Book signing by professor of history
Dr. Aaron Anderson, assistant professor of history in the Department of Social Sciences at Alcorn State University, has a new monograph released January 1, 2013, by the University Press of Mississippi “Builders of a New South: Merchants, Capital, and the Remaking of Natchez, 1865-1914”.
The work describes how the rising merchant class transformed the antebellum cotton epicenter of Natchez in the post-Civil War years and brought it into the twentieth century. Using an array of records including census, tax, property and probate documents, as well as thousands of chattel mortgage contracts, the book explores how traders functioned in the aftermath of the Civil War, especially their relationship with the area’s freed black population. And while these businessmen played a key role in the district’s economic survival, they also perpetuated an unjust system of credit and farm tenancy in the form of sharecropping.
The Alcorn family and community members are cordially invited to attend the book signing at Turning Pages Books & More, located on 520 Franklin Street in Natchez, on Saturday, February 9, from 6-8 p.m. The book is also available on the University Press of Mississippi Web site or Amazon.com .
