Bestselling travel writer Richard Grant “sensitively probes the complex and troubled history of the oldest city on the Mississippi River through the eyes of a cast of eccentric and unexpected characters” (Newsweek).Natchez, Mississippi, once had more millionaires per capita than anywhere else in America, and its wealth was built on slavery and cotton. Today it has the greatest concentration of … greatest concentration of antebellum mansions in the South, and a culture full of unexpected contradictions. Prominent white families dress up in hoopskirts and Confederate uniforms for ritual celebrations of the Old South, yet Natchez is also progressive enough to elect a gay black man for mayor with 91% of the vote.
Much as John Berendt did for Savannah in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and the hit podcast S-Town did for Woodstock, Alabama, so Richard Grant does for Natchez in The Deepest South of All. With humor and insight, he depicts a strange, eccentric town with an unforgettable cast of characters. There’s Buzz Harper, a six-food-five gay antique dealer famous for swanning around in a mink coat with a uniformed manservant and a very short German bodybuilder. There’s Ginger Hyland, “The Lioness,” who owns 500 antique eyewash cups and decorates 168 Christmas trees with her jewelry collection. And there’s Nellie Jackson, a Cadillac-driving brothel madam who became an FBI informant about the KKK before being burned alive by one of her customers. Interwoven through these stories is the more somber and largely forgotten account of Abd al Rahman Ibrahima, a West African prince who was enslaved in Natchez and became a cause célèbre in the 1820s, eventually gaining his freedom and returning to Africa.
With an “easygoing manner” (Geoff Dyer, National Book Critics Circle Award–winning author of Otherwise Known as the Human Condition), this book offers a gripping portrait of a complex American place, as it struggles to break free from the past and confront the legacy of slavery.
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Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.
I couldn’t put this one down! Written by bestselling travel writer Richard Grant, this is a glimpse into the town of Natchez, Mississippi. Natchez once had more millionaires per capita than anywhere else in America, with its wealth built on cotton and the backs of slaves. At one time, it had the second-largest slave market in the south. Today, it is a dichotomy of liberalism, having elected its first gay black mayor with 91% of the vote, yet still dressing up in hoopskirts and Confederate uniforms to keep tradition alive, and ignoring outrageously insensitive and appalling displays of racism (such as a 28’ mammy building that is a restaurant).
This book chronicles Natchez history then and now. Natchez is full of beautiful antebellum homes, and I found myself looking each one up so I could picture it as I read. Indeed, it is hard to reconcile the beauty with the slavery that made it all possible.
The most fascinating part of the book was the life and times of Abdul-Rahman ibn Ibrahima Sori, of royal lineage and captured as a slave in Fouta Jallon, Guinea, West Africa. Upon learning of his nobility, his master named him Prince. Prince spent 40 years as a slave before being freed and returning home with his wife, leaving the rest of his family behind. I won’t spoil the story with any more details.
Present-day Natchez is full of eccentric characters:
The wealthy society women who run the two rival garden clubs and raise funds for preservation. Their antics to upstage each other reads like fraternity pranks.
A 6-5” antique dealer who enters a clothing store, drops his gloves on the ground for his manservant to pick-up, then drops his cane, then allows his mink coat to drop to the floor in a puddle.
Nellie Jackson, a black woman who openly operated a brothel for 60 years. She and her “girls” reported to the FBI all the pillowtalk heard from KKK members.
A couple who decorates 167 Christmas trees with costume jewelry.
A former concert pianist who suffered a hand injury and had a complete mental collapse. He turned his home into a hovel that crumbled around him and wore nothing but a burlap sack with a hole cut for his head.
The list goes on.
Racism is addressed by Grant, giving both black and white viewpoints. And, as we all know, there isn’t any easy fix. We each need to try and make our little corner of the world a better place.
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I received a free ARC of this guide/memoir from Netgalley, Richard Grant, and Simon & Schuster. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read The Deepest South of All of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. I am pleased to add Richard Grant to my list of authors to follow. This book was remarkable in its ability to put you in place, heart, and soul. Natchez has always been on my list of places to revisit. This book makes that imperative as soon as the pandemic is under control.
Natchez, Mississippi grabbed my heart years ago, in the late 1960s. I firstly love the idea that you can’t get there by accident. No planes, no trains, no interstates or through highways. Perhaps because of that isolation, Natchez is a microcosm of southern humanities and moors not found anywhere else in the world. But believe me, it’s a place you want to visit. After reading Richard Grant’s look into this community with all its Southern charm and peculiarities, I’m ready to take off next spring to be there in time for the tour of antebellum homes. So many homes restored! So many interesting folks to pass the time with. And such a wonderful insight into the still lingering angst and anger of the descendants of the Civil War, black and white and in between. The war may have ended 150 years ago. For the rest of the world. Not so, in Natchez.
Being a Mississippi girl, I could not wait to get my hands on this book. And this book…it nails it. The historic south is commingled with the new south…unique and doable…in most instances. There are still some “grand guards” out there which refuse to let go of the “Old South”. Richard Grant shows how and where they are in Natchez.
When I was a young girl, I would read books about slavery. They would always reference “down south”. I kept thinking they were talking about the Mississippi gulf coast. (Well, I was young! ) I had no idea they were talking about where I lived. Boy, did I learn a thing or two when I got older. This book touches on that and delves deeper into the slave trade and the practices of slavery in and around Natchez. It also touches on the wonderful characters of Natchez and how they strive to have a mix of the old and the new.
This is a well written book with lots of history about slavery and the mix of culture in Natchez, MS. Natchez is a beautiful, historical town. Everyone needs to visit and enjoy!
I received this novel from the publisher for honest review.
Not actually what I thought the book would be about, but still interesting. Natchez, Mississippi is a small eccentric town divided today by the Slave past that may never overcome it. The book is well researched. You learn of the Slave trade and one slave that got sold in Africa by a rival tribe. Prince is how he becomes know, bc he was the prince of a tribe. You well follow his life journey. Along the way, you will meet gay men, old antebellum people, the gay black mayor of Natchez, plus many more people who make up this town.
Natchez has a long way to overcome the past of 300 years, as does the rest of this country. Maybe one day, we will be able to look at each other, as just another person, forgetting about the color of each other’s skin.
I received the Kindle version of this book from Netgalley, for my honest thoughts and opinions