Southern Journey: The Migrations of the American South, 1790-2020
Document Type
Video
Publication Date
2-10-2021
Abstract
In his talk “Southern Journey,” Edward L. Ayers narrates the evolution of southern history from the founding of the nation to the present day by focusing on the settling, unsettling, and resettling of the South. Using migration as the dominant theme of southern history and including Indigenous, white, Black, and immigrant people in the story, Ayers cuts across the usual geographic, thematic, and chronological boundaries that subdivide southern history.
Ayers explains the major contours and events of the southern past from a fresh perspective, weaving geography with history in innovative ways. He uses unique color maps created with sophisticated tools to interpret massive data sets from a humanistic perspective, providing a view of movement within the South with a clarity, detail, and continuity we have not seen before. The South has never stood still; it is—and always has been—changing in deep, radical, sometimes contradictory ways, often in divergent directions. Ayers will be in conversation with Ted Ownby, professor of history and Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi.
To learn more about the Center for the Study of Southern Culture and the SouthTalks series, please visit the Center's website.
Relational Format
video recording
Recommended Citation
Ayers, Edward L. and Ownby, Ted, "Southern Journey: The Migrations of the American South, 1790-2020" (2021). SouthTalks. 20.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/southtalks/20