Live from the mississippi book festival a panel from the heritage of mississippi series discussed the bicentennial. I was good morning everyone thank you for coming to the panel. Im with the Mississippi Department of archives and history. Welcome to the heritage mississippi series panel. The director of the department of archives and history and a longtime member of the historicahistorical society twoe groups responsible for the book series will moderate the panel. Help me welcome katie. [applause] thank you very much for making this panel possible. [applause] i want to thank you all for joining us here in the mississippi stat state capital. We are proud of this building and it was recently designated to a historical landmark that was very appropriate. [applause] im pleased to host this discussion about the heritage of mississippi series which was also a bicentennial initiative. It will cover 17 volumes of 17 of them have already been published in the there are scholars working their fingers to the bone right at this minute of the next volume and if you are yet to be. It is aimed at a wide audience of students and the general public. There were the definitive studies of the subject and it was published jointly by the of archives and history, the Mississippi Historical society and the University Press of mississippi with support from the foundation. More and more of the department of archives and history that is how we are working through partnerships. Weve become increasingly focused in recent decades as we needed to become increasingly focused on telling the stories of all mississippians and we do that by involving a wide range of people and organizations across the state. Its reached its height in the planning for the mississippi museums. I want to see all of you celebrating there with us. Its told to the voices that left them and this has been the focus in recent years as we collected artifacts and documents that told the story of old. This series has been a part of this change. We have all the stories together in the scholarship and as we talk about this series i would like to talk about how they represent this evolution in the approach to telling the stories. And now i am pleased to introduce the panelists we are one panelist short, the author of religion and mississippi had a family emergency and was unable to be here today so we are thinking of him. We have james f. Barnett junior the author of the mississippis American Indians, jim was the director of the division of the Historic Properties of the Mississippi Department of archives and historys. He is also a very accomplished musician. It teaches at the university of tennessee at martin and is the author of several books including james george and the Mississippi Secession Convention delegates into deliberations in the politics and war 1861 to 1865 and hes working on a book on the raid. And we have Laurie Watkins author of the Literary History of mississippi. The associate professor of english at William Carey university and the the author of William Faulkner and the cavalier tradition and the editor of the annual publications of the Mississippi Association and also the collaborating editor for the digital project at the university of virginia. Im going to start by asking each of the authors a question or two and then eventually i will open up to the audience. Lets start with you. Your book is different from the others in that it is an edited volume and literary work. Talk about the process of editing the work of other peoples writing. Youve heard the phrase its raining cats. Its somewhere in between. The hard part is deciding who would be the best fit for each of these chapters. One was mississippi scholars so i spend a lot of time because i knew i couldnt do it myself. I couldnt do it myself but i could do it better by passing into these forces so thats why. Thats great. You wrote the chapter about the slave narrative. Talk about how they fit into the tradition. They dealt mostly with the narratives that we had in this record and they are somewhat problematic because people were interviewed after the fact, several years out and all of these were transcribed to some extent so you have to look at a possible bias on the part of the interviewer and at the same time we try to get as close to the real story as we could after the fact. What do you think they found most interesting in reading your work . With the thank the board of f editors with the Heritage Series for the opportunity to write this book. Its been five years since the book came out and ive given a number of talks to groups. They have the kinship system the indians of mississippi is used to do. If you were one of these mississippi tribes, you automatically received membership and you become a person who is known by your place in society. I know when most people hear about the can chip system, its the novelty of it that strikes people first. People didnt realize this kind of thing existed among the indians of mississippi, it touched every aspect of their life. Its meaning half and they were divided into two halves. There are certain privileges and other memberships and then there is the lineage and the group that you were born into a. Its difficult for people to understand that that completes the burgeoning kinship that the Indian Society is the head going because the kinship is not as important today as it once was. I dont think it means anything quite like it did to the American Indians. The other aspect of the book i think people are hearing about when they read it for the first time is that the indian slave trade and this has been a surprise to a lot of people who. They capture people and ship them out to the english possessions in the caribbean or to work in the mines in south america. The indian slave trade touched everybody living here and by its start at around 1 16 to 70 17 ay 1700, it was here in mississippi and all the way to the mississippi river. They participated in it and they were slave catchers as was the tribe, they slave catching groups. The indians had slaves already when the europeans got here but these people were not taken permanently from their homes and ship somewhere else. Many of them just lived within 50 miles or so when they were born. What was the hardest aspect of writing this book lacks is. If they were through the filter of the people who wrote the narratives. You have to watch out for the bias and certainly there were the people writing these histories and others have their own agenda. You have to understand that and what they were writing is probably not what was in the mind of the people paper writing about there were ways to get to that if you are careful. Patricia flees to the width of the department really pioneered about aspect of the studies of the American Indians and mississippi. We are proud of her work is. How did that Research Lead you in Different Directions and different conclusions. The topdown history at the great man theory is and so on and the civil war historiography we call it what you were looking at in the concept of combat and what it felt like to be in combat so i wanted to use that approach in the homefront folks. Not a lot has been done on the homefront and mississippi. Its not just the plantation owners or to delete. So the Interesting Research aspect of this was getting into the letters of people on the homefront in mississippi. Every book there are different parts to writing a book you do the research and the writing. Ive often said that there are parts of it that are more fun than others. Thats the most drudgery that you ever imagine. The most fascinating parts of this is research at the university of mississippi and Mississippi University and even outside of the state. You get to find these letters that are absolutely fascinating and its like facebook. I dont do facebook much but its like reading the facebook posts a. Its a very interesting way to do it in the Manuscript Research into this new way of looking at things from the bottomup rather than the topdown is one of the things i want to incorporate in this book. Did you find any surprises in the archives . You always find a lot of surprises. You have to come home and take care of the situation and that illustrates a log of the mass chaos that was going on in the confederate mississippi at the time. What about in reading these narratives was surprised yo whau the most about what he found . Some of the statements after the fact it struck me while i was sitting here in the literature in the civil war. I have a soft voice. I had throat cancer years ago. It really struck me at the university of southern mississippi in the civil war chapter. So im just so excited because i hear all of these connections that i didnt become apparent until just now. I am not sure. There were some surprises. One thing that surprised me was the European Reaction to the ways of doing things and. A persons father would have a different name then you would. If the mother of course would be the ones to discipline the child to teach them whats what in the societies. The father got to be this easy going friendly person in your life that was always bringing presence and taking new fishing and things like that. So when they got here they demanded up you need to listen to what they say and do what we tell you to do. With the indians, that meant a whole other thing. We want you to let us get away with stuff and it frustrated the french and english. It was the cultural tourism across the state we have wonderful museums of Jackson Museum of art. Im honored he took a break to be with us here today and this was his inspiration, so he wanted to be here but he is building with his own two hands a museum at the u. S. Grant collection that opens november 30. Theres the new Grammy Museum and of course the two mississippi museums and opening december 9. Specifically in the two museums that cover all of mississippis history and then focus on the Civil Rights Movement with his most important about the experience that we give to the public. Its what a complex issue it was in mississippi. We tend to think of it as the bastion of confederate down the line for the confederacy we supply the president of the confederacy and so on but especially looking at the homefront, there were so many different nuances and levels of dedication if you will to the confederacy, levels of dedication among the africanamerican slaves for instance. Its a very complex society at the time that really defies any attempt to put it all into blackandwhite. It was so complex and chaotic at times its unreal for us to get a glimpse of it and we havent seen anything like this. Its hard for us to imagine th that. Its very important for the people to understand. That is a great answer. I was fortunate enough to be involved in the planning for the museums and one thing that kept coming up over and over again were the stories of individuals that are going to be told in these two museums, and i think it is a fascinating idea. To find whatever story appeals to them. Theyve helped us in the planning for the exhibits and its not too late. Weve had a lot of help from a lot of people in that state. I will throw one more out and invite audience questions if theres anything you want to ask the panelists today. What are some topics in mississippi history that havent been touched or covered adequately yet that you would like to see written about more than a. I have to make a plug with respect to the last question that you asked. We have a lot of this literature when we visit the museum and the personal connection that you are talking about is the key for my students to. If youve been to the music and you know what im talking about. Its like the optimists daughter comes to life for them. They go to roanoke for example and see they scribbled the phone numbers on the wall or in a museum they see the little cabin at bb king was born in. And it makes the literature, i live and they make that connection to history and to themselves. Thats why it is so important. Any other thoughts on the topics that need to be covered . The question in Civil War History what is there to write about in the civil war but in the case there are tons of topics to be written on. I covered a lot of time in the chapter form in this book and i believe that is one of the volumes that hasnt been assigned yet. So waiting on the function of the Mississippi State biography there is no. There are tons of topics that are just waiting for the office to help us understand more of the civil war i civil war in mi. So youve got your work cut out for you. The first chapter of my book was devoted to archaeology in the state but that deserves a whole book in itself and we have 12,000 years of different cultures and Different Things going on. We just finished developing the mississippi mountain trail and we are beginning to focus on this area and to bring it to the public more. I think that needs to be emphasized. Would you like to ask any questions and if you would, please go to the microphone in the middle. He asked why is it necessary to have two separate museums and that is a great question. They started from different planes. The state History Museum was always a part of department of archives and the closed it and put the artifacts in storage and ever since then and even before thethen have been seeking fundig from the museum. Meanwhile, there was an effort in the private sector initiated by Governor Haley barbour to build a Civil Rights Museum. Those of these museum efforts were kind of stalled and then in 2011 some of the members of the board of trustees had the idea to put them together and build them in downtown jackson under the department of archives and history so that this sort of the background but the truth is it is a real natural way to do it. If he were here he would say in more eloquent terms than i can the meaning of having the museums have everybody walk in one door sidebyside to learn all of the states stories. And then again on a more practical level, the museum of mississippi history tells the entire sweep of the states stories from the earliest time, the stories of native americans here all the way up to the present. The civil rights era, that happened here in mississippi and changed the nation and the world. That period needs a closer focus. So it is told along with many others that provide context for it from slavery to reconstruction and jim crow all the way up to the movement. Those are told in the museum of mississippi history. The Civil Rights Museum but the closer focus on the ssierr sien 1945 to 1975 beginning when they came back from world war ii and carried the story up through School Integration into the initial integration of African American officials. Its a story told in more depth than the Civil Rights Museum but also present in the other museum, the History Museum. Does that answer your question . Thank you. This is your panel. I appreciate the commercial that you gave us for the grand president ial library at the Mississippi State. We are opening november 30 just a week before the big grand opening here in jackson at the archives and history but it struck me something tv said it struck me. Ive been a historian for a long time and ive written some materials but what struck me about the experience with the president ial library has been the fact that you cannot approach history in just one way. I always thought he writes books and then they will know all there is to know about history but it doesnt work that way because we find that in our operation we will have people come in and they have no interest in books, absolutely none that they are interested in the artifacts, material thats there and then some others will come in and indicate after seeing what youve got here, whats the best book i can read on grant or some aspect and then some others will come in and say i saw this thing on the cspan or on the History Channel and i learned something now i want to read what is the book i can read, so one of the things i would like the panelist to talk about is the question of what historians call public history how do we reach the public to present the best history we can not just in books and all these other things but how do we get at this and Work Together to get this done tax great question. Do you want to jump in . The i try to do a lot of that with social media and some of my students have told me on facebook pages but its like an extension of the classroom posting stuff i want them to know about so thats one way that i do it. You have to hit the audience where they are. I look forward to seeing the museums and im guessing you have a lot of interaction. All of the state Park Services are moving towards interactive especially targeting the kids because as we know most kids just walk around doing this all the time. They dont read the books. They dont even read text in a museum so you have to make it interactive and lively. Theres a lot of noise that distracts children and adults from history and from getting at what may be close to the truth. I dont know if we can ever get at the truth or not he can try to get as close as possible and try to counteract the noise coming from everywhere else about everybody elses ideas about what happened. I guess this is a way of organizing society which we dont understand very well. When we hear about tribes in the middle east and africa it seems like these days from our perspective they are caring societies apart, conflicts between the tribes. I wonder if you have run across any of that or any other interesting things about tribal structure of indians in mississippi. One thing we have to realize in the worst tribe it means something to each of us whether he got it from television or somewhere else. But, these groups and mississippi, they were all considerations by the time the europeans got here, these groups had ended together to protect themselves against the invasion of north america. Namely the indian slave trade. If you are a small tribal group living in mississippi in the late 16 hundreds or early 17 hundreds, youre going to be hit again and again and again unless you align yourself with other groups. For example they were made up of at least four different language groups within the tribe so that isnt a very good word for the work we have been accused of these were considerations of groups clumping together to protect themselves against what was going on with the european invasion of this country. How were the native american tribes affected by the civil war . Did they have any type of participation . Where they attacked by the federal troops or anything like that . By the time of the civil war there were no recognized tribes living in mississippi. They were living here under one of the articles that allowed him to remain in this area but by the time of the civil war, the last tribal units of the state were located wha in what is now oklahoma come indian lands in the west. They were both on the side of the south. They owned slaves in fact when the civil war was over with, the people they dont ask for and finally received a share in federal payments to tribes because they were enslaved People Living in oklahoma. In terms of the military and homefront i did just a little bit of investigation into that and it was actually a battalion that fought in the Confederate Army for mississippi. I didnt look into a lot of history of it but there were others around, most notably chief is correct term. But other than carol county, he was a unionist by all accounts he owned slaves and welcome to thhad welcomed byunion troops wp in that area and got the United States flag out and so there is some evidence and some discussion of native americans in civil for mississippi. I want to thank you for being here. My question is james. I would be interested in any aspect of religion among mississippi indians and what role did play between tribes did overlap, what were the central themes of religion and a couple more things are they receptive to the europeans christianity and they pressured to give up their religion . That could be a whole days discussion. The systems of the American Indians in mississippi was so different from the way that we approach religion. They were not proselytizers, they didnt care whether hes understood as heunderstood as ar english than what they believed in. They didnt want you to join their church. It was a whole different aspect of beliefs. But it was very rich and extremely complicated. Theres probably some pretty good books about about right now that you can build into it more than i can discuss right here. But as far as the missionary work, catholic missionaries that came in in the early 17 hundreds were by and large not successful as trying to initialize the indians and banned pretty quickly if i say 1715, 1720 these missionaries that were living in the Lower Mississippi valley were serving the french settlements here and ignoring the indians because they have not had any luck with converti converting. Interestingly enough, in the 19th century before the indian removal, the protestant missionaries, methodist, presbyterian, baptist, these missionaries came in and were quite successful at getting begatheend begins to come to chh meetings and it wasnt the socalled churches but the people in the 19th century were able to preserve their language into one of the culture that they couldnt show in public in those days. They could carry those things on and what arin what are called in churches and if you go up to the philadelphia area once in a while you come around the corner and see the sign Indian Church come Indian Baptist church or whatever, so religion played a very strong role in that way with the states. Thank you all for being here today. Questions for you. Looking at mississippi history we have a controversial past. Looking at the things that are going on in the news today, things being torn down, how do we tell history and present history everybody right now wants to judge history through their own lands and they are not really paying attention to the real history. There is some characters out there that have some bad traits but they had some good ones also. That would fit a narrative so how do we tell the story and at the same time still have people come in that are interested in the topics if that makes sense. That might be the most important question for us to think about and talk about. We are telling the stories of mississippi history in all of of the complexities in these museums. We are shying away from nothing. One of the most difficult stories in mississippi history is the lynchings that took place here. That will be told in both museums. The Civil Rights Museum we have monoliths memorializing the lynchings of the victims. Our production from the elected officials who funded these museums from the donors that fund the museums from the people who came to the Community Meetings across the state was told the truth. Thats not so simple either