The signing will occur as part of the "Second Saturday" festivities in downtown Natchez. Shops and galleries will extend their hours so visitors and locals can enjoy shopping, music, art events and refreshments.
Anderson, a professor of history at Alcorn State University, was recently awarded the Postlewaithe Historian award by the Historic Natchez Foundation at their annual meeting.
In his book Anderson describes how, between 1865 and 1914, ten Natchez mercantile families emerged as leading purveyors in the wholesale plantation supply and cotton handling business and soon became a dominant force in the social and economic Reconstruction of the Natchez District. They parlayed this initial success into cotton plantation ownership and became important local businessmen in Natchez, participating in many civic improvements and politics that shaped the district into the 20th century.
Builders of a New South is the only book available that provides deep history of Natchez merchant class, local events, and individuals of that period. The book includes 30 black and white photographs of Natchez in the late 19th century.
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| The Franklin Street "Cotton Square" |
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| Home of successful hardware merchant W.P. Stewart c. 1880s |
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| A fireman's parade passes the Natchez Democrat newspaper building |
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| R.F. Learned's sawmill on the Mississippi River under-the-hill, c.1880s |
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| J.C. Schwartz Co., located on 91 Main Street |
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