Remembering Dixie : the battle to control historical memory in Natchez, Mississippi, 1865-1941

Nearly seventy years after the Civil War, Natchez, Mississippi, sold itself to Depression-era tourists as a place “Where the Old South Still Lives.” Tourists flocked to view the town’s decaying antebellum mansions, hoop-skirted hostesses, and a pageant saturated in sentimental Lost Cause imagery. Organized by the town’s female garden club, the Pilgrimage created a popular culture experience that appealed to 1930s tourists. This book traces how the selective white historical memories of a small southern community originated from the hardships of the Civil War, changed over time, and culminated in a successful heritage tourism enterprise still in business today. Simultaneously, this study examines the ways in which Natchez African Americans contested this selective narrative to create a short lived but distinctive post-emancipation identity. This book demonstrates that southern memory making was never monolithic or static but was continuously shaped and reshaped by the unique dynamics of a community’s class, gender, racial, and social complexities. In the course of revealing how historical memory evolved in Natchez, this book contributes new insights on the periodization of Lost Cause ideology and the gendering of historical memory. Covering the period from the tumultuous early post-Civil War years through the economic hardships of the Great Depression, __Remembering Dixie__ reveals that historical memory is often a contested process. Perhaps most importantly, this study helps to reclaim some of the earliest post-emancipation black memories that were nearly erased when white males reclaimed political power in the late 1870s. "Nearly seventy years after the Civil War, Natchez, Mississippi, sold itself to Depression-era tourists as a place 'Where the Old South Still Lives.' Tourists flocked to view the town's decaying antebellum mansions, hoop-skirted hostesses, and a pageant saturated in sentimental Lost Cause imagery. In Remembering Dixie: The Battle to Control Historical Memory in Natchez, Mississippi, 1865-1941, Susan T. Falck analyzes how the highly biased, white historical memories of what had been a wealthy southern hub originated from the experiences and hardships of the Civil War. These collective narratives eventually culminated in a heritage tourism enterprise still in business today. Additionally, the book includes new research on the African American community's robust efforts to build historical tradition, most notably, the ways in which African Americans in Natchez worked to create a distinctive postemancipation identity that challenged the dominant white structure. Using a wide range of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century sources--many of which have never been fully mined before--Falck reveals the ways in which black and white Natchezians of all classes, male and female, embraced, reinterpreted, and contested Lost Cause ideology. These memory-making struggles resulted in emotional, internecine conflicts that shaped the cultural character of the community and impacted the national understanding of the Old South and the Confederacy as popular culture. Natchez remains relevant today as a microcosm for our nation's modern-day struggles with Lost Cause ideology, Confederate monuments, racism, and white supremacy. Falck reveals how this remarkable story played out in one important southern community over several generations in vivid detail and richly illustrated analysis."--Provided by publisher Nearly seventy years after the Civil War, Natchez, Mississippi, sold itself to Depression-era tourists as a place "Where the Old South Still Lives." Tourists flocked to view the town's decaying antebellum mansions, hoopskirted hostesses, and a pageant saturated in sentimental Lost Cause imagery. In Remembering Dixie: The Battle to Control Historical Memory in Natchez, Mississippi, 1865 – 1941 , Susan T. Falck analyzes how the highly biased, white historical memories of what had been a wealthy southern hub originated from the experiences and hardships of the Civil War. These collective narratives eventually culminated in a heritage tourism enterprise still in business today. Additionally, the book includes new research on the African American community's robust efforts to build historical tradition, most notably, the ways in which African Americans in Natchez worked to create a distinctive postemancipation identity that challenged the dominant white structure. Using a wide range of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century sources—many of which have never been fully mined before—Falck reveals the ways in which black and white Natchezians of all classes, male and female, embraced, reinterpreted, and contested Lost Cause ideology. These memory-making struggles resulted in emotional, internecine conflicts that shaped the cultural character of the community and impacted the national understanding of the Old South and the Confederacy as popular culture. Natchez remains relevant today as a microcosm for our nation's modern-day struggles with Lost Cause ideology, Confederate monuments, racism, and white supremacy. Falck reveals how this remarkable story played out in one important southern community over several generations in vivid detail and richly illustrated analysis. Nearly seventy years after the Civil War, Natchez, Mississippi, sold itself to Depression-era tourists as a place "Where the Old South Still Lives." Tourists flocked to view the town's decaying antebellum mansions, hoopskirted hostesses, and a pageant saturated in sentimental Lost Cause imagery. In Remembering Dixie: The Battle to Control Historical Memory in Natchez, Mississippi, 1865-1941, Susan T. Falck analyzes how the highly biased, white historical memories of what had been a wealthy southern hub originated from the experiences and hardships of the Civil War. These collective narratives eventually culminated in a heritage tourism enterprise still in business today. Additionally, the book includes new research on the African American community's robust efforts to build historical tradition, most notably, the ways in which African Americans in Natchez worked to create a distinctive postemancipation identity that challenged the dominant white structure.0Using a wide range of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century sources-many of which have never been fully mined before-Falck reveals the ways in which black and white Natchezians of all classes, male and female, embraced, reinterpreted, and contested Lost Cause ideology. These memory-making struggles resulted in emotional, internecine conflicts that shaped the cultural character of the community and impacted the national understanding of the Old South and the Confederacy as popular culture.0Natchez remains relevant today as a microcosm for our nation's modern-day struggles with Lost Cause ideology, Confederate monuments, racism, and white supremacy. Falck reveals how this remarkable story played out in one important southern community over several generations in vivid detail and richly illustrated analysis Nearly seventy years after the Civil War, Natchez, Mississippi, sold itself to Depression-era tourists as a place "Where the Old South Still Lives." Tourists flocked to view the town's decaying antebellum mansions, hoop-skirted hostesses, and a pageant saturated in sentimental Lost Cause imagery. Organised by the town's female garden club, the Pilgrimage created a popular culture experience that appealed to 1930s tourists. This book traces how the selective white historical memories of a small southern community originated from the hardships of the Civil War, changed over time, and culminated in a successful heritage tourism enterprise still in business today