Becoming Southern: The Evolution of a Way of Life, Warren County & Vicksburg, Mississippi, 1770-1860

By Christopher Charles Morris

Book Overview

Mississippi represented the Old South and all that it stood for--perhaps more so than any other state. Tracing its long histories of economic, social, and cultural evolution, Morris takes a close and richly detailed look at a representative Southern community: Jefferson Davis's Warren County, in the state's southwestern corner. Drawing on many wills, deeds, court records, and manuscript materials, he reveals the transformation of a loosely knit, typically Western community of pioneer homesteaders into a distinctly Southern society based on plantation agriculture, slavery, and a patriarchal social order.

"This thoughtful, well-written study doubtless will be widely read and deservedly influential."--American Historical Review.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195083660
• ISBN13: 9780195083668
• Release Date: May 1995
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.22 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Becoming Southern

I'm from Vicksburg, MS so it was a very good book & had facts & infor I didn't know. Loved it!

A brilliant study of antebellum Mississippi

Morris examines the development of a Mississippi community from early frontier to its rise as a center of the cotton culture. The book is extremely well written. Unlike most historians who attempt to write community studies, Morris writes with the reader in mind. His prose is accessible yet informative, sophisticated yet always enagaging. A must read for anyone who wants to learn more about antebellum Mississippi.