Author: Christian Pinnen
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1496832906
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 237
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Book Description
Colonial Mississippi: A Borrowed Land offers the first composite of histories from the entire colonial period in the land now called Mississippi. Christian Pinnen and Charles Weeks reveal stories spanning over three hundred years and featuring a diverse array of individuals and peoples from America, Europe, and Africa. The authors focus on the encounters among these peoples, good and bad, and the lasting impacts on the region. The eighteenth century receives much-deserved attention from Pinnen and Weeks as they focus on the trials and tribulations of Mississippi as a colony, especially along the Gulf Coast and in the Natchez country. The authors tell the story of a land borrowed from its original inhabitants and never returned. They make clear how a remarkable diversity characterized the state throughout its early history. Early encounters and initial contacts involved primarily Native Americans and Spaniards in the first half of the sixteenth century following the expeditions of Columbus and others to the large region of the Gulf of Mexico. More sustained interaction began with the arrival of the French to the region and the establishment of a French post on Biloxi Bay at the end of the seventeenth century. Such exchanges continued through the eighteenth century with the British, and then again the Spanish until the creation of the territory of Mississippi in 1798 and then two states, Mississippi in 1817 and Alabama in 1819. Though readers may know the bare bones of this history, the dates, and names, this is the first book to reveal the complexity of the story in full, to dig deep into a varied and complicated tale.
Author: Christine A. Klein
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479825387
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 280
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Book Description
Read a free excerpt here! American engineers have done astounding things to bend the Mississippi River to their will: forcing one of its tributaries to flow uphill, transforming over a thousand miles of roiling currents into a placid staircase of water, and wresting the lower half of the river apart from its floodplain. American law has aided and abetted these feats. But despite our best efforts, so-called “natural disasters” continue to strike the Mississippi basin, as raging floodwaters decimate waterfront communities and abandoned towns literally crumble into the Gulf of Mexico. In some places, only the tombstones remain, leaning at odd angles as the underlying soil erodes away. Mississippi River Tragedies reveals that it is seductively deceptive—but horribly misleading—to call such catastrophes “natural.” Authors Christine A. Klein and Sandra B. Zellmer present a sympathetic account of the human dreams, pride, and foibles that got us to this point, weaving together engaging historical narratives and accessible law stories drawn from actual courtroom dramas. The authors deftly uncover the larger story of how the law reflects and even amplifies our ambivalent attitude toward nature—simultaneously revering wild rivers and places for what they are, while working feverishly to change them into something else. Despite their sobering revelations, the authors’ final message is one of hope. Although the acknowledgement of human responsibility for unnatural disasters can lead to blame, guilt, and liability, it can also prod us to confront the consequences of our actions, leading to a liberating sense of possibility and to the knowledge necessary to avoid future disasters.
Author: Shana Walton
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1628468459
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 597
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Book Description
Contributions by Linda Pierce Allen, Carl L. Bankston III, Barbara Carpenter, Milburn J. Crowe, Vy Thuc Dao, Bridget Anne Hayden, Joyce Marie Jackson, Emily Erwin Jones, Tom Mould, Frieda Quon, Celeste Ray, Stuart Rockoff, Devparna Roy, Aimée L. Schmidt, James Thomas, Shana Walton, Lola Williamson, and Amy L. Young Throughout its history, Mississippi has seen a small, steady stream of immigrants, and those identities—sometimes submerged, sometimes hidden—have helped shape the state in important ways. Amid renewed interest in identity, the Mississippi Humanities Council has commissioned a companion volume to its earlier book that studied ethnicity in the state from the period 1500-1900. This new book, Ethnic Heritage in Mississippi: The Twentieth Century, offers stories of immigrants overcoming obstacles, immigrants newly arrived, and long-settled groups witnessing a revitalized claim to membership. The book examines twentieth-century immigration trends, explores the reemergence of ethnic identity, and undertakes case studies of current ethnic groups. Some of the groups featured in the volume include Chinese, Latino, Lebanese, Jewish, Filipino, South Asian, and Vietnamese communities. The book also examines Biloxi as a city that has long attracted a diverse population and takes a look at the growth in identity affiliation among people of European descent. The book is funded in part by a “We the People” grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Author: Joseph A. Ranney
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1496822595
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 234
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Book Description
In A Legal History of Mississippi: Race, Class, and the Struggle for Opportunity, legal scholar Joseph A. Ranney surveys the evolution of Mississippi’s legal system and analyzes the ways in which that system has changed during the state’s first two hundred years. Through close research, qualitative analysis, published court decisions, statutes, and law review articles, along with unusual secondary sources including nineteenth-century political and legal journals and journals of state constitutional conventions, Ranney indicates how Mississippi law has both shaped and reflected the state’s character and, to a certain extent, how Mississippi’s legal evolution compares with that of other states. Ranney examines the interaction of Mississippi law and society during key periods of change including the colonial and territorial eras and the early years of statehood when the legal foundations were laid; the evolution of slavery and slave law in Mississippi; the state’s antebellum role as a leader of Jacksonian legal reform; the unfolding of the response to emancipation and wartime devastation during Reconstruction and the early Jim Crow era; Mississippi’s legal evolution during the Progressive Era and its legal response to the crisis of the Great Depression; and the legal response to the civil rights revolution of the mid-twentieth century and the cultural revolutions of the late twentieth century. Histories of the law in other states are starting to appear, but there is none for Mississippi. Ranney fills that gap to help us better understand the state as it enters its third century.
Author: Mark Neuzil
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780816636471
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 253
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Book Description
"Henry Peter Bosse (1844-1903) is now recognized as the leading photographer of the Mississippi River during the late nineteenth century: he extensively photographed the Upper Mississippi from 1883 to 1893, a time of unprecedented environmental and social change. His work was practically unknown until five separate volumes of his photographs were discovered within the past decade. Since then, his photographs have been exhibited at the Smithsonian and other national museums and purchased by private art collectors around the world." "Views on the Mississippi brings together for the first time almost one hundred of Bosse's most stunning images. These photographs, tracing the river from Minneapolis to St. Louis, capture the Mississippi as it was being transformed from an untamed natural wonder to a modern commercial highway. Presenting wagon and railroad bridges, towns and villages along the banks, and the steamboats that served them, Bosse's photography depicts the river at the fulcrum between the nostalgic, romantic era recorded by Mark Twain and the coming century of industrial development and environmental alterations (the navigation projects of the Army Corps are among the changes documented by Bosse). Also included is a detailed reproduction of Bosse's rare landmark map of the river, first published in 1887-88."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Author: Thomas C. Buchanan
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807876569
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 273
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Book Description
All along the Mississippi--on country plantation landings, urban levees and quays, and the decks of steamboats--nineteenth-century African Americans worked and fought for their liberty amid the slave trade and the growth of the cotton South. Offering a counternarrative to Twain's well-known tale from the perspective of the pilothouse, Thomas C. Buchanan paints a more complete picture of the Mississippi, documenting the rich variety of experiences among slaves and free blacks who lived and worked on the lower decks and along the river during slavery, through the Civil War, and into emancipation. Buchanan explores the creative efforts of steamboat workers to link riverside African American communities in the North and South. The networks African Americans created allowed them to keep in touch with family members, help slaves escape, transfer stolen goods, and provide forms of income that were important to the survival of their communities. The author also details the struggles that took place within the steamboat work culture. Although the realities of white supremacy were still potent on the river, Buchanan shows how slaves, free blacks, and postemancipation freedpeople fought for better wages and treatment. By exploring the complex relationship between slavery and freedom, Buchanan sheds new light on the ways African Americans resisted slavery and developed a vibrant culture and economy up and down America's greatest river.
Author: Philip Gould
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 0807172227
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Bridging the Mississippi: Spans across the Father of Waters portrays in words and stunning photographs the manmade structures that cross the nation’s most important and, during the mid-nineteenth century, most daunting natural waterway. Philip Gould spent three years photographing Mississippi River bridges, from the Crescent City Connection in New Orleans to the span of boulders at the river’s headwaters in Lake Itasca, Minnesota. This book features seventy-five of the river’s more than 130 spans, progressing from south to north, in rural, small-town, and metropolitan settings. In every season and from numerous angles, Gould captured images of historical, architectural, and engineering significance as well as dramatic natural beauty. In addition, his photos reflect the many perspectives of people whose lives intersect with the bridges, including riverboat captains, construction workers, pedestrians, drivers, cyclists, wedding parties, recreational boaters and fishers, business owners, and train engineers. Margot Hasha offers a fascinating overview of bridge construction on the Mississippi, starting with the waterway’s geology and the earliest-known settlement along the banks of Misi-ziibi, what Native Americans called the “father of waters.” She discusses the impact of steel production on the expansion of railroad bridges, hazards encountered by river pilots today, the preservation of vintage structures, and the latest bridge designs. Hasha and Gould profile select crossings in eleven cities and towns, explaining each one’s unique story and importance to its riverside community. Architectural and engineering feats; focal points for urban renewal; essential links in the nation’s transportation and commerce; aesthetic frames for parks, riverwalks, and levee trails—the Mississippi River’s bridges come into full focus in this visual tribute.
Author: Bradley G. Bond
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 9781617034305
Category : Mississippi
Languages : en
Pages : 356
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Book Description
Author: Michael Gillespie
Publisher: Great River Publishing
ISBN: 9780962082320
Category : Mississippi River
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Read these fascinating accounts from steamboat passengers, crews and newspapermen from the nineteenth century. This book explores all aspects of steamboating on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, from vessel construction to races and accidents.
Author: Paul Schneider
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
ISBN: 0805098364
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 416
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Book Description
A fascinating account of how the Mississippi River shaped America In Old Man River, Paul Schneider tells the story of the river at the center of America's rich history—the Mississippi. Some fifteen thousand years ago, the majestic river provided Paleolithic humans with the routes by which early man began to explore the continent's interior. Since then, the river has been the site of historical significance, from the arrival of Spanish and French explorers in the 16th century to the Civil War. George Washington fought his first battle near the river, and Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman both came to President Lincoln's attention after their spectacular victories on the lower Mississippi. In the 19th century, home-grown folk heroes such as Daniel Boone and the half-alligator, half-horse, Mike Fink, were creatures of the river. Mark Twain and Herman Melville led their characters down its stream in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Confidence-Man. A conduit of real-life American prowess, the Mississippi is also a river of stories and myth. Schneider traces the history of the Mississippi from its origins in the deep geologic past to the present. Though the busiest waterway on the planet today, the Mississippi remains a paradox—a devastated product of American ingenuity, and a magnificent natural wonder.
