Mississippi Learnin': Slave Labor in 2017

Let's start with some numbers:

• Mississippi has a population of about 3,000,000.
• Mississippi's population is approximately 57% White, 37% Black, 3% Hispanic.
• As of 2010, these were the incarceration rates of minorities compared to whites:
• Black - 3:1 (1,788:600)
• Hispanic - 8:1 (4,896:600)
• Mississippi has a 6.6% Unemployment Rate as of Feb. 22, 2017.  The US sits at around 5%.
• About 21% of Mississippi residents have a bachelor's degree.

Ok, now let's get into this without swearing.  I really want to swear.  I really, really do.  But I'm a gentleman, and gentlemen only do that in private with their pinkies out.

When I first arrived into Mississippi, I noticed something I'd never seen before in another state.  Every so often along the highway, I would see a crew of people cleaning the side of the road.  Those people were always in distinct uniforms so that they could easily be recognized.  They were criminals, and they were laboring away in the sweltering heat picking up trash.

After spending some time driving around with a lifelong Mississippian, I had it loosely explained to me that this was a win-win situation.  The prisoners got to spend some time outside of jail and the county got discounted labor (discounted, free...  potato, potato).  Prisoners also ran a nearby produce stop where they sold veggies that they grew.  My Mississippian never once said it was a good way for prisoners to earn some income, and I never asked to clarify whether that omission was intentional or not.

So let's go back to the numbers up above.  In a state where unemployment is at 6.6%, why are prisoners doing work rather than employing someone that needs a job?  Shouldn't MDOT have people on their staff that could do highway beautification for a paycheck?  Wouldn't it make sense to create jobs where they very obviously could be created, especially unskilled positions in a state with low four-year degree rates?  Wouldn't it be beneficial to the state as a whole to help the unemployed get back into the workforce, which in turn betters the entire economy as they rejoin it?

Obviously, this is all rhetorical.  I know why prisoners are doing the work.  They are unpaid (for all I's and P's), yet somehow subsidized labor.  Mississippi and the South have deep roots in unpaid labor.  It worked so well for so long, why not try it again?  Oh, right, because last time it ended with their entire economy being wiped out, the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives, and a trail of burning buildings from Atlanta to Savannah.

Mississippi (along with the country as a whole) has a disproportionate number of minorities in jail, a hallmark of overt, unchecked racism.  While whites outnumber Hispanics by 19:1 in the state population, they are dwarfed by 1:8 in prison.  Versus blacks, it's 3:2 in the population, and 1:3 in jail.  With a fresh supply of non-whites readily available at all times, Jail Cells have become the new Slave Quarters.  Mississippi has found a way around the 13th Amendment.  It might be time for another emancipation.

I was happy to find a NYTimes article covering this terrible practice, and happier to see the program was going to be scaled back.  I was less happy to see it was being scaled back for financial reasons, instead of the blatant wrongness of it.  In any case, here's a quote from the article:

“Prison slave labor isn’t free; someone’s paying for it, and, typically, it’s a state subsidy to the counties,” said Paul Wright, the executive director of the Human Rights Defense Center and the editor of Prison Legal News. “At the end of the day, even when the prisoners are being totally exploited and paid nothing, the labor itself is far from free.” - NY Times, 6/2/2105

So the only way to end a racist practice is to make it financially unattractive?  If that's the case, does anyone have any ideas on how to make racism itself less profitable?  Currently, our judicial system is doing a great job of keeping private prisons profitable by filling them up with minorities.  How could the system be changed to make this practice a financial disaster?  Heavy federal fines for wrongfully imprisoned minorities?  Removal of federal funding for states that have proven racist practices (the ACLU would be all over that in a heartbeat)?  

But really, I don't think racism is ever going to go away.  We are animalistic creatures with biological impulses that tell us to fear those that don't look like us.  Some of us have overcome those impulses, while others have embraced them.  That said, it's the job of everyone who's evolved past animal instinct to try to reach out to those who still drag their knuckles, in the hopes of getting them to walk upright.  (If you see somebody being shitty, reach out to them.  Talk to them.  See if you can use that big brain of yours to help them see the error in their ways and be a better person.)  And above that, it is the job the governing power to hold themselves and their citizens to the highest standards, not the basest.  If that means heavy fines for bad behavior, so be it.

Anyway, if you have any interest in getting really angry (so much swearing) and possibly involved, go catch up on episodes of Reveal, a wonderful show from The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX.  Either listen to their hour long episodes or read stories online.  You can start with content tagged as Criminal Justice.

Mississippi Learnin': Kudzu - The Vine that Ate the South

I first noticed it in Bristol, VA, and then I noticed it everywhere.  Devouring small bushes, overtaking large trees; it was an unstoppable force hellbent on swallowing the South.  But what was it?

Atlanta, GA Kudzu Infestation (via Wikipedia)

It wasn't until I reached Jackson that I finally had kudzu explained to me.  Kudzu is an invasive, leafy vine that was brought to America from Southeast Asia in the late 1800's for the purposes of erosion control.  Those were the Dust Bowl days, and we needed something to end John Steinbeck's subversion, so kudzu was imported.  And holy shit did it ever control erosion.  Growing its vines at a rate of about a foot a day, kudzu is a beast of a plant that has no naturally occurring competition in America.  The picture above should give some idea of what it's capable of, but the picture below should really hammer home how ridiculous this plant is:

Photo from: https://sites.google.com/site/loggingandkudzu/home/kudzu

Get it?  Hammer home?  That's a house in the middle of all of that kudzu.  Ugh, tough crowd.  In any case, this is what the kudzu can do if left unchecked.  It will grow over any surface in order to get as much sun as possible, parasitically using the height of taller plants to steal that delicious sunshine, killing them in the process.  Can you imagine going on a two week vacation and finding thousands of 14' vines climbing up your walls?

As we drove around Mississippi, we saw infestations of kudzu all over, turning an arboreal landscape into menacing green walls.  I've never seen anything like it, and I really hope M. Night Shyamalan never visits the south, because I don't think the world is ready for The Happening 2: Attack of the Kudzu.  Could you imagine?  A future where global warming has left kudzu growth unchecked as low-altitude frost is only a vague memory.  Civilization is forced to move to higher and higher elevations to escape the crawling vines, eventually building homes on towers high up in the sky.  And then the big reveal... The movie is just the prequel to The Jetsons.  No thank you.  Either that or he'd rip of Cat's Cradle and kudzu would be a biological ice-nine.  Also no thank you.

Mississippi Learnin': Vicksburg

I'd mentioned Vicksburg and it's Independence Day protest in the previous post, but there's a lot more to know about the town than that bit of infamy.  I was lucky enough to get to spend a day in Vicksburg with a local historian and anthropologist.  Along with visiting the Old Warren County Courthouse Museum we spent a big chunk of time at the Vicksburg National Military Park.  Until visiting that park, I can't say I ever really found myself drawn towards Civil War history, but having since been there, I care enough to tell you all about it.  Quickly and with many links for more reading.  If you are a historian, please stop reading.  You'll burst a blood vessel yelling at the screen otherwise.

Vicksburg National Military Park

The turning point in the Civil War, as everyone knows, was Lee's defeat at the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863).  A battle that's lesser known to non-history buffs, but also extremely important for a Union/Federal victory, was the Seige of Vicksburg.  Why was it important?  Because Vicksburg was the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi river.  If the union could control the Mississippi, they could get get supplies and troops to the South quickly and easily with their Ironclad Ships.  And if they could do that, victory would be within reach.

So the only thing standing between Union and control of the Mississippi was the fortified, high-ground city of Vicksburg.  Grant knew this, so he came up with a plan.  The first part of the plan was to get south of Vicksburg and approach it from underneath.  The only way to do that was to bypass the Mississippi by breaking down levees to reroute through the Yazoo Pass.  While a successful maneuver, the Yazoo Pass Expedition did mark the first sinking of an iron clad, as the USS Cairo was taken down by a submerged mine.  Two fun facts about that: 1) The Cairo was eventually removed (after a failed attempt that split it in half) and is now on display in the Vicksburg NMP, and 2) Submerged mines back then were manually detonated, not pressure-triggered.  Soldiers would hide and wait along the side of the river and then blow the mine with a detonator that was wired the long distance to the mine.

USS Cairo

Anyway, once they had the Yazoo, they could dip south and really raise hell.  Up first, Grant split up his troops and started clearing out Confederate battalions throughout Mississippi.  While that was going on, Confederate Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton fortified and regrouped at Vicksburg.  Grant marched as far east as Jackson, MS, tallying victory after victory.  Eventually, as Mississippi cleared out of Confederates, Grant headed west to Vicksburg.  On May 8, Grant launched the first assault, with 35,000 soldiers on his line to Pemberton's 18,500 (out of 40,000 total).  The Union lost 135 soldiers with nearly another 800 wounded.  Whereas the South only lost 8 with 62 injured.  Not a bad start for the Confederates.  If they could just hold out until Lee finished the North off up in Pennsylvania, they'd probably be ok.

Grant, not being a dumdum, changed his plans.  Instead of attacking and losing men, he was going to play the long game.  At this point, the North controlled the Mississippi above and below Vicksburg, so the first thing to do was cut off all supplies.  It was a big city, eventually they would need food and other necessities, and that would be reason enough to surrender.  

The Confederates also knew that breaking up the supply chain for the North would be a path to victory, which led to the famous Battle of Milliken's Bend.  The Bend was where the North had nearby supply depots and hospitals, which were mostly guarded by freed slaves.  So on June 7, 1863, the South attacked, and guess what?  A group of poorly trained, under armed, former slaves kicked some Confederate asses in what was the first victory for a black battalion.

Back in Vicksburg, Grant decided to "out-camp the enemy," so he hunkered down, lined up cannons, and let it rain on the city.  All day and all night, random cannon fire fell on the city, making it unsafe to be out in the open.  This was a problem that the townspeople found a creative solution to, as they began digging caves to live in.  There's a good book about this, My Cave Life in Vicksburg, that is a first person account of life during the seige.  And it worked, as very few civilians died.

Meanwhile, more and more Federal troops arrived, until the North had nearly double the troops of the South, forming a 12-mile ring of fire around the city.  Pemberton was screwed.  On top of that, his troops were starving and disease was spreading.  He was trapped like a rat, and Grant was the cat sitting outside of the hole in the wall just waiting to pounce.

On July 3, 1863, Pemberton realized he had lost and sent a message to Grant to discuss terms of surrender.  That is the same day that Lee's dramatic defeat on Cemetery Ridge, ending the Battle of Gettysburg in a Union victory.  The next day, Pemberton officially surrendered, which was why Vicksburg didn't celebrate the Fourth of July for the next 80 or so years.  Two major Confederate losses in cities separated by 1,000 miles signaled the beginning of the end for the Confederate States of America.  Good riddance.

Illinois Memorial to fallen soldiers in Vicksburg NMP

With how divided our country is currently, it might be a good time for all of us to take some time to visit these battlefields to get a reminder of what can happen if we can't settle our differences.  Over 620,000 Americans died in the Civil War, roughly 2% of the American population at the time.  Would it be worth 6,000,000 lives to defund education, environmental protection, and take health care away from those who need it?  And who are the 6,000,000 that die?  The people that most need those social services, not the wealthy elite that use the rest of us as disposable soldiers on their front lines.

Mississippi Learnin': The Civil War

Prior to this past summer, I had spent very little of my adult life in the South, with the majority of my time down there spent either partying in Columbia, SC or at amusement parks in Tampa and Orlando.  Oh, or buying fireworks at South of the Border.  Definitely have done that a bit.  As a Northern Yank, I only had some stereotypical ideas about what Mississippi was like, which included thick, molasses accents, stars and bars flags, and baptist churches as far as the eye could see.  What I didn't expect to see were prevalent reminders of a war that happened over 150 years ago.

As a Philadelphian, I very seldom think of the Civil War.  It just isn't a big part of the cultural identity this far north the Mason Dixon line, with the exception of major battleground cities like Gettysburg.  We studied it in school and then move onto the next subject, mostly learning that it rectified the wrong of slavery.    If anything, the echoes of the Revolutionary War are what still reverberate through the streets of my home town.  The Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Elfreth's Alley; these are our historic artifacts of Americana we embrace.  Portals through time, they represent the good on which our country was founded.  The symbols of the Land of Opportunity that won it's freedom from tyranny through valiant battle and sheer determination of will.  Be sure to ignore the fact that history is written by the winners, and that the freedom's extended by that war only applied to a select few, while others are still playing catch-up with Civil Liberties nearly 250 years later.

Mississippi is much different, in that the war it holds onto, whether it wants to or not, is one that ended horribly for the state.  The Civil War and its aftermath can still be felt over a century and a half later, with a battered economy and towns that still lie in ruin.  Maybe it's not so much that Mississippi holds onto the war, and more that it can't escape it.

Prior to the war, cotton was king in the South.  Sprawling farms and free labor afforded affluence and luxury to the families that would one day most feel the negative effects of the Civil War.  With everything to lose, they had to fight back against what they viewed as Federalist tyranny (in the South, they don't say Union).  And as a result, they lost everything.  Family members killed, homes burned to the ground, farms destroyed, fortunes lost, sanctions levied, and all their slave labor all gone.  Mississippi was set back over 100 years by the war and its repercussions, and their current economic conditions reflect that setback.

The Windsor Mansion survived the Civil War, but Karma caught up in 1890 in the form of a cigar. 

I feel little sympathy for the Confederates that lost their lives or livelihood in the war, as I can't even begin to fathom the horrific nature of the atrocities committed on those plantations by Southern gentlemen.  I do feel bad for any good people living in the South during the war that ended up dying for or ruined by a cause that they were opposed to.  It's easy to lump a whole region together, but the fact is, every nation is made up of individuals, some of which don't want to be defined by the worst of their neighbors or leaders.

In any case, I saw reminders of the Civil War that I had not expected.  I expected to see memorials and statues, but I didn't expect to see a cannonball still lodged in the side of a church:

First Presbyterian Church.  Rodney, MS.

Look directly above the middle window on the second floor.  That is a cannonball that was fired by a Union ship out on the Mississippi.  Crazier to me, though, was the fact that the Mississippi river is currently over a mile from that church, as it's been rerouted over the years by levees, floods, and the Army Corp of Engineers (the latter to undo the damaging floods caused by initial straightening rooted in commercial interest).

I also didn't expect to see cities that had never really recovered after having been razed to the ground during the war.  Before continuing, do we really antonymic homonyms in our language?  Raise and raze? C'mon, we're better than that.  Anyway, as Grant cleared a path to Vicksburg (more on that later), towns that resisted the Federal troops could potentially end up burned to the ground.  The post-war economic crush then left those towns unable to rebuild, even to this day.  One of the most famous exceptions, though, is Port Gibson, a town that Grant said was, "too beautiful to burn," which still thrives to this day even though it was part of a major battle.  But getting back to the point, there are towns that were leveled in the 1860's that never recovered, meanwhile Dresden has a shopping district.

Finally, I didn't expect to learn about an American city that protested the 4th of July until the 1900's.  Depending on who you ask, it's said that Vicksburg refused to celebrate America's birthday from 1863-1945.  The reason for the initial protest was that Vicksburg fell to Gen. Grant on July 4th, 1863.  Following that defeat, the town remained butthurt until the 1900's, and refused to celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  A brief pause here to remind everyone how young America is.  The Civil War ended less than 90 years after the country first declared itself an independent nation, and the Vicksburg protest went for another 82 years, to when the Second World War ended and they finally saw a reason to feel unity with the rest of the country.  That is such a short span of time.

While I found all of the above interesting, none of those things were quiet as incredible as a story told to me about a young soldier in Raymond, MS.  As legend has it, during an overwhelming Federal victory, a young solider was shot in the testicle, and that bullet, more magical than the one that struck JFK three times in the head, passed through that soldier's crotch, through town, and into the abdomen of a young woman that stood on her porch, watching the battle from a distance.  That young woman went on to give birth to a perfectly healthy baby some nine months later.  Woah.