel on the Mobile River, 1799-1814; “Fourteenth Colony: The Forgotten Story of the Gulf South During America’s Revolutionary Era,” and “The Assault on Fort Blakeley: ‘The Thunder and Lightning of Battle.’”
 
Bunn is the editor of Muscogiana, the journal of the Muscogee County (Georgia) Genealogical Society. He is a recent recipient of the J.Y. Sanders Research Scholar Award presented by The Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies of Southeastern Louisiana University.
 
As a historian, Bunn has worked with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, the Historic Chattahoochee Commission, and the Columbus (Georgia) Museum.
 
In addition to chairing the Baldwin County Historic Development Commission, Bunn is treasurer of the Friends of Old Mobile, and a member of the board of the Alabama Historical Association.
 
Bunn is a resident of Alabama. He holds an undergraduate degree from Faulkner University and two master’s degrees from the University of Alabama.
 
For more information on the society’s Sept. 24 meeting, call 281-731-4433 or 601-492-3004 or send email to info@natchezhistoricalsociety.org
 
Read more at: https://www.natchezdemocrat.com/2024/09/11/expert-to-tell-forgotten-story-of-gulf-south-during-american-revolution-at-historical-society-meeting-sept-24/