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Wright ThompsonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of child death and racism.
Born in the Mississippi Delta in September 1976, Wright Thompson, who is white, grew up on a family farm approximately 23 miles from the scene of Emmett Till’s murder. However, he did not learn of the infamous murder until he left the state to go to college. Indeed, he was ignorant of the legacy of racial violence in the Mississippi Delta. At college, he displayed some of the hateful symbols of the Confederacy, including a noose, and was chastised by a teacher. Once he understood the meaning of those symbols, he was horrified that he had displayed them. He then began to study the history of his state.
Thompson is focused on the many connections among the people of the Delta. Explaining the family trees of those who were present on the night of Till’s abduction and murder, Thompson emphasizes their “tribal” connections. He depicts the murder of Till as a “tribal” one in which the people of one supposed “tribe” murdered the child of another. It was not a random killing. The jurors and defense attorneys belonged to the same “tribe” as the perpetrators and thus sided with them, leaving the brutal murder of a child unpunished.
The past was present in 1955, as the parties involved were acting consistently with those of their ancestors. Likewise, the past is present in the present day. For that reason, Thompson argues about the importance of exposing the details of Till’s murder. He chronicles the efforts of those who work to keep Till’s legacy alive and applauds them. Given the ties between past and present, Thompson flips back and forth between his discussion of history and the present time. In doing so, he demonstrates continuities with the past but also the possibility of change. Even during the period of Jim Crow, some courageous resisters fought for civil rights, joining organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) at great personal risk.
Thompson has authored two other books, one of which became a New York Times bestseller. That book, Pappyland: A Story of Family, Fine Bourbon, and the Things that Last, explores Southern identity. Thus, Thompson brings the perspective of someone born and raised in the Mississippi Delta to this work. Additionally, he spent time with and conducted extensive interviews with Till’s surviving friends and family. In The Barn, he seeks to detail the personal tragedies experienced by Till’s family and friends and the ongoing legacy of the murder.
The Mississippi Delta has a long history of corruption and economic exploitation. While the land has been valued for the wealth it can produce, the people working on the land have frequently been enslaved people or, more recently, exploited laborers. A small number of wealthy people, mostly outsiders, have reaped the economic benefits of a brutal system of exploitation.
The state of Georgia originally owned land in the Delta. In the 1790s, corrupt state legislators sold this land, known as the Yazoo lands, to speculators at cheap prices. While the legislators personally benefitted from the deal, Georgia’s taxpayers were outraged. They voted these legislators out, and the newly elected ones tried to reverse the sale. However, the Supreme Court ruled that the sale could not be reversed. Speculators sold the land to third parties in large chunks, with the land subsequently organized into large plantations fueled by the labor of enslaved Black Americans.
After the Civil War, when the state of Mississippi had land to sell in the Delta, it repeated the same pattern and sold the land to two big investors. One created the Dockery plantation. This land, once home to the Choctaw people, had already been taken from them via unfair trading. The Choctaw were forced to cede their lands in a series of treaties to repay debts.
In the mid-to-late 19th century, a close relationship emerged between British manufacturers and Delta plantation owners. The plantation owners supplied cotton to British manufacturers, who used it in the production of clothing. These manufacturers ran sweatshops that exploited workers as well. The system was designed to enrich those who did not live in the Delta. Thompson argues that this has been the case since European settlers first came to the area.
When the cotton industry began its decline following World War I, British interest in the Delta waned. Ultimately, they cut investments. With the invention of synthetic fibers, the future of cotton farming in the Delta looked bleak. However, the US government propped up the industry by ensuring a minimum price and insuring crops. They kept a dying industry alive and stuck in the past. The system and distribution of land prevented all but the few from earning a good living. Given the racist nature of the system, poor white people targeted their economic frustration at Black people.