Download or read book The Arkansas Delta written by Williard B. Gatewood Jr. and published by University of Arkansas Press. This book was released on 1996-12-01 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 1994 Virginia C. Ledbetter Prize, this collection of wide-ranging essays is the first collaborative work to focus exclusively on the living and historical contradictions of the Arkansas portion of the Mississippi River delta. Individual chapters deal with the French and Spanish colonial experience; the impact of the Civil War, the roles of African Americans, women, and various ethnic groups; and the changes that have occurred in towns, in social life, and in agriculture. What emerges is a rich tapestry—a land of black and white, of wealth and poverty, of progress and stasis, f despair and hope—through which all that is dear and terrible about this often overlooked region of the South is revealed.