Whayne, Jeannie M.
Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, c2011.
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Part of the series Making the modern South;Making the modern South.
Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- The shaping of the land — The making of the man — A river of woe : reshaping the land — A new South entrepreneur in the progressive era — Building it of brick and hollow tile — The wind have changed : the flood of 1927 — Get hard and raise hell — Changing of the guard — The return of the class boy .
- Whayne (history, U. of Arkansas), who has published and edited other books on Arkansas history, has written an in-depth account of the creation by Robert E. Lee Wilson of an enormous conglomeration of plantation operations in Arkansas. A lucid writer, Whayne has formed her account from a wealth of primary sources, including correspondence, newspaper accounts, court records, county and other land surveys, and other archives. Wilson’s attitudes towards race are described deliberately and with insight, demonstrating the hardship and systemic inequity of life, pay, housing, and employment for blacks as well as the region’s legacy of horrific intimidation and violence. Wilson logged and drained much of the area and this process, the environmental legacy of his activities, and the impact of the drought of 1930 are the subject of separate chapters. Carrying the account through Wilson’s death and the new management of his empire by his son, and describing how farming practices were changed in efforts to accommodate flood and other environmental concerns, Whayne covers in fascinating detail the lives and effects on the land of over a century of agricultural activity in the lower Mississippi Delta.
Subjects:
- Wilson, Lee, 1865-1933.
- Farmers — Arkansas — Mississippi County — Biography.
- Plantation owners — Arkansas — Mississippi County — Biography.
- Businessmen — Arkansas — Mississippi County — Biography.
- Agriculture — Arkansas — Mississippi County — History.
- Plantations — Arkansas — Mississippi County — History.
- Plantation life — Arkansas — Mississippi County — History.
- Social change — Arkansas — Mississippi County — History.
- Mississippi County (Ark.) — History.
- Mississippi County (Ark.) — Biography.
Requested by Lansing, M