The Smithian

The dependency on slavery, which helped make Mississippi one of the wealthiest states in the Union by 1860, led to a deep racial divide across the South that saw little bridging for the first 100 years after the Civil War, until the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s. Now, nearly 150 years after its abolition, slavery’s effect can be seen, heard, felt, smelled and tasted throughout the Gulf South’s heritage, history and culture. Some people, though, think it is time for that legacy to have an official home.

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