218 A BICENTENNIAL HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI deteriorated everywhere as the state capital moved to various locations and back to Jackson several times. Morale plummeted among civilians and recruitment of new enlisted men became impossible in the final months of war. In February 1864, Sherman reoccupied Jackson before moving east toward Meridian where supply lines were still intact. The end of 1864 and the final months of war in 1865 left the Capital Area largely untouched by military movements. While other areas of the state continued to experience disruptions, Jackson and the surrounding areas began the slow process of recovery, largely in the absence of civic oversight. The legislature reconvened in Jackson on May 20, 1865, and attempted to effect re-entry into the Union on their own authority, despite federal occupation of the city. They were promptly run out and federal officials took over administrative responsibilities including seizure of the state archives. The war halted the rapid growth that had defined the previous thirty years in the Capital Area. While Mississippi College managed to stay open, most schools in all six central counties were shuttered during the war. Severe damage to the railroads was compounded by the destruction of factories and plantations in the area. Much of the area had been invested in slaves, and now that was gone through emancipation. And there was an outflow from the region by the newly-freed slaves. Hinds County registered 4,000 fewer African Americans in the 1870 census than it held ten years earlier. The county also lost nearly $30 million in real property assets. In October, the legislature convened in Jackson and immediately set to work allocating money for physical repairs in the capital city in spite of the state’s postwar financial constraints. Repairs to the state capitol, the governor’s mansion, and the state penitentiary were completed by 1867. Legislators also sought restoration of white control through a series of laws that severely circumscribed the movements and freedoms of newly- freed men and women. This measure, alongside the election of former secessionists to Congress, alarmed and angered the Radical Republicans. In March 1867, congressional reconstruction began with a series of federal laws that placed states in the former Confederacy under military occupation. Mississippi was placed in the 4th Military District and Republican rule in the state began. A new constitution was written under federal oversight and approved in 1868. Migrants to the state and the mobility of freedmen and freedwomen changed the landscape of the Capital Area. In no area was change more visible than in the proliferation of educational opportunities for African American students. In 1869, the American Missionary Association founded a school on the former John Boddie Plantation at the edge of Jackson. By decree of the Mississippi legislature, the school was named Tougaloo University and granted its charter in 1871. In 1875, Sarah Dickey, an Ohioan and a graduate of Mount Holyoke, established Mount Herman Female Seminary in Clinton with assistance from the John F. Slater Fund for the Education of Freedmen. In 1877, the American Baptist Home Missionary Society formed Natchez Seminary, which would later become Jackson State College. The school was founded on the principle it would be “for the moral, religious and intellectual improvement of Christian leaders of the colored people of Mississippi and the neighboring states.” In the fall of 1882, the school moved to Jackson and the name was changed to Jackson College in early 1889. Political and economic opportunities for African Americans also expanded during the Reconstruction period. African American men registered to vote and began to integrate into local, state, and national politics. In 1868, the Hinds County voter roster counted 3,546 African American voters, more than twice the number of whites. Newspaper accounts described integrated political rallies in the Capital Area, and African American candidates appeared on ballots. Perhaps one of the most promising developments under Congressional Reconstruction happened inYazoo County where the Morgan brothers, northern migrants to Mississippi, invested in land, became employers, and entered local politics. Postwar cotton prices helped reinvigorateYazoo’s economy and encouraged someAfricanAmerican farmers to buy land there.Yazoo City experienced renewal among the merchant class as well, asAfricanAmerican customers became a staple of the local economy. In contrast to Jackson, its population grew in the wake of the war. In 1850,Yazoo County had 14,418 residents. Twenty years later it counted 17,279. By 1890, that number had nearly doubled. Copiah County experienced similar economic renewal with the opening of Wesson Mills in 1866, the largest manufacturing plant south of the Ohio River. In Simpson County, the population more than doubled from 1850 to 1890 as rail lines crossing the county reached completion. Rankin County saw dramatic growth as well, increasing its population from 7,227 in 1850, to 12,977 in 1870, and 17,922 in 1890. A new constitution was written under federal oversight and approved in 1868.