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Mississippi
Mississippimap

Mississippi is a state in the United States of America. Its name is an Ojibwe word for "great river," referring to the adjacent Mississippi River, the largest and longest river in North America.

The state is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, Louisiana to the south and west, Arkansas to the west across the Mississippi River, and a narrow coast on the Gulf of Mexico.

Mississippi became the 20th state on December 10, 1817. In the USA's early history, Mississippi was a slave state, leading to its secession and affiliation with the Confederate States during the American Civil War (1861-5). Following the war, Mississippi's white residents resented the presence of the black former slaves. As late as the 1960s, Mississippi was the site of notorious acts of violence caused by racial disharmony.

Mississippi in The Disunited States of America[]

Mississippi was one of several independent countries in an alternate North America where the United States failed to make a lasting union. Unlike other former slave-holding countries, blacks had successfully revolted in the 1970s, dominating the country and creating an oppressive hierarchy that disenfranchised whites. Crosstime Traffic had begun to sow seeds of racial equality in this alternate, but regarded Mississippi as a low priority, as it seemed that the whites deserved it. When Justin Monroe pointed out that the whites living in 2097 hadn't been born when their ancestors oppressed the blacks, he was told that, ideally, Crosstime hoped to better the whites' lot someday down the line, but as yet simply didn't have the resources, and was taking care of higher-priority areas first.

Mississippi in The Guns of the South[]

Mississippi was a hotbed of Negro unrest during the closing days of the Second American Revolution, after the Union had recognized Confederate sovereignty. General Nathan Bedford Forrest suppressed uprisings at Sardis and Grenada in 1864, giving him great prestige in the state. In 1867, his presidential campaign carried Mississippi, which had nine electoral votes during the election and voted several members of his Patriot Party into Congress.[1] Ethelbert Barksdale was the only member of the Confederate Party sent to Congress that year.

Jefferson Davis, the first President and fifth Secretary of War, was a resident of Mississippi, although he was born in Kentucky. So was South Carolina-born Albert G. Brown, the second Vice President.

Mississippi in "He Woke in Darkness"[]

Beginning in 1964, Cecil Price had a recurring nightmare in which the state of Mississippi had a racial hierarchy that was the reverse of the one that he'd known and sought to maintain. In this dream, blacks dominated the state, oppressing whites, and doggedly fought against all outside attempts to change this status quo. Further, in his dream, Price and two Black Muslims from the North were murdered by black law officers in much the same way Price had helped to murder three men in his real life.

Mississippi in Southern Victory[]

Mississippi was a founding state of the Confederate States. Until the rise of the Freedom Party and its implementation of the Population Reduction, Mississippi was the CSA's "Black Belt", and one of the few places in the country where Negroes outnumbered whites. Mississippi was also one of the few Confederate States that remained largely untouched by the Second Great War. United States troops did not arrive to occupy Mississippi until after the War was over.

Mississippi in The Two Georges[]

Mississippi was a large province of the North American Union. It bordered Washington, Ontario, New Guernsey, Illinois, Missouri, and Hanover.

Literary Comment[]

The borders of this province do not correspond to those of the OTL state. This version of Mississippi takes up OTL western Minnesota west of the Mississippi River, southeastern North Dakota, South Dakota east of the Mississippi River, all of Iowa, and Missouri north of the Missouri River. The OTL Mississippi is part of the Cherokee Nation (the northern portion), Florida (the southern portion bordering the Gulf of Mexico), and Louisiana (the center portion) in this timeline.[2]

The Prairie Schooner passes over a land with 10,000 lakes in the novel, but it is not clear whether this is Mississippi or New Guernsey, which contains the remainder of Minnesota.

Mississippi in Worldwar[]

Mississippi was the home state of Mutt Daniels. It was largely overrun during the Race Invasion of Earth. The United States Army fired rockets at the Race in Mississippi from Arkansas in 1944, before the Peace of Cairo.

See Also[]

References[]

  1. The Guns of the South, appendices.
  2. Map The Two Georges, frontispiece.
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