Borrowed Land, Stolen Labor, and the Holy Spirit
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A01=Diane T. Feldman
Alexander v Holmes
Author_Diane T. Feldman
Category=NHK
Church of God in Christ COGIC
Citizens' Council
Civil War Reconstruction Jim Crow
cotton
Displacement
Dispossession
Eddie Carthan
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Farmer's Alliance
Farmer’s Alliance
Food production
Freedman
freedmen
grassroots leaders
Hazel Brannon Smith
Holiness-Pentecostal
Ku Klux Klan KKK
Microhistory
Mileston Co-op
Mississippi-Yazoo River Delta
National Federation of Colored Farmers NFCF
Native American removal
Providence Farm
Race agency activism
rural south
school desegregation Brown v. Board of Education
sharecroppers
slavery enslaved labor
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee SNCC
United States Colored Troops USCT
voting rights disenfranchisement
Product details
- ISBN 9781496857460
- Dimensions: 156 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 15 Jul 2025
- Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Borrowed Land, Stolen Labor, and the Holy Spirit: The Struggle for Power and Equality in Holmes County, Mississippi chronicles the profound history of a low-income county that became a pivotal site for Delta organizing during the civil rights movement. Landowning African American farmers, who enjoyed more economic independence than sharecroppers, emerged as the grassroots leaders of the movement.
The volume begins with the county’s Native American heritage, moving through the periods of removal, land sales to speculators, the rapid increase of enslaved labor in the nineteenth century, and early African American political engagement during Reconstruction. Author Diane T. Feldman explores how African Americans fostered cooperative landownership efforts in the 1880s and 1920s, alongside the development of schools and churches, particularly the Church of God in Christ, a denomination founded in Holmes County. The fight for voting rights started with African American farmers in the 1950s and gained momentum with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s. Their struggle to desegregate schools culminated in the landmark Supreme Court case Alexander v. Holmes, which abolished dual school systems in the South.
The final chapters cover the past sixty years and current initiatives to restore food production in the Mississippi Delta. Enriched with recent and historic photographs, this volume serves as a microhistory of a single county, illuminating broader themes prevalent throughout Mississippi and the rural South.
The volume begins with the county’s Native American heritage, moving through the periods of removal, land sales to speculators, the rapid increase of enslaved labor in the nineteenth century, and early African American political engagement during Reconstruction. Author Diane T. Feldman explores how African Americans fostered cooperative landownership efforts in the 1880s and 1920s, alongside the development of schools and churches, particularly the Church of God in Christ, a denomination founded in Holmes County. The fight for voting rights started with African American farmers in the 1950s and gained momentum with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s. Their struggle to desegregate schools culminated in the landmark Supreme Court case Alexander v. Holmes, which abolished dual school systems in the South.
The final chapters cover the past sixty years and current initiatives to restore food production in the Mississippi Delta. Enriched with recent and historic photographs, this volume serves as a microhistory of a single county, illuminating broader themes prevalent throughout Mississippi and the rural South.
Diane T. Feldman was born in Washington, DC, and grew up in New York City before returning to Washington. She was president of a research company there for thirty years until she retired to Mississippi in 2018.
