Located on the terminus of the 444-mile Natchez Historic Parkway and at the southern end of the 2,320-mile long Mississippi River, Natchez National Historic Park preserves sites and stories of a global crossroads that people have passed through and taken root in for over 10,000 years. Throughout the 17th and 19th centuries, indigenous communities, European colonists from France, Britain, and Spain, American settlers, and enslaved peoples have shaped Natchez's landscape. The name Natchez comes from American Indians who lived in the area until the violence of western expansion and the breakdown of Natchez-French relations forced them from the area in the early 18th century. While American Indians were forced to leave the area, others found Natchez a place marked by their enslavement. Known for once having the second largest slave market in the country, the Historic Park illuminates the complexities of how the people of Natchez engaged in the global system of slavery as well as people's experiences of racial violence and enslavement.