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The Murder of a Slave on the Ralls County Harris Plantation ..read more

The Free State of Jones: a remarkable Civil War & Reconstruction film you must not miss ..read more

A Renegade South reblog from 2020 Renegade South By Vikki Bynum This past week, in celebration of the 4th of July, I joined several historians to discuss the importance of the American Revolution and the American Civil War to the political transformation of our nation. In 1776, America moved from being a slaveholding colony to creating a nation, via the Declaration of Independence,  founded on the principle of human equality. Only after decades of struggle and a protracted civil war did that principle became law. In 1865, the United States’ defeat of the Confederate States of Ameri ..read more

For Memorial Day I’m reposting this in honor of Southern Unionists of Mississippi and Texas. Renegade South I received these photos from Deena Collins Aucoin this Memorial Day morning. The first is of Chalmette National Cemetery in New Orleans. The second is the grave of Riley J. Collins from Jones County, MS. An avowed Unionist, Riley resisted service in the Confederate Army, and joined Co. E, 1st New Orleans infantry (although his gravestone says LA Infantry) on April 30, 1864. He died of disease the following August. Deena is a descendant of Simeon Collins, brother of Riley. Both me ..read more

https://wavve.link/2nur8ExFL/episodes ..read more

At an awards ceremony inside the beautiful historic St. Louis Mercantile Library on April 6, 2023, I was honored to join the list of distinguished recipients of the James V. Swift Medal for excellence in maritime literature. Sara Hodge, Curator of the Herman T. Pott National Inland Waterways Library, presented me with the Medal for my book, Shantyboats and Roustabouts. In a talk after the presentation of the Medal, I looked back on my riverbank childhood and the ancestral river heritage that inspired me to write the book. The Mississippi River has been a lifelong friend to me and a dyna ..read more

Lost River Stories Here’s how a lost story from the Leaf River swamp in southeast Mississippi turned into my song, “Jones County Jubilee.” The song’s roots are in a trip to Jones County, Mississippi in summer 1993 with my wife, Victoria E. Bynum, author of Free State of Jones. This was our second summer trip to Jones County. At that time, she was in the early stages of research for her 2001 book that led to a major Hollywood movie in 2016 starring Matt McConaughey. Without her book and our research trips, I never would have written the song. On that second trip, I was driving our little 1989 ..read more

GREGG ANDREWS: “I would like to thank Dean Klinkenberg for inviting me to appear as a guest on his Mississippi Valley Traveler Podcast. If you have time, here’s an audio and accompanying transcript of the interview. . . .about my riverbank childhood in the Monkey Run bottoms south of Hannibal. We covered a range of subjects as I reflected on the role of the river as a shaping cultural influence on my writings, music, and life. I hope you might have time to listen and comment.” Episode 4: Gregg Andrews on Growing up in the Mississippi River Bottoms near Hannibal, Missouri ..read more

Renegade South is pleased to announce this upcoming lecture on the indigenous people of present-day Hertford County!–VB “When I was in my twenties, my mother told me that we were descended from an Indian leader named John Robins. Much later, I discovered more about John Robins, the people he led and that I grew up within their country.  The Chowanoke people were the first known inhabitants in Hertford County.  Anglo explorers learned of the Chowanokes in 1584. It was the beginning of English colonization in North America.“ “It has been five years since I’ve given this talk and I’ve u ..read more