BACKGROUND

Mississippi Music

Objective: To understand the historic role of music in the culture of Mississippians and to understand the continuing importance of music to creativity and expression across the state.

Blues
Blues is a musical form which was first developed by African Americans in the rural South during the 1890s. In areas of large plantations, such as the Mississippi Delta, poor blacks sought wage labor on farms and in other industries, such as logging and levee construction, in order to escape the poverty and hopelessness of life on small, worn-out pieces of farmland. These workers often met with intolerable working conditions in a society which was completely segregated, and they responded by frequently moving from one plantation to another attempting to improve their lot.¹ Blues arose from this dissatisfaction. As Mississippi and Chicago Bluesman Howlin' Wolf once said,

"Blues is problems. If you don't have problems today, you have them tomorrow. You see, problems is, well, you might want to do something and you can't do it, and it'll worry you and get on your nerves; you might have some kind of business, somebody take half of it or all of it from you, well it turn you mad, see, you worked for it and they're taking it away from you, well that takes something from you...that's the blues."²

One aspect of American music which was introduced by the blues was an aspect of realism which sprang, as Howlin' Wolf suggests, from the experiences of its practitioners. Blues typically addresses everyday life and celebrates its ups and downs while generally avoiding religious statements.

The basic vocal elements of blues arose from "hollers" that were sung by workers in the fields and other occupations requiring manual labor. Blues took these vocal expressions and added instrumental accompaniment and moved the music from the fields into juke joints, house parties, and other socially engaging environments. The appeal of the new music in this form led to its spread in popularity and ultimately to its positioning as a "root" musical form for country and rock-and-roll.

How did blues move from the Mississippi Delta and other rural locations to a position of word-wide prominence? In the early years of the 20th Century, professional bands began to incorporate blues into their shows. W.C. Handy, often referred to as "Father of the Blues," published his first blues in sheet music in 1912. Handy's affinity for blues developed out of his experiences, and in Clarksdale, Mississippi, he made a conscious decision to place blues front and center during his career:

"One night while playing a dance, he was asked to play some of his native music. He tried to comply. The request then came for a local group to be permitted to play. Three rather ragged young black men began to play, as he recalled in his autobiography, `one of these over-and-over strains that seemed to have no very clear beginning and...no ending at all. The strumming attained a disturbing monotony, but on-and-on it went, a kind of stuff that has long been associated with cane rows and levee camps.'

"Before long, `A rain of silver dollars began to fall around the outlandish, stomping feet. The dancers went wild.' After it was over Hand strained his neck and saw `there before the boys lay more money than my nine musicians were being paid for the entire engagement. Then I saw the beauty of primitive music!'"³

From these humble beginnings, blues began to be performed and recorded professionally. The earliest blues recordings were made in 1920. Later that decade, country folk blues artists, such as Mississippi's Charley Patton and Tommy Johnson, were recorded. The sound of blues was utilized in other musical forms as the style became more widely recorded. Then in the late 1940s and 1950s, blues underwent another stage of development with the introduction of the electric guitar. Southern African Americans who moved to large cities like St. Louis and Chicago adopted the electric guitar and its amplified sound to enable them to play in larger, noisier venues. Mississippi's Muddy Waters (born McKinley Morganfield, from Clarksdale) and Howlin' Wolf ( born Chester Burnett, from West Point) perfected the a new style of blues which included a band playing electric guitars, a bass, a piano or electric organ, drums , and occasionally an amplified harmonica. This electrified style of the blues was further refined by Mississippi's B.B. King (Indianola) as he and other blues musicians began to deliver their vocals in a shouting fashion which harkens to a gospel music influence.⁴

Today, blues can be heard around the world, in forms which range from the earliest folk blues to more modern electric styles. Also, the influence of blues on jazz, country music, and rock-and-roll demonstrates that the folk music of rural African Americans in the South has become a central aspect of American and world musical culture.

Black Gospel
In the broadest sense, Gospel Music is a term which refers to any religious music. However, in the African American community, the term more accurately refers to a style of music which combines secular musical forms with religious text. This type of music has its roots in a variety of late-19th century musical forms such as shape-note songs, spirituals, blues, and ragtime. African Americans in the early twentieth century sought to express their religion and uplift their hearts through music, so they began combining religious texts with popular music of the day, and black gospel music was born.

Composed, black gospel music rose as a widely-recognized style during the 1930s. During the Great Depression, a successful blues musician, Thomas A. Dorsey, turned his energy to composing and performing religious music. During the 1930s and 1940s, Dorsey published over 500 gospel songs and toured with Mahalia Jackson and Sallie Martin, establishing himself as the "Father of Black Gospel Music." Included among Dorsey's songs are "There Will Be Peace in the Valley" and "Precious Lord, Take My Hand."⁵

The popularity of Dorsey's songs and those of other composers increased throughout the mid-twentieth century, however, black gospel music was not restricted to recitation of formal compositions. Part of the appeal of this music is "that it encourages participation and improvisation on the part of an audience that feels comfortable with the use of primary chords, standardized chord progression, metaphorical language, and frequent biblical allusions."⁶ As a result, African Americans across the country transformed the songs of composers like Dorsey to apply to local conditions and experiences by improvising new lines and verses as well as adding individual vocal elements to accentuate their personal experience in performance. Through such improvisation, black gospel music has provided a medium through which Mississippians have expressed their values and heritage, contributing and shaping their communities while simultaneously being shaped by the community as well.

Since the 1950s, black gospel music has become more musically diverse and arrangements have become more complicated. The music has enjoyed consistent popularity and marketing of the music has contributed to its increasing sophistication. Popularity and sophistication have combined to produce star performers such as Bebe and Ceci Wynans. And record companies such as Jackson, Mississippi's Malaco Records have become successful by providing a growing fan base with black gospel recordings.

Mississippians continue to find community expression through the music as attested by the large number of gospel music singing events which take place every weekend across the state. The success of black gospel music along with that of other sacred music forms suggests that there may be more creativity expressed on Sundays in churches across the state than any other day of the week.

Fiddling
What exactly is a "fiddle"? According to The Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, a fiddle is a four-string instrument played by drawing a bow across the strings. Most often a fiddle is simply a violin by another name. However, in many places musicians have made fiddles from cigar boxes, tin cans, and even bottle-neck gourds, and there are those who have said that a fiddle simply has one more string than a violin--the one used to hang it on the wall!⁷

In Mississippi, as in other areas of the country, many of the first settlers carried fiddles with them as they arrived. Before World War I, the fiddle was virtually the only stringed instrument in homes of white Mississippians, especially in the eastern area of the state. Not only was the fiddle the only stringed instrument, but often the music of the fiddle was the only secular musical entertainment farmers and other rural settlers in the state had to enjoy. Families gathered together in the evenings to listen to a father or brother or sister or mother play a few tunes on the fiddle after supper. Sometimes each member of the family knew a tune, and the fiddle would be passed around for all to enjoy playing.

During the 1800s and early 1900s, fiddle music came to symbolize many of the comforts of home and family for these people. In this way, fiddle music became the major type of folk music played by white Mississippians. Folk Music is a type of music which is not usually written down and which does not have a known composer. Instead, it is passed down between members of a family or community through oral tradition. Oral Tradition occurs when people pass information, beliefs, and values to others in their family or in their community through "word of mouth" or by demonstration. Fiddlers who learned to play the instrument through oral tradition are often called folk musicians. In rural areas, oral tradition has helped folk music traditions survive even though newer styles like country music and rock-and-roll have become more popular. It's safe to say that in the 1800s and early 1900s fiddle music was as popular in rural Mississippi as rock-and-roll and country music are today!

Like the realism exhibited in blues music, popular fiddle tunes in Mississippi have often referred to common occurrences and activities of rural people. "Rats in the Meal Barrel" played by John Alexander Brown in 1939 represents a song with lyrics tied to the common experiences of the farm family. "Want to go to Meeting and Got no Shoes" by Frank and Mollie Kittrell is another example of a song expressing a common theme of rural life: poverty. Others would be "Old Field Rabbit" played by Jim Myers of Magee, Mississippi; "Jones County" and "My Old Dog's Trailing Up a Squirrel" played by Charles Long and Sam Neal of Quitman, Mississippi; and "Great Big Yam Potatoes" played by Hardy C. Sharp, Douglass Williams, and Horace D. Kinard in Meridian, Mississippi.⁸

As more people settled in Mississippi, rural neighborhoods grew in size. Some rural areas became towns, and some towns became cities. In each settlement, neighborhood, town, and city, the music of fiddlers became more common at community events and dances. One common event which brought community members together was the House Party.

House parties were primarily gatherings of families who lived within a few miles of one another in a rural area. The parties were held for many reasons including the welcome of new neighbors, the celebration of a harvest, the celebration of a wedding, or simply to dance and socialize with friends and neighbors. With the exception of churches, in rural areas there were few large community buildings where dances and parties could be held. So when a family decided to have a large gathering, they often simply invited the guests to their house! Fiddlers and their music were often the main attraction at such parties.

The rural house parties were fun, but they also played the role of solidifying the bonds of fellowship among farm families who lived near each other. These bonds of friendship were important to the cooperation which grew from them. In the rural areas, families often called upon their neighbors for assistance with gathering crops, butchering hogs for food, planting crops, etc. The type of friendship fostered at house parties improved cooperation among families who needed to work together in order to survive.

House parties formed connections among families on every age level because they were generally events for the entire family. Young ones enjoyed the gatherings as much as adults, and for young adults and teenagers the parties represented that chance for romance. Many young couples met in a neighbor's house and continued a courtship that revolved around the parties. In Mississippi: The WPA Guide to the Magnolia State, the authors describe the atmosphere of courtship that permeated the rural house party.

"...Courting couples wander outside under the trees, up and down the road, or just sit alone somewhere, content to be together and to listen to dismembered phrases that escape from mingled conversation and drift independently out to them: `I'm not even about to do it...,' ...`out yonder, I'd say...,' `...I ain't studyin' you...'."⁹

The house party was a primary way that young couples socialized. In this way, the house party was like football games and school dances are today for teenagers. They were places that young people could get together and have fun dancing, talking, and laughing with one another, and their parents and guardians could keep a close watch to ensure that no mischief was taking place!

House party fiddling in the farmhouses of Mississippi reached a peak during the Great Depression of the 1930s and declined afterwards. Like other changes in rural life, the slow disappearance of rural house parties was not due to one single factor. Rather, the decline of homemade fiddle music can be traced to a combination of events and trends, which include the automobile and the radio and their influence to expand entertainment options. Most of developments were seen as improvements by the farm families, but by the late 1950s the tightly-knit life of the rural farm neighborhoods was in decline.

While the rural farm neighborhoods which initially nurtured fiddlers have declined in the 20th century, fiddling continues to thrive across Mississippi as musicians continue to play a style of music which speaks to the cultural heritage of many. This appeal can be seen in the popularity of fiddlers' conventions, at which the central event is usually a competition or "contest" among fiddlers. According to the Country Music Foundation in Nashville, these conventions have become a primary performance outlet for contemporary fiddlers.¹⁰ In the twentieth century, fiddle contests have taken on greater significance as both community and corporate support for them has grown. These contemporary fiddle contests are sponsored by communities, civic groups, state agencies, local businesses, and regional and local fiddlers' associations.


Sacred Harp Singing
As Chiquita Willis, musical scholar and shape-note performer, has noted, "The human voice has beauty and power."¹¹ Communities of rural Mississippians have enjoyed that beauty and reveled in its power for generations. In sacred musical forms, the unaccompanied human voice has been a central way of expressing religious beliefs in both the Anglo American and African American communities since the territory's first settlers arrived. One of the oldest and most resilient forms of vocal music is that of shape-note singing. Shape-note singing is a folk musical form which has been passed along through oral tradition in a fashion similar to that by which other expressive traditions in Mississippi have traveled across the generations.

During the Second Great Awakening of the late 1700s and early 1800s, religious missionaries canvassed the South preaching that God was ushering in a new season of religious vitality, a second Pentecost. A feeling of great optimism spread throughout southern religious communities. This religious optimism facilitated camp meetings -- large, outdoor religious revivals. Camp meetings were intended both to rejuvenate long-time church members as well as encourage non-members to convert to Christianity.

Camp meetings were popular because of the focus upon religion as well as the opportunity they provided for people to meet and enjoy the company of rural neighbors. Music was very popular in rural communities, and church members sought to make their sacred music as enjoyable as their secular music could be. Out of this desire the American singing-school movement of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries began to influence the South. The singing-school movement attempted to teach nineteenth-century church-goers how to read musical notation. Would-be singers joined together in the evenings under the direction of a singing school teacher who attempted to teach the church members the popular sacred songs of the day. Congregation members also enjoyed the fellowship and entertainment provided by singing. Generally, teaching music during the singing-school movement involved transmitting information through oral tradition because most rural southerners were illiterate in the early 1800s.

Faced with a largely illiterate population and the desire to teach these people how to read music, both black and white church leaders of the early nineteenth century espoused the usage of shape-note music. Singing school masters noticed that singers seemed to go through a three-step process to sing a written song. These masters determined that giving each note-head a characteristic shape would drop the number of steps in the singing process to two, thus making learning to sing that much more efficient and enjoyable.¹² Initially, the four characteristic shapes offered were squares, diamonds, triangles and circles which represented fa, so, la, fa, so, la, mi, & fa. This scale is now referred to as four-shape music, and those who still practice this shape-note style are often called fasola singers. In later years, some shape-note instructors began to use seven shapes to represent do, re, mi, fa, so, la, & si. This system is now known simply as seven-note music. These were the nineteenth century equivalents to the do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do that most music students know today.¹³ Using shape-notes, beginning singers could quickly identify the sound they were supposed to make by recognition of the shape and its placement on the musical staff. It is because of the different shapes of the note-heads that we commonly call this music "shape note music".

Singing schools took place in rural areas as well as in towns. However, in rural areas the church was usually the only meeting place large enough to hold a singing school. The necessity of meeting in churches to sing contributed to rural churches becoming social centers for rural neighborhoods. The social scene excited and delighted singing-school participants just as house party fiddling and its social scene amused and entertained its participants. Shape-note singing developed as an institution in the rural South, largely because it coupled a vibrant social scene with religious celebration.

While in singing schools, both blacks and whites learned shape-note songs from tune books published throughout the country. The most popular of these books which contained tunes written in shape-note musical form was The Sacred Harp. The Sacred Harp was first published in Georgia in 1844. The book was compiled by two Georgia Baptist singing-school teachers, B.F. White and Elisah J. King. In contrast to the limited geographical range of other popular nineteenth-century tunebooks, The Sacred Harp was used regularly at singings across Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas.¹⁴ Over the years, many people have referred to "Shape-Note Singing" and "Sacred Harp Singing" as synonymous. "Sacred Harp Singing" is simply shape-note singing from The Sacred Harp!

The type of music most commonly associated with The Sacred Harp is folk music with melodies and sometimes text which first appeared in oral tradition. The book's close ties with oral tradition have probably contributed to its popular longevity. Some other, less popular, texts have not had as close ties with oral tradition and, consequently, have not stayed influential as long. This popular longevity finds expression within both the African American and Anglo American communities today in Sacred Harp all-day singings held by Sacred Harp Singing Conventions in North and East Mississippi.

While often associated with The Sacred Harp, the all-day singing is not exclusively tied to the tunebook. The all-day singing has long been one of the most cherished social institutions of the rural South, and it is generally associated with shape-note music because it is an event that features the performance of shape-note music. Music historian Bill Malone describes all day singings as follows:

Singers gather at a church or at the county courthouse, renew old acquaintances, sing for several houses under the guidance of experienced song leaders, and then sit down at long tables for a sumptuous feast of fried chicken, ham, potato salad, assorted pastries, and other delectables brought by the guests and participants. The practice of combining food and religious music long ago gave rise to the term "all-day singing with dinner on the grounds," which describes one of the most common events in the rural South.¹⁵

The social nature of shape-note music is highlighted in the all-day singing which emphasizes "fellowship and group singing."¹⁶

Today, Sacred Harp and shape-note music continue to emphasize a sense of community among rural and small-town participants with a particular focus on the family and a well-developed sense of history. Some appeal of the conventions and singings lies in the community memory which finds expression there, as if a family reunion is occurring. Older members share with younger counterparts the stories of the convention and themselves and, by extension, the history of their people--often viewed as an extended family. "These singings are a time for remembering."¹⁷

Sacred Harp and shape-note singings exist much as they did over a century ago. A typical singing begins about 10 o'clock in the morning. Singers sit facing each other in a square or semi-circle, and they are divided or grouped by four voice parts: tenor, bass, treble and alto. Each person who wishes to do so leads one or two songs. Some older and more bashful members make special requests for another participant to lead songs for them. In this case, the member making the request often joins the surrogate leader in front of the group and sings along while the one honoring the request leads. Song leaders set the pitch of a song before any singing takes place, and then, with the desired pitch set, the leaders keep time with hand signals to the singers. Songs are first vocalized by shape-note syllables alone, and then the words are sung. At busy singings with many who wish to take a turn at the lead, it is not uncommon in the interest of time to drop "singing the shapes" and just vocalize the words to songs. At lunch time, often called "dinner" in rural areas, singers break for the traditional "dinner on the grounds"-- a feast of home-cooked food set out on tables for all to enjoy. During "dinner on the grounds" socializing and reacquainting with old friends is a primary activity. After lunch, singers reconvene to sing for the rest of the afternoon.¹⁸

Many Mississippians, black and white, continue to join creativity and expression through the tradition of The Sacred Harp and shape-note singing.


The Handmade Object

Objective: To understand how material objects reflect the activities, geography, and aesthetic values of Mississippians.

Handmade objects such as pottery, baskets, game calls, woodcarvings, and bottle-cap birdhouses are generally referred to as material culture - material evidence of a people's way of life. Throughout the state's history, Mississippians have created articles which not only express personal interests but also relate an understanding of the culture of the area and people from which the artist has sprung. These artifacts offer insight into both the geography of the artist's region as well as the aesthetic of the artist and his or her community. For instance, the type of wood used in woodcarvings or game calls reveals which trees grow in an area and also suggests that the tree chosen is viewed as being more durable or more beautiful or more favorable for some other aesthetic reason. The material used to make baskets, the clay used for pottery, and even the type of bottle-caps used to create bottle-cap birdhouses suggest similar insights into the artist and his or her region.

Frequently, the maker of handmade objects is referred to as a craftsperson because of the skill and expertise they display in the creation of their art. Most often these artisans learn their skills through apprenticeship with older members of their community. Their traditions are often maintained within families through father-son or mother-daughter relationships.¹⁹

Pottery
Across the South from its earliest settlement, pottery vessels have been used for storing and preparing food and drink. Before refrigeration and before people purchased as much pre-packaged food stuffs as they do today, pottery containers were absolutely essential for Mississippians to prepare food as well as keep it fresh. Consequently, many communities had a local potter who made pottery vessels for the nearby area.

The rise of refrigeration, the advent of Prohibition, and the shift away from self-sufficiency led to a decline in the demand for folk pottery in the 20th century. Many potters transformed their businesses to create garden pots or colorful table ware for more affluent, urban market. However, a few potters continued to cling to an essentially 19th-century approach to pottery making.²⁰ These potters continue to shape and fire their pottery by hand and decorate them in a more traditional fashion. Frank Stewart of Louisville offers a wonderful example of one of these more traditional potters.

In the hands of Stewart and other Mississippi potters, clay is transformed into vessels which carry connections to a simpler past and which inspire memories which reaffirm the past of both communities and individuals.

Basketmaking
"More than one basketmaker has proclaimed that baskets trace their origin back to Moses in the bull rushes!"²¹ While this may be a fantastic claim, it is clear that baskets woven from natural products of various kinds have been a feature of every civilization in human history.

The various uses of baskets are as numerous as the tasks of everyday life. Basketmakers create baskets to fit whatever shape is necessary for their function. Baskets have been made and used to "gather, hold, measure, transport, store, and sort everything from eggs and seeds to babies and firewood."²² And across the South, baskets have been made from virtually every possible natural material, including pine needles, cornshucks, branches, vines, grasses, and many others.

Mississippi is no different than other regions and Mississippians no different from other peoples in their use of baskets. However, Mississippians have made baskets unique to the state and her peoples' cultures through varying pattern and materials. Choctaw basketmakers have used brightly colored materials to convey their sense of tribal heritage through their art. Other basketmakers, like West Point's Bessie Johnson have used pine needles, a traditional material for many African American basketmakers. Johnson also harkens to another creative tradition by designing baskets which mimic quilt patterns that she recalls from her youth. Still other Mississippi artists have continued to create the sturdy white oak basket by utilizing thin strips of wood for basket construction.

In the 19th-century, manufacturers attempted to create machinery to make strong, traditional baskets to sell to consumers, however, their attempts largely failed. As a result, other inexpensive containers, such as paper and plastic bags and glass jars, were developed and sold in large quantities, and traditional basketmaking declined somewhat. However, like some potters, many basketmakers adapted their product for the needs of their community. Whereas a century ago, one might make a basket to carry eggs from the henhouse, today a basketmaker might create a basket to hold magazines in the family room or a small basket to hold scented leaves for decoration of any room in a house. Whatever their use, handmade baskets continue to be an important way that many Mississippians connect with their heritage through creative expression.

Bottle-cap Birdhouses
Across our state, Mississippians have traditionally placed a high priority on outdoor activities, both for work and for leisure. Farming, hunting, fishing, gardening, and other practices have lead many Mississippians to value their environment and the plants and animals which co-inhabit their place. One expression of this valuation is evident in the creation of birdhouses which not only provide shelter for wild birds but also allow people to connect with wildlife by enticing birds to live near human homes. In a very real sense, birdhouses not only nurture the birds but also the human connection with nature.

Given the popularity of birdhouses across the state, one would expect that these aviary structures would lend themselves to adoption as a creative avenue for many. Evidence of this reality can be seen in bottle-cap birdhouses made by several Mississippi artists. Utilizing the refuse of the common act of drinking a bottled soda or other beverage, Mississippi artists construct colorful creations which may be utilized solely for decoration within or near the home but which also may provide practical shelter for a favorite songbird.

The marriage of the bottle-caps with the natural world through the bottle cap birdhouse reflects the desire of Mississippi artists to continue expressing the heritage of connection with the land that is so much a part of Mississippi culture.

Game calls
Another example of creative endeavor which mirrors the connection of man and nature can be seen and heard in handmade game calls produced by many Mississippians. Hunting has long served to represent the connection of men with the natural world in Mississippi. Hunters create devices from wood and other natural materials which imitate the sounds of wild animals they seek. And both through creating the calls and using them in the wild, the creator is brought closer to nature by literally and figuratively drawing nature closer to himself through his creative skill and expression.

Woodcarvings
Mississippians have been inspired by the tasks, materials, and skills of everyday life to create a wide variety of artistic articles, and one of these warranting further consideration is woodcarving. Few images seem more "southern" than that of a man or boy whittling with a pocketknife on a porch. The image is poignant because so many southerners have utilized a common pocketknife to create wonderful works of art: animal carvings, hunting decoys, walking sticks, and others.

Because Mississippi has been a forested area, the state's folk sculptors have tended to use wood as the primary medium for expression. Walking canes have been carved, providing a functional product with decorative touches which reflect the artist's and the community' aesthetic values. Wild animals, like snakes, often make their appearance on such canes. Additionally, small carvings of birds, rabbits, dogs, livestock, and other animals of every sort have been popular creations among Mississippi carvers. Also, carvings of wildfowl for decorative use or as hunting decoys have been another popular creation of Mississippians. These handmade creations connect people with their heritage, particularly as they emphasized the link between Mississippians and their natural surroundings.


Maritime Traditions

Objective: To understand the importance of the sea in the cultural heritage of the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Geography shapes history and culture as surely as night follows day, and a consideration of the maritime traditions - practices associated with the sea - of the Mississippi Gulf Coast affirms this point. Earliest settlement in Mississippi, as in other places in the United States, took place along the coast lines and up rivers or other waterways. Coastal cities and towns along waterways became economic centers of trade and a place of connection with a larger world beyond the water. In many instances, it might be said that the water made the cities.

Along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, sea-faring became important to the local economy and culture from the earliest days. Whether traveling across the water for trade and business, fishing for sustenance, swimming for relaxation and leisure, or participating in any other water-related endeavor, Mississippians along the coast feel a strong connection to the water of the Mississippi Sound and the Gulf of Mexico. This connection developed along with the Mississippi Gulf Coast seafood industry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which allowed Biloxi, Mississippi, to claim the title "Seafood Capital of the World."

The growth of the seafood industry along the Gulf Coast led to increased immigration to the area as job opportunities in the industry expanded, and the population of Biloxi and other coastal cities grew quickly. Many coastal residents today have descended from immigrants to the area during this period of rapid growth, and consequently, they feel strong connection to the traditions which surround the industry which brought their ancestors to the region.

Boat building
Boat building is an occupation of the Mississippi Gulf Coast which has clear ties to the seafood industry. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, coast fishermen designed boats suited to the local waters and to their specific needs. Flat-bottom, wooden sail boats called catboats were built and used in the early days of the industry but later proved too small to fulfill the demand for seafood production. When a hurricane in 1893 destroyed a large portion of the fishing fleet in the Biloxi and the surrounding area, boatbuilders replaced their losses with a new type of boat known as the Biloxi Schooner.

"Similar to the Chesapeake and Baltimore schooner, the Biloxi had a broad beam for large crews, a shallow draft suited to inland bodies of water, and sail power enough to drag the oyster dredges and shrimp nets. Builders used cypress from the Louisiana swamps for the frames and planking and Mississippi long- leaf yellow pine for the keel, masts and spars. They ranged in size from fifty to sixty feet. The largest ever built, the Mary Margaret (65'), could carry five hundred barrels of oysters. Schooners also served as freight boats carrying lumber, charcoal, and fruite between New Orleans and Mobile. Although there were good work boats and heavy haulers, they earned the nickname white winged queens' because of their grace and beauty under sail."²³

The Biloxi Schooner would dominate the coast seafood industry until the introduction of reliable gasoline and diesel-powered boats. At that point, Coast boatbuilders continued to make wooden boats for use in the commercial seafood industry, however, the Biloxi Schooner fell out of production.

More recently, boatbuilding on the Gulf Coast has been reshaped by the development of fiberglass boatbuilding technology. However, the City of Biloxi, through private donors, recently directed a project to build two replicas of the Biloxi Schooner, the Glenn L. Swetman and the Mickey Sekul. These boats represent the increasing valuation of the heritage of boatbuilding along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Boatbuilding continues as a craft which links Mississippians of the Gulf Coast with their heritage by connecting the builders and later those who use the boat with the water which has been the lifeblood of the Gulf Coast's culture and economy for so many years.

Knitting Nets
On the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the seafood industry has depended upon the ability of fishermen to use nets to catch shrimp and fish since the nineteenth century. Since that time, fishing boats, first powered by sail and later by petroleum-fueled engines, have drawn nets across the Mississippi Sound to catch shrimp which were canned or sold fresh to consumers across the country. The nets drawn across the bottom of the Sound are called trawls. Basically, a long net attached to a shrimp boat by two long wooden or metal arms, the trawl is essential to successful shrimping. Biloxi's Frank Duggan explains, "A trawl is a net that's drug behind a shrimp boat. It has a pair of what you call boards that spread the net open. And its got a lead line, and its got a cork line. Of course, the lead line drags on the bottom, and the cork line floats above. And anything that kicks up off the bottom, shrimp, fish, crabs, goes in the net...All the shrimp you eat are caught in trawls."

During the 1800s and early 1900s trawls and other fishing nets were all made and repaired by hand by the fishermen who used them to make a living from the bounty of the sea. Using a large wooden or plastic needle and a thimble which set the size of the webbing in the net, fishermen spent time ashore or at dockside creating new nets for future voyages on the water. Duggan says, "You start off with a spool of twine, and what they call a thimble - it's a wooden gauge that would judge the size of the mesh in a net - and a needle...And you just start off with that, and you knit a net." The most skilled net-makers sold some of their nets to a local public who also fished on a part-time basis.

While a century ago, the fishing nets of the Mississippi Gulf Coast were made by hand, during the twentieth century handmade nets were slowly replaced by machine made, nylon nets. Many fishermen simply stopped making nets by hand. However, several fishermen continue to make nets the "old fashioned" way, particularly the smaller cast net used by individual fisherman. A cast net is operated by one human throwing ("casting") the net over the water, where it lands, sinks, and catches fish beneath it as it is drawn back to the operator. Today, net-makers continue the "art of netmaking" as a celebration of past traditions, community heritage, and personal connection with the Mississippi Sound.

Model Boats
Another way that Mississippians along the Mississippi Gulf Coast celebrate their heritage through creative expression includes a more recent tradition of model building. Many coastal residents build large and small wooden models of boats to represent a connection with the sea. Models include large representations of working boats from the region's seafood industry as well as sailing vessels and smaller fishing boats which suggest leisure time spent in unity with the water. The models, like the hunting calls, bottle-cap birdhouses, and other handmade objects of Mississippi culture, emphasize the link between Mississippians and their natural surroundings and speak to the fact that this link shapes the way of life for many who call the Mississippi Gulf Coast "home."


Mississippi Quilting

Objective: To understand the cultural significance of quilting for Mississippians.

A quilt is a bedcover made of two layers of cloth filled with a layer of "fluffy" material and stitched together in lines or patterns to keep the filling in place. The top layer generally consists of applique or pieced patchwork. A batting or filling made of cotton or wool makes up the second or middle layer. And a solid lining provides the third and final layer.

Thick and durable, quilts offer good insulation against cold, damp weather. Women of the early United States spent much time putting together quilts. Sewing small pieces of cloth together to form a patchwork top layer is called piecing a quilt. Attaching small pieces of cloth to a solid layer to form a patchwork design is achieved through applique. Since early settlers did not enjoy the comforts of central air and heat or insulated homes, in the winter months there was a great need for warm clothing and bedding. Many spare moments of a housekeeper's day were occupied with quilting to increase her family's supply of these warm materials.

Although quilters have often purchased at least some of their fabric, quilt making has primarily been an exercise in salvage. Women followed our contemporary call to "reduce, reuse, & recycle" by saving small pieces of excess material for use in their quilts. Every scrap and remnant of woolen or cotton material left over from making clothing was saved. As quilter Elaine Carter says, "We used scraps, whatever scraps we had." Also, parts of worn out garments were carefully cut out and made into quilt pieces. Carter intimates, "If we had a dress that was partly worn out, we'd use the good part of the dress." Muslin flour and sugar sacks as well as cotton print feed and fertilizer sacks also provided ingenious, plentiful sources of material!

Quilt traditions have flourished in Mississippi partially as a result of isolated, rural life in parts of the state. Household crafts popular before the advent of modern machinery and the mass market economy persisted in some areas because they were mostly isolated from mainstream culture. In these areas most of the daily needs of the family were provided by the family itself. Families grew their own vegetables, raised their own meats, and made their own clothes and sheets. Quilting at home was a natural outgrowth of such an existence.

Additionally, many women found practical recreation through their needles and spent hours of their "free" time quilting with female friends and family members. Rural isolation on family farms partially contributed to the most important reason for the persistence of quilt-making in Mississippi: social gathering coupled with fun! The social atmosphere and pleasure of the quilting bee remains a primary reason for quilting and accounts for much of the art's popularity.

Traditional quilters learn their craft informally from family or neighbors rather than from books and formal classes. Quilting traditionally has occurred among groups of neighbors and friends who enjoyed the companionship of group sewing. Such social gatherings to work together sewing quilts are known as quilting bees. The sociable, sometimes gossip filled, quilting bee was the arena in which quilts most often reached their completion. Numerous lifelong friendships developed in the atmosphere provided by a quilting bee.

In this age of easy transportation and electronic communication, it is difficult to appreciate the importance of working together with neighbors in an era of less travel and a slower pace. In those days even the prospect of such gatherings offered excitement and quilts were central to such events. Edith and Harold Holzer state, "Their importance in the social development of the United States is becoming an acknowledged anthropological fact; no other art, the sociologists say, brought so many people together to work en masse; and no other art in the history of the world was so completely dominated by women."²⁴

Taking its name from the busy homemaker (a.k.a. "busy bee"), a quilting bee was held for the purpose of quilting the finished quilt top which was stretched on a large quilting frame. If the house was large enough, more than one frame might be set up to await the sewing hands of the quilters who arrived from throughout the surrounding area. Women of all ages might arrive by horseback, by horse-drawn buggy, or on foot. The best quilters were most sought after because of their ability to complete the complex needlework required for a well-made quilt. Younger girls learned the craft of the experienced quilters by watching and listening as they produced food for the quilters or by performing sewing tasks which were less complex. Once a young girl demonstrated her expertise with her needle, she would be able to take part in the activity as a quilter.²⁵

In many rural areas which were isolated from the hustle and bustle of cities, quilting bees provided the only female social diversion outside the church. Much drudgery was wiped out by the anticipation which accompanied a neighborhood quilting bee. Around the quilting frames at a quilting bee, the chatter and gossip were exciting, cheerful and bright. Often, the romantic news of the day was exchanged between quilters in close proximity to one another. Laughter flowed from jokes and tales told by the quilters.

Louella McLeod Sanders of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, remembers quilting bees when she was a young girl in the early 1900s:

"I again return to lovely close memories of log rollings and quilting bees. On the farm, a little girl...helping and watching and seeing, as history was made.

Many women, even young ones sometimes, did not see very well, but tried to quilt. My little friend Crint and I sat on little stools under the big quilt, hanging from the ceiling with strong little ropes. We sat one at one end and the other at the other end. Our job was to thread the needle and stick it in the right place for them to go on quilting. Many quilted, sometimes doing two quilts in one day.

Also there was always a lot of gossip, some whispering, some telling to all, letting the truth and gossip be known...

But in that low whispering and talk I am sure was the first information two little girls found out about 'the birds and the bees.'

After we got out and stretched our legs I would ask her questions. We exchanged the news..."²⁶

The social atmosphere was a great reward for the quilters, however it was not the only function of the quilting bee. Oftentimes, the quilting bee served as a primary means of spreading the news of the day. In isolated areas, people often had little access to newspapers or other means of circulating news of current events. Quilting bees provided a forum in which ideas could be discussed among women of a neighborhood. In this sense, the gatherings might be seen as forerunners of contemporary women's clubs.²⁷

The reward of the work lay not only in the pleasurable company of other quilters but also in the joy of possessing a lasting treasure that might be passed on to future generations.²⁸ Often a quilting bee was held for a young lady to announce her engagement, and a quilt made to put in her hope chest to take with her to her new home. Other quilts serve the purpose of preserving family memories by portraying scenes from the history of a family or by including birth dates and other genealogic information. Quilting, like other Mississippi creative forms, allows for the expression of heritage, both personal and communal.


The Oral Tradition and Its Influence

Objective: To understand the importance of the spoken word and oral tradition to Mississippi culture and to see the importance of these to the creation of outstanding literature by Mississippi writers.

"The storyteller is a familiar figure in southern culture. Every community has its crackerbox philosopher' who entertains and teaches through folktales."²⁹

Through the art of telling stories, Mississippians have successfully entertained, conveyed community values, and taught individual lessons to one another since the earliest settlers arrived in the region. Narratives related in a variety of contexts continue to connect Mississippians with one another as they suggest common experiences, places, beliefs, and feelings. Whether spoken from a church pulpit, related in a gathering of friends and family, or committed to the written page, the stories that Mississippians tell reveal the importance of the spoken word to Mississippi culture.

Preaching
The sermon is a narrative form which has been particularly important to the religious services of Protestant Mississippians. During a sermon both black and white preachers use the narrative skills of a storyteller as they lead both rural and urban congregations. Frequently using chanted verse, drawing on a vast array of biblical stories and images, or relating stories of human experience, preachers seek to illustrate their sermons and heighten the emotional intensity of their religious performance.³⁰

In many of Mississippi's African American congregations, preachers practice a style of performance "characterized by the preacher's chanting the Word of God rather than delivering it conventionally."³¹ Such sermons begin with a statement of the lesson for the day and the biblical text which will be applied, and then as the preacher relates the sermon, he or she begins to chant the lines to an increasingly regular tempo which eventually becomes, in essence, a song. The congregation will respond individually to the presence of the Spirit of God. Preachers who preach in this style often use popular, folk versions of stories and parables in Scripture in an attempt to connect their congregation with spirituality in a most compelling fashion, since they believe that God is using them to communicate directly with the people.³²

At least once a week, preaching is celebrated by Mississippians who seek the fulfillment, order, and happiness that religious expression can offer, and the sermons performed by these preachers continue to connect Mississippians with each other and a spiritual heritage which offers solace and strength to many.

Storytelling
Another narrative form of great significance to Mississippians is that of storytelling. Probably since the days of pre-history, men and women have been relating stories to one another to entertain, to teach the history of their people, to convey lessons of morality, and to share common experiences in celebration of their personal memory. Mississippians are no exception to this rule. As Simon Bronner relates:

"Verbal artistry dramatizes and gives meaning to mores, locales, and events. Even though communities acknowledge a particularly adept storyteller, each person knows narratives that he or she can occasionally relate. Nonetheless, of significance to many communities is how people cherish the styles and stories of that favorite yarn spinner.' They can easily remember those particular settings for the good story the store, the porch, the courthouse, the city street."³³

Stories told by Mississippians teach values within communities and bind the people together. Stories convey communication skills while allowing for creative, artistic expression in everyday life. Stories form an essential link between creativity and expression for many Mississippians.

Literature
Verbal storytelling has inspired as well as provided authenticity to literature created by Mississippians. Author upon author has related the beneficial impact of listening to the spoken words of relatives and community members as they experienced their formative years. Across our state people have shaped and been shaped in turn by such stories. As Eudora Welty writes, "So families just accrued their stories, which through the fullness of time, in those times, their own lives made. And I grew up in those."³⁴ Welty suggests that storytelling and the spoken word are not simply events to be experienced by the Mississippi writer, but rather these have a pervasive influence which surrounds and submerges the writer within a world which must then be related on the written page.

Each of Mississippi's great writers have attempted to mimic the power of the spoken word in order to convey meanings which have universal appeal as well as application. William Faulkner's Quentin Compson tells the "story" of the South by relating the story of Thomas Sutpen in Absalom! Absalom! at the urging of his roommate, Shreve to "Tell about the South." Oxford's Larry Brown conveys the mores of his rural community as he reads the story of a man who gets his haircut every week so that he can watch "The Beverly Hillbillies" on the barber's television. Ellen Douglas writes of family gatherings and the music and the words which take their places there.

Mississippi writers utilize family and community stories to capture the human experience on the written page, and in doing so, they contribute to the artistic and creative energy of the state.

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