Deep Souths : Delta, Piedmont, and Sea Island Society in the Age of Segregation

Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in HistoryCo-winner of the James A. Rawley Prize from the Organization of American HistoriansWinner of the Theodore Saloutos Memorial Book Prize from the Agricultural History Society Deep Souths tells the stories of three southern regions from Reconstruction to World War II: the Mississippi-Yazoo Delta, the eastern Piedmont of Georgia, and the Georgia Sea Islands and Atlantic coast. Though these regions initially shared the histories and populations we associate with the idea of a "Deep South"—all had economies based on slave plantation labor in 1860—their histories diverged sharply during the three generations after Reconstruction. With research gathered from oral histories, census reports, and a wide variety of other sources, Harris traces these regional changes in cumulative stories of individuals across the social spectrum. Deep Souths presents a comparative and ground-level view of history that challenges the idea that the lower South was either uniform or static in the era of segregation. By the end of the New Deal era, changes in these regions had prepared the way for the civil rights movement and the end of segregation. "Deep Souths tells the stories of three southern regions from Reconstruction to World War II: the Georgia Sea Islands and Atlantic coast, the eastern Piedmont of Georgia, and the Mississippi-Yazoo Delta.". "Based on more than a decade of research in a wide range of sources, from census records to oral histories, these stories of regional change emerge through the cumulative and compelling stories of individuals. Some were planters: James Monroe Smith, who built up a huge Georgia cotton plantation based on convict labor; LeRoy Percy, a Mississippi planter, U. S. senator, and friend of Theodore Roosevelt; Charles Manigault, a rice planter who saw his dreams as well as his prosperity ruined by a flood. Others worked as sharecroppers or small farmers: Peter Brown, who managed a plantation for his absentee owner; Tom Smith, who was lynched after a crop dispute with his landlord; and Benton Miller, a crippled Civil War veteran who led the Populist Party in his Georgia county. Still others represented new worlds, slowly being born: Lucy Craft Lancy, the daughter of a slave, who founded one of the best African American high schools in the nation: Nellic Nugent Somerville, who became a Mississippi suffragist and legislator; Charley Patton, the "king" of the Delta blues; and Arthur Raper, a white liberal New Dealer, who was hauled before a grand jury in Georgia for using "Mr." and "Mrs." to refer to his African American co-workers.". "Deep Souths presents a comparative, ground-level view of history that challenges the idea that the lower South was either uniform or static in the era of segregation. By the end of the New Deal, changes in these regions had prepared the way for the civil rights movement and the end of segregation."--BOOK JACKET. This book tells the stories of three southern regions from Reconstruction to World War II: the Georgia Sea Islands and the Atlantic coast, the eastern Piedmont of Georgia, and the Mississippi-Yazoo Delta. Based on more than a decade of research in a range of sources, from census records to oral histories, these stories of regional change emerge through the cumulative and compelling stories of individuals. Some were planters: James Monroe Smith, who built up a huge Georgia cotton plantation based on convict labor; LeRoy Percy, a Mississippi planter, U.S. senator, and friend of Theodore Roosevelt; Charles Manigault, a rice planter who saw his dreams as well as his prosperity ruined by a flood. Others worked as sharecroppers or small farmers: Peter Brown, who managed a plantation for his absentee owner; Tom Smith, who was lynched after a crop dispute with his landlord; and Benton Miller, a crippled Civil War veteran who led the Populist Party in his Georgia county. The author presents the stories of other figures, including Lucy Craft Laney, the daughter of a slave, who founded one of the best African American high schools in the nation; Nellie Nugent Somerville, who became a Mississippi suffragist and legislator; Charley Patton, the "king" of the Delta blues; and Arthur Raper, a white liberal New Dealer, who was hauled before a grand jury in Georgia for using "Mr." and "Mrs." to refer to his African American co-workers. This book presents a comparative view of history that challenges the idea that the lower South was either uniform or static in the era of segregation. By the end of the New Deal, changes in these regions had prepared the way for the civil rights movement and the end of segregation.--adapted from jacket

Deep Souths tells the stories of three southern regions from Reconstruction to World War II: the Mississippi-Yazoo Delta, the eastern Piedmont of Georgia, and the Georgia Sea Islands and Atlantic coast. Though these regions initially shared the histories and populations we associate with the idea of a "Deep South"—all had economies based on slave plantation labor in 1860—their histories diverged sharply during the three generations after Reconstruction. With research gathered from oral histories, census reports, and a wide variety of other sources, Harris traces these regional changes in cumulative stories of individuals across the social spectrum. Deep Souths presents a comparative and ground-level view of history that challenges the idea that the lower South was either uniform or static in the era of segregation. By the end of the New Deal era, changes in these regions had prepared the way for the civil rights movement and the end of segregation.

Deep Souths tells the stories of three southern regions from Reconstruction to World War II: the Mississippi-Yazoo Delta, the eastern Piedmont of Georgia, and the Georgia Sea Islands and Atlantic coast. Though these regions initially shared the histories and populations we associate with the idea of a "Deep South" & mdash;all had economies based on slave plantation labor in 1860 & mdash;their histories diverged sharply during the three generations after Reconstruction. With research gathered from oral histories, census reports, and a wide variety of other sources, Harris traces these regional changes in cumulative stories of individuals across the social spectrum. Deep Souths presents a comparative and ground-level view of history that challenges the idea that the lower South was either uniform or static in the era of segregation. By the end of the New Deal era, changes in these regions had prepared the way for the civil rights movement and the end of segregation Frontmatter Acknowledgments (page ix) Introduction (page 1) Part I. 1876-1896 1. Land and Labor in New South Countrysides (page 9) 2. "A White Man's Country" Creating the Age of Segregation (page 55) 3. The Populist Challenge (page 83) Part II. 1897-1918 4. Capital at Work, Capitalists at Play (page 119) 5. Culture, Race, and Class in the Segregation Era (page 152) 6. War's Challenge to Jim Crow Citizenship (page 196) Part III. 1919-1939 7. Twilight in Cotton's Kingdom (page 239) 8. "Discord, dissension, and hatred" Cultural Change and Cultural Conflict after World War I (page 264) 9. "Uncle Sam is my shepherd" The New Deal's Challenge to Deep South Political Economy (page 292) Conclusion Deep South Histories (page 325) Coda Endings (page 332) Appendix: Charts and Tables (page 337) Abbreviations (page 367) Notes (page 369) Essay on Sources (page 427) Index (page 441) The stories of three Southern regions from Reconstruction to World War II: the Mississippi-Yazoo Delta, the eastern Piedmont of Georgia, and the Georgia Sea Islands and Atlantic coast. Based on a range of sources, the stories of regional change emerge through the stories of individuals. When I began work on this book in 1985, I thought, for reasons that escape me now, that it would be a rather short project.