Borrowed Land, Stolen Labor in the Holy Spirit, The Struggle for Power and Equality in Holmes County, Mississippi

Borrowed Land, Stolen Labor, and the Holy Spirit 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.

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.