The Tombigbee District was an area mostly on the west side of the Tombigbee River in Alabama; it was first opened to settlement by British colonists under the Treaty of Mobile, negotiated between the British government of West Florida and the Choctaw at a Native American congress held in Mobile in March–April 1765. The British had “acquired” this territory from France in 1763 through the Treaty of Paris, after they defeated France in the Seven Years’ War. They also acquired other French territories in North America east of the Mississippi River.
The Spanish took a number of censuses during their periods of colonial control (1565-1763 and 1783-1821). The following is an extraction of the 1789 census for the area known as Tombigkee District or Tombigbee District.