Weapons of Mississippi

INTRODUCTION

vii INTRODUCTION Weapons serve many functions for many people, but perhaps the common denominator in all cases is that, broadly defined, weapons enhance control. Hunters use weapons to control animals. Criminals use weapons to control their victims. Soldiers use weapons to control their enemies. Terrorists use weapons to control the innocent. The story of weapons in Mississippi parallels this theme of control. Native Mississippians used bows and arrows to hunt deer and bear. The outlaws of the Natchez Trace used hatchets, knives, and guns to rob isolated travelers . Jefferson Davis’s First Mississippi Regiment used rifles to defeat the Mexicans at Buena Vista. The Ku Klux Klan used firebombs to intimidate blacks. All these examples show how one group used weapons to control another. The desire to control is strong, and therefore man is willing to devote much of his creative and competitive spirit to the pursuit of weapons. Technology allows for the introduction of better and more weapons. The quality of weapons is relative, and merely possessing them is not enough. The question of control is often decided by who has access to technically superior weapons. A native Mississippian hunter with an atlatl had an advantage over a competitor armed with only a spear. The steel weapons of the conquistadores defeated the wood and bone ones of the Indians. Federal ironclads outmatched the meager Confederate naval assets.Traditionally agricultural Mississippi began to industrialize largely to produce viii INTRODUCTION the military weapons required to defeat America’s enemies in World War II. Mississippi even became a nuclear test site as the United States and the Soviet Union competed in the Cold War nuclear arms race. Technology, often fueled by competition, changes weapons, and Mississippi changed as a result. Finally, weapons can be both agents and products of centralization and organization. As Mississippi progressed from a sparsely populated wilderness to a structured modern society, control of weapons became one of the main requirements for establishing centralized control. Militiamen, slave patrols, military training camps, and hunting clubs are all examples of weapons used in an organized way as a result of or to enhance central authority.According to Max Weber’s classic definition, a state“successfully upholds a claim on the monopoly of the legitimate use of violence in the enforcement of its order.”1 Indians, outlaws, runaway slaves, secessionists, and night riders have all challenged this monopoly only to be ultimately defeated by the better-armed central authority. Returning to my original assertion, weapons enhance control. Thus in many ways, those wishing to control must first control weapons. Weapons of Mississippi explores these themes of control, technology, and centralization by examining the roles that weapons have played in twelve phases of Mississippi’s history. From its prehistoric period to the present, Mississippi has served as host to a variety of interesting, lethal, and imaginative weapons. Weapons of Mississippi is partly a technical book of these devices, but also, perhaps more importantly, a way of viewing Mississippi ’s history through the context of its weapons. Weapons of Mississippi This page intentionally left blank ...