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An Ill-Fitting Life
Jackson native Barrett Hathcock has given readers a small gem with his short-story collection, "The Portable Son". The stories read like a novel. Instead of unrelated snippets, protagonist Peter Gallatin's …
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City Council Candidate Forums Scheduled
The Mississippi Link, The Jackson Advocate and WRBJ 97.7 have planned a series of City Council forums to be held from March 26 through April 6.
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AP: Feds Seize $425,000 from Ed Peters
AP is reporting:
Federal authorities have seized $425,000 from a former district attorney linked to the most sweeping judicial bribery investigation in Mississippi in years. While no formal charges have been made public …
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See the Casey Parks Lesson Plan
I was just talking to Ayana Taylor, JFP-reporter-turned-teacher, and she told me that she had run into a NYT lesson plan for teachers—using our very own Casey Parks and her …
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Person of the Day
Robin Roberts
If you Google Robin Roberts' name right now, at least a dozen links pop up about her recent Facebook message on her Good Morning America anchor page.
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In 1860, 49% of White Families in Mississippi Owned Slaves, Who Outnumbered White Folks Here
By Donna LaddDuring the last couple weeks of talking about the Confederacy (and the state flag that celebrates it), we've encountered any number of historic inaccuracies in the arguments of those who don't want to change our state flag.
One of them is that (a) not many white Mississippians even owned slaves and (b) that only 6 to 10 percent of Confederate soldiers owned slaves.
Here are the problems with that argument as the chart and link before bring into full relief. As you can see in this excellent MPB documentary, many Confederates soldiers were just 17 or 18 years old. But many of the soldiers' families owned at least one or two slaves.
Based on 1860 Census results, 49 percent of Mississippi households owned slaves at the start of the Civil War, and more than half the population of our state—55 percent—were slaves. Slavery was massive here and directed affected nearly half the white families in Mississippi, including some who weren't as wealthy as the planters who owned many slaves (and who were at first exempt from fighting in the Civil War when the Confederacy instituted a draft, but that's another subject).
The chart below shows the number of slaves in all of the states that existed at the start of the Civil War.
Also, read my column this week, "Driving Old Dixie Down," for many links to historic sources about Mississippi and other Confederate states at the start of the war, including extensive evidence of why the Confederacy formed: in order to have a strong central federal government to force slaves on any new states, and to ensure that it got its runaway slaves back.
http://www.civil-war.net/pages/1860_census.html
http://jacksonfreepress.com/users/photos/2015/jul/02/21958/
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Abbas Defends Security Cooperation with Israel
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday defended his security cooperation with Israel against widespread criticism, telling senior Arab and Muslim officials his forces are helping in the search for three …
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coronavirus
$90M Program to Support Low-Income Families in Mississippi
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced a new $90 million program to reimburse families of Mississippi children who usually receive subsidized meals at school but missed out on the …
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Musical Evolution
By experimenting, you get some interesting results. A plus B equals C, oil can mix with water, and sometimes things taste better with salt. But also you can have that …
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Activists Want More Transparency in Counterterrorism Efforts
Muslim groups and civil rights activists across the nation Thursday called for greater transparency in a program by President Barack Obama's administration that's aimed at countering homegrown terrorism.
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Cameron's Conservatives Win Big in Surprise UK Election
The Conservative Party swept to power Friday in Britain's parliamentary elections, winning an unexpected majority that returns Prime Minister David Cameron to 10 Downing Street in a stronger position than …
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Leaders: US, UK Will 'Not be Cowed' by Militants
NATO leaders grappled Thursday with whether the alliance has a role in containing a mounting militant threat in the Middle East, as heads of state converged in Wales for a …
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US and UK Seek Partners to Go After Islamic State
President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron pressed fellow NATO leaders Thursday to confront the "brutal and poisonous" Islamic State militant group that is wreaking havoc in Iraq …
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Let's Make a Deal
The Mississippi Center for Justice is still looking to buy the old library building at 301 N. State Street, the site of the historic "read-in" by nine Tougaloo College students …
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(Left to right) Ian Fairlee, Austin Hohnke, Austin Thomas and Austin Wayne Price during rehearsal. …
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Three Mississippi Colleges Named ‘Best Buys'
Mississippi State University, Mississippi College and Millsaps College all made the 2009 Forbes "Best College Buys" list, which divides a school's overall quality score by its average tuition rates for …
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National
Sen. Rubio Says He Would Support Raising Age to Buy Rifles
On the defensive after the Florida school shooting rampage that killed 17, GOP Sen. Marco Rubio, an ardent gun-rights advocate, said he would support raising the age to buy rifles …
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Person of the Day
Kevin Yang
When the first wave of COVID-19 panic buying swept through Starkville about a month ago, there was no run on toilet paper at Asian Foods Market on Highway 12.
