Ted Ownby - American Dreams in Mississippi: Consumers, Poverty, and Culture, 1830-1998

Leighs Chapel Store, Tipton County, Tennessee, early 1900s,

Dry goods store in Bolivar, Tennessee, 1913,

Joseph Perlinsky, Canton, Mississippi,

Abroms New City Store, Rosedale, Mississippi, 1939,

North Washington Street, Vicksburg, Mississippi, 1936,

Good Hope Plantation, Mileston, Mississippi, 1939,

Woman with a mail-order catalog, Washington County, Mississippi, 1937,

Workers moving between Clarksdale and Greenville, 1938,

The Hoffman 5 and 10 Cent Store, Greenville, Mississippi, 1905,

Kew Mercantile, Wiggins, Mississippi,

The Woolworth store in Laurel, Mississippi,

Commerce Street, West Point, Mississippi, 1907,

Quilters in a home near Pace, Mississippi, 1939,

Woman in Hinds County, Mississippi, wearing clothing made from a fertilizer sack,

Juke joint outside Clarksdale, Mississippi, 1939,

Robinson Motor Company, Clarksdale, Mississippi, 1939,

Elderly couple in Madison County, Tennessee, 1910,

Downtown Port Gibson, Mississippi, 1940,

1 Accounts at General Stores, by Gender,

2 Customers at General Stores, by Gender,

3 Purchases Made by Sixty-seven Customers at the F. H. Campbell Store, Lodi, Mississippi, 18891891,

4 Most Expensive Individual Purchases at Stores, 18311894,

5 Spinning Wheels, Looms, and Spinning Machines Owned by People of Different Levels of Wealth in Nineteenth-century Mississippi,

6 Methods of Payment at Rogers and Hearn Store, Jackson, Tennessee, 18591860,

7 Amounts Paid in Cash by Slaves at Rogers and Hearn Store, 18591860,

8 Fabric Purchases Made by Slaves at Rogers and Hearn Store, 18591860,

9 Value of Hats Purchased by Slaves at Rogers and Hearn Store, 18591860,

10 Visits by Slaves to Rogers and Hearn Store, March 1859February 1860,

11 Nonmusical Work Performed by Blues Musicians, 19101949,

Through the years I have learned from my colleagues and students in the History Department and the Southern Studies Program at the University of Mississippi. Southern Studies colleagues Bob Brinkmeyer, Lisa Howorth, Tom Rankin, Ann Abadie, and Bill Ferris have all offered help, as have History Department colleagues Robert Haws, Winthrop Jordan, Nancy Bercaw, Sheila Skemp, Charles Eagles, Chiarella Esposito, David King, and Michael Landon. As my colleague in both History and Southern Studies, Charles Wilson has shared sources, ideas, encouragement, and sympathy about why it takes so long to finish a book. Susan Glisson was available for conversations about editing, and Karen Glynn in the Southern Media Archive helped identify the most useful photographs. Some extraordinary graduate students in both programs have assisted with the research. I thank Paul Anderson, Jim Baggett, Joe Bonica, Cristina Bortolami, Scott Holzer, Greg Hospodor, David Libby, Bruce Mactavish, Traye McCool, Leigh McWhite, Sam Morgan, David Nelson, Mark Newman, Peter Slade, Scott Small, Sarah Torian, Bert Way, and Bland Whitley. Mactavish, Holzer, Wiley Prewitt, Corey Lesseig, and Farrell Evans supplied me with sources from their own research.

At the University of Mississippi, grants from the Graduate School, the Office of Research, the College of Liberal Arts, and the Ventress Order have helped fund my research.

The University Press of Mississippi graciously allowed me to publish material I adapted from The Snopes Trilogy and the Emergence of Consumer Culture, published in Faulkner and Ideology, ed. Donald M. Kartiganer and Ann J. Abadie (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1995).

Other scholars who have offered help include John Higham, Edward Ayers, Kenneth Bindas, Victoria de Grazia, Daniel Horowitz, Jack Temple Kirby, Joanne Robinson, Connie Schultz, Tricia Rose, and Cheryl Thurber. My thanks to good and patient friends at the University of North Carolina Press, Lewis Bateman, Pamela Upton, and Alison Tartt.

Above all, I thank my family. Like many fifteen-year-olds in our culture, Meghan Salmon sees no moral ambiguities in shopping. My parents, Bill and Mary Ownby, have seen my own interests in consumer goods change over the years. Susan Ditto makes life interesting and exciting every day, and I dedicate this book to her.

American Dreams in
MISSISSIPPI