The Tombigbee District, also known as the Tombigbee settlements, was one of two areas, the other being the Natchez District, that were the first to be colonized by British subjects from the Thirteen Colonies and elsewhere in what was West Florida and later became the Mississippi Territory. The district was also the first area in what would become the state of Alabama, outside of the colonial outpost of Mobile, that was opened to white settlement. The Tombigbee and Natchez districts were the only areas populated by whites in the Mississippi Territory when it was formed by the United States in 1798.