MISSISSIPPI

constituent state of the United States of America. Originally part of America's Old Southwest, Mississippi became the 20th state of the Union in 1817. Its name has long been identified with many of the characteristics attributed, correctly or incorrectly, to the Deep South, but since the 1960s the state has been engaged in efforts to alter the economic and social patterns of the past. Jackson is the state capital. The name is derived from an Indian word meaning great waters or father of waters. Mississippi ranks 32nd among the U.S. states in area. Throughout most of its 47,689 square miles (123,515 square kilometres)from Tennessee on the north to Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico on the south, from Alabama on the east to Louisiana and Arkansas on the westmuch of Mississippi's soil is rich and deep, and its low-lying landscape is laced with many rivers. Almost inevitably it became an agricultural state. The long dominance of a rural, unhurried way of life has contributed much to the problems of present-day Mississippi, just as it earlier helped to enhance the state. This way of life has also left a sense of history among some Mississippians, whose ancestors created a culture of gentility that is still evident in the many historic mansions located in such old towns as Columbus, Biloxi, Natchez, and Holly Springs. For decades an unusually large dependent population, a predominantly agricultural economy, and a prevailing resistance to change have kept Mississippi's per capita income low and created an inadequate standard of living for many families. At least half of all Mississippians live in rural areasbut not necessarily on farmsand the state continues to rank low in many economic indexes, including per capita income, which is well below the national average. In 1965 industrial income surpassed agricultural income for the first time in the state's history. The Deep South. constituent state of the United States of America lying in the south-central part of the country. Mississippi is bounded on the north by Tennessee, on the east by Alabama, and on the south by the Gulf of Mexico and Louisiana; on the west it is separated by the Mississippi River from Louisiana and Arkansas. The state capital is Jackson. The Mississippi Territory was created by Congress in 1798. After several boundary changes, it entered the United States in 1817 as the 20th state. A plantation-based economy using slave labour developed in the 1820s and '30s. Mississippi seceded from the Union in 1861 and gave the Confederacy its president, Jefferson Davis. The Union capture of Vicksburg, on the Mississippi River, in 1863, proved a turning point in the American Civil War. Mississippi was readmitted to the Union in 1870. Reconstruction was followed by a segregationist entrenchment that did not begin to ease until the 1960s. Mississippi is divided into a number of physiographic regions that encompass hills, plains, prairies, river lowlands, and pine woods. There are five major river systems with a host of smaller ones. Most of the state is low-lying, the highest point reaching only 806 feet (246 m) above sea level. Climatically, the growing season is long, rainfall is abundant, and extreme temperatures are unusual. Summers are warm and humid, with temperatures sometimes exceeding 95 F (35 C). January temperatures average from 42 to 50 F (6 to 10 C). The annual average precipitation is more than 50 inches (1,270 mm). The white population of Mississippi is predominantly of British, Scots-Irish, and northern European ancestry. Blacks were in the majority until 1940, when waves of emigration to Northern cities occurred. In 1990 they constituted one-third of the population. There are some 8,000 Indians (mostly Choctaw). Most Mississippians are either Baptists or United Methodists. Mississippi still grows substantial amounts of cotton, but soybeans now exceed cotton in value of production. Minor quantities of rice and wheat are also grown. Poultry and cattle are important. Petroleum and natural gas account for most of Mississippi's minerals. Iron ore has been mined intermittently, and there is unexploited bauxite. More than half the land area is commercial forest, producing lumber, paper pulp, and naval stores. The state's largest employers include the apparel and textile, lumber- and wood-products, food-processing, electrical-equipment, and transportation-equipment industries. Water transportation is important. There are two major ports on the Gulf of Mexico, and the Mississippi, Pearl, and Yazoo rivers are all navigable. The state also is served by major highways and railroads. Mississippi is well known for its writers, who, in the 20th century, have included William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, and Tennessee Williams. In music, the Mississippi Delta blues tradition greatly influenced both urban blues and rock music. The University of Mississippi at University, near Oxford, dates from 1844. Area 47,689 square miles (123,514 square km). Pop. (1992 est.) 2,614,000. Additional reading Federal Writers' Project, Mississippi: A Guide to the Magnolia State (1938, reprinted as Mississippi: The WPA Guide to the Magnolia State, 1988), is still a useful description. Ralph D. Cross and Robert W. Wales (eds.), Atlas of Mississippi (1974), presents an overview of the state's population, employment, and production through maps; while DeLorme Mapping Company, Mississippi Atlas & Gazetteer (1998), focuses on topography. Arthur H. De Rosier, Jr., Removal of the Choctaw Indians (1970), is a critical account.The most complete history is Richard Aubrey McLemore (ed.), A History of Mississippi, 2 vol. (1973), which includes a geography and prehistory of the state. A much briefer but more recent study is John Ray Skates, Mississippi: A Bicentennial History (1979). Charles Sackett Sydnor, Slavery in Mississippi (1933, reissued 1965). The pre-Civil War period is covered in Jonathan Daniels, The Devil's Backbone: The Story of the Natchez Trace (1962); Edwin A. Miles, Jacksonian Democracy in Mississippi (1961, reprinted 1985); Percy L. Rainwater, Mississippi: Storm Center of Secession, 18561861 (1938, reissued 1969). John K. Bettersworth, Confederate Mississippi: The People and Policies of a Cotton State in Wartime (1943, reprinted 1978), studies the state during the Civil War. Reconstruction is chronicled by William C. Harris, Presidential Reconstruction in Mississippi (1967), and The Day of the Carpetbagger: Republican Reconstruction in Mississippi (1979). Vernon Lane Wharton, The Negro in Mississippi, 18651890 (1947, reprinted 1984), tells of the efforts of African Americans to adjust to freedom. The civil rights movement has produced a number of studies on race relations in a Deep South state. Among the best are Tom Brady, Black Monday (1955), a condemnation of the Brown decision; J. Oliver Emmerich, Two Faces of Janus: The Saga of Deep South Change (1973), a plea for peaceful acceptance; Frank E. Smith, Look Away from Dixie (1965), a collection of essays; and James W. Silver, Mississippi: The Closed Society, new enlarged ed. (1966), which explains with remarkable clarity both the causes and consequences of Mississippi's official policy of racial segregation. Continuing historical research is published in The Journal of Mississippi History (quarterly). David G. Sansing The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica