Death And The American South Cambridge Studies On The American South

This book, titled "Death And The American South Cambridge Studies On The American South," is a collection of essays that examine the role of death in shaping the history of the American South. The essays cover a wide range of topics, from the early colonization period to the present day, and explore the impact of death on the region's past and present. The authors use various perspectives to delve into specific events and experiences, such as the backlash against emancipation and civil rights, and the efforts to commemorate and profit from the region's deadly past. The essays also touch on personal experiences of death, including killing, grieving, and remembering, as well as the intentional public efforts to memorialize losses. Overall, the book reveals the profound influence of death on the South's history and its ongoing struggle to confront and move beyond its past.

This rich collection of original essays illuminates the causes and consequences of the South's defining experiences with death. Employing a wide range of perspectives, while concentrating on discrete episodes in the region's past, the authors explore topics from the seventeenth century to the present, from the death traps that emerged during colonization to the bloody backlash against emancipation and civil rights to recent canny efforts to commemorate - and capitalize on - the region's deadly past. Some authors capture their subjects in the most intimate of moments: killing and dying, grieving and remembering, and believing and despairing. Others uncover the intentional efforts of Southerners to publicly commemorate their losses through death rituals and memorialization campaigns. Together, these poignantly told Southern stories reveal profound truths about the past of a region marked by death and unable, perhaps unwilling, to escape the ghosts of its history.