When award-winning author Richard Grant receives an invitation to visit Natchez, once the shiniest jewel on the Mississippi River, he gladly accepts. He had heard stories about the riverfront town and was eager to see if they were true.
From that visit comes “The Deepest South of All: True Stories from Natchez, Mississippi,” a compelling look at a town filled with contradictions and colorful characters.
No, it’s not a story like “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” or the fiction novel “The Help.” At its core, this book, part history and travelogue, is a poignant inspection of how black and white communities exist separately, yet together, in a town that relies on its past to bring present-day tourists. The result is a dive into the culture of Natchez, not long ago touted as “Where the Old South Still Lives,” and its struggle to get past racial divides rooted in slavery.
Grant is a British author who transplanted from New York to the Mississippi Delta. That move led to his fascination with the South both past and present. It also led to his award-winning and best-selling 2015 “Dispatches from Pluto: Lost and Found in the Mississippi Delta.”
Just as with “Dispatches from Pluto,” Grant introduces readers to some of the town’s unique residents. He names names, but the folks have plenty to say for themselves. There’s Regina, a celebrity chef and King’s Tavern owner; Ginger, an older woman with a young husband and a passion for Christmas trees, costume jewelry and antique eyewash cups; and Buzz, an antiques dealer who wears a mink coat despite the heat; and Mimi, “a living encyclopedia of Natchez history,” according to Grant. There’s Ser Boxley, a black activist who advocates for the truth about Natchez slavery; the late Nellie Jackson, known for her brothel and business sense; and Darrell Grennell, a one-term mayor who crochets beanies for cancer victims.
With an outsider’s point of view, the author shares in cocktails at the cemetery and pilgrimages and pageants at Antebellum homes. He learns about the power and rivalry of garden clubs and their power-playing female members, and the conflicting opinions about segregation and equality.
Grant also pays tribute to its past residents. The life of Abd al Rahman Ibrahim, a West African prince sold into slavery in the late 1700s, illustrates the struggle for freedom and the toll it took on families. Today, a town marker notes that Natchez was the site of the second largest slave market in the Deep South.
It’s that dark past that divides Natchez today. The town has a black majority population, but most feel held back, unable to overcome poverty, discrimination and civil unrest that continues to simmer even now. While Natchez has a black mayor (at the time of writing), Grant finds much of the town still feels powerless.
“The Deepest South of All” is an honest look at Natchez and its residents. With humor and insight, Grant honors the jewel of the South for its luster, blemishes and all.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝗲𝗽𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗦𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝘆 𝗥𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗘. 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘁⁣
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“It’s just the South. There’s no point trying to explain it.”⁣
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“Natchez is unlike any place in America, existing almost outside time.” — Greg Iles⁣
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If you’ve read 𝘔𝘪𝘥𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘎𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘌𝘷𝘪𝘭, then this is the read for you! ⁣
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Grant is a British author living in Jackson, Mississippi. He meets a cook, Regina, at a cookbook and literary festival, and she tells him about intriguing stories, that Grant is convinced he could make a book out of.⁣
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Written with two different storylines—about a slave called Prince, and his own experiences in modern-day Natchez, the reader realizes how one small town can be so cultural, and full of history. ⁣
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I learned a lot from this book — about Tableaux tradition, garden club rivalries, and punkan fans. ⁣
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I’ve also been watching a lot of Selling Sunset on Netflix lately, so I really want to see the inside of those antebellum homes.

A Travel Writer Looks at the Deep South

Natchez is a microcosm of the old and new South. It’s a city peopled by eccentric millionaires, wealthy grande dames, and strong traditions, but with a history of slavery, and the KKK. However, today blacks are finding a bigger place in society. The present mayor is a gay black man.

I found the book fascinating from the description of the lavish social events often fund raisers that showcase the traditions of the wealthy. I was also interested in the history of the KKK and the story of a madam who was an FBI informant. I liked the story of the black Muslim prince who was captured in a raid and sold into slavery. He was finally freed after 40 years.

Growing up in the North I knew very little about the culture of this part of the South. It is both exotic and yet strangely familiar. There are exclusive enclaves with strict codes and eccentric residents in the North, also. I enjoyed the descriptions of Natchez, particularly the antebellum homes. The stories of the residents past and present were well written making me feel that I knew people in the city.

If you enjoy history and travel, this is a good book.

I received this book from Net Galley for this review.

Being a Mississippi girl, I could not wait to get my hands on this book. And this book…it nails it. The historic south is commingled with the new south…unique and doable…in most instances. There are still some “grand guards” out there which refuse to let go of the “Old South”. Richard Grant shows how and where they are in Natchez.

When I was a young girl, I would read books about slavery. They would always reference “down south”. I kept thinking they were talking about the Mississippi gulf coast. (Well, I was young! ) I had no idea they were talking about where I lived. Boy, did I learn a thing or two when I got older. This book touches on that and delves deeper into the slave trade and the practices of slavery in and around Natchez. It also touches on the wonderful characters of Natchez and how they strive to have a mix of the old and the new.

This is a well written book with lots of history about slavery and the mix of culture in Natchez, MS. Natchez is a beautiful, historical town. Everyone needs to visit and enjoy!

I received this novel from the publisher for honest review.

Not actually what I thought the book would be about, but still interesting. Natchez, Mississippi is a small eccentric town divided today by the Slave past that may never overcome it. The book is well researched. You learn of the Slave trade and one slave that got sold in Africa by a rival tribe. Prince is how he becomes know, bc he was the prince of a tribe. You well follow his life journey. Along the way, you will meet gay men, old antebellum people, the gay black mayor of Natchez, plus many more people who make up this town.

Natchez has a long way to overcome the past of 300 years, as does the rest of this country. Maybe one day, we will be able to look at each other, as just another person, forgetting about the color of each other's skin.

I received the Kindle version of this book from Netgalley, for my honest thoughts and opinions

The history of Natchez was interesting, with its traditions and memories of the past. The book spent far too much time,, in my opinion, writing about the garden clubs and the history of a slave nicknamed Prince. I had to push myself to keep reading, as this was an ARC and required a review.

I measure a book about a geographical location by its ability to make me want to visit it and meet the people in the book. The Deepest South is a winner. The wide variety of characters presented from a gay mayor to the almost religious fervor of honor the Confederacy make fodder for vivid storytelling. I want to visit Natchez, Mississippi.

Even though I have never been to Natchez, Mississippi, I can very clearly picture it and its interesting and divided history thanks to Richard Grant. This book was not what I imagined when I first read the description, but I was pleasantly surprised by the back-and-forth of present-day society stories and the history of Abd al Rahman Ibrahima, or "Prince." It was a great read on the history of race in the South and the current divide we still face. I am hopeful it will encourage productive and open conversations on how society can learn, fix, and move forward to equality.

After reading I would love to visit Natchez. The history the town holds is amazing. The weaving of past and present is amazing

This is a fascinating history of Natchez, Mississippi from its beginnings to its state today including landmarks I have visited, such as King's Tavern and the storied Under-The-Hill. Key to the town's complex nature the apotheosis as Gone With the Wind theme park and municipal curator of “Lost Cause” racist ideology preserved in rather bizarre pageants reaching back to the 1930s. The Lost Cause view reached tens of millions of Americans in the best-selling 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell and the Oscar-winning 1939 film. Helen Taylor wrote:


Gone with the Wind has almost certainly done its ideological work. It has sealed in popular imaginations a fascinated nostalgia for the glamorous southern plantation house and ordered hierarchical society in which slaves are 'family,' and there is a mystical bond between the landowner and the rich soil those slaves work for him. It has spoken eloquently—albeit from an elitist perspective—of the grand themes (war, love, death, conflicts of race, class, gender, and generation) that have crossed continents and cultures.


Blight also wrote:

From this combination of Lost Cause voices, a reunited America arose pure, guiltless, and assured that the deep conflicts in its past had been imposed upon it by otherworldly forces. The side that lost was especially assured that its cause was true and good. One of the ideas the reconciliationist Lost Cause instilled deeply into the national culture is that even when Americans lose, they win. Such was the message, the indomitable spirit, that Margaret Mitchell infused into her character Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind ...


Southerners were portrayed as noble, heroic figures, living in a doomed romantic society that limps on in these Garden Club-maintained pageants and other social activities. Certainly at this time there seems so much opportunity to help understand the present state of racial tensions that there seems to be a real missed opportunity in this book to further explore those roots and today's ramifications.

What is here is the interleaving tale of prince-turned-slave Abdulrahman Ibrahim Ibn Sori that for most of the book seems a largely unrelated biography. They payoff at the end when a descendant shows up in Natchez on a journey of genealogical self-discovery seems pretty weak tea. Rather, I wish both topics were given deeper, book-length treatment. Specifically for Sori the Torodbe Muslim ruler I would like more about the Liberia and region he comes back to with its echoes of the plantation economy and other long-lasting effects of the slave trade.

Still, I heartily recommend this book and its implicit suggestions for topics of further reading.

I received this book as a digital ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is a timely book about the racial history of American in the microcosm of Natchez, Mississippi. Natchez was home to one of the largest slave trading markets in the US and it still promotes it's antebellum history, often glossing over the impact of slavery on the people and the region.

Grant immerses himself in Natchez culture and society, spending time with the residents, politicians and others to understand the current mindset of the city and it's history. Alternately, he travels back in time to tell the story of Ibrahim, an african prince who was a slave in Natchez for most of his life.

This book accurately illustrates how complicated our national history is and how much more work needs to be done.

I love Richard Grant's writing. This book is going to be shelved right next to my copy of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" by John Berendt, an old favorite, as its equal in beautifully and evocatively recreating the sights, sounds, and textures of a historic and deeply Southern community. I found it fascinating and often heartbreaking to learn about Natchez's history, with Grant as an even-keeled chronicler. Many thanks to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book. Highly recommended.

I have only visited Natchez once and found it intriguing. I mere tourist exploring from my AirBNB, I never encountered the people that populate Grant’s book - that I know of. I visited a few of the antebellum homes he writes of, but not at the pilgrimage. I admire the homes but hate the way the money was made that paid for them. I admire the workmanship but hate that enslaved people built them. I love the stories about the quirky people but hate the ingrained and systemic racism. Like many that live in Natchez and like many of these stories, the conflicted emotions are real. Just as the racism and poverty that goes with it are real. There are really two books here, one about Natchez today and one about one of its most well known enslaved people - a man who was a prince in his native country, a country of many riches and indeed he had far more wealth and was far better educated than the man who enslaved him and renamed him “Prince.” Well researched and very interesting.

This book is touted as the next Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and while it was very interesting and at times salacious it wasn’t THAT BOOK for me. But I personally have more of a connection to Savannah then Natchez, so that could be it.

I wish to thank Net Galley and Simon & Schuster Publishing for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book. I have voluntarily read and reviewed it. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

First of all I feel the need to say that I am a big fan of the city of Natchez, Mississippi. I have visited it a number of times over the years, attended the Pilgrimage, toured a lot of the homes and have always loved the city and its residents. It is a town unlike any others with deep roots in the Old South. Some good and some not so good but full of history on any level. The people are gracious in ways you do not find in other cities.

This book is a travel log in a big way. It describes many of the people, the homes, the issue of slavery and the wildness of Natchez Under the Hill. It delves into the disagreements of the two factions of the Garden Clubs as they established the Pilgrimage activities almost 100 years ago. Richard Grant talks about the life of slaves in very brutal descriptions. He also deals with the Klan and other political issues. He mixes historical personalities and current residents in delightful personal visits and weaves the stories of today and those of days gone by in enchanting ways. If you are a fan of Old Natchez or Natchez of today you will learn a lot from this book.

Natchez, Mississippi, once had more millionaires per capita than any other location in the USA, its wealth a result of slavery, and thus, built on the backs of slaves. Today, the city is home to the greatest concentration of antebellum mansions in the South, and its culture is full of contradictions. The author of this book introduces the reader to some of the people who call Natchez home – now and in the past.

I am obviously in the minority about this book, but I suspect that's because it wasn't what I expected. While it's very well written and well-researched, and the stories will most likely draw in other readers, it just wasn't what I was in the mood for at this point in time. I did enjoy reading the historical story within the book and wished for a happier ending, and I understand that history is what it is, but with the social injustice issues that are so front-and-center right now, I was expecting something different with this book. Despite this, I will look for more books by this author.

This book is part travel guide, part history and chock full of fascinating eccentric characters. I could not put it down! Every other chapter takes you back 200 years to a place of despair and slavery. The themes connect the past to the present in a way that makes the scars evident created by such a dark past. In this town no one hides behind a facade- people show their true colors and some of them are not a pretty site to see.

A ramble through the old and new South. Living in the city that’s motto is “Keep Austin Weird” even I was not prepared for the eccentric airs of Natchez. Most of the people described have personality with a capital P. A juxtapose of history is presented with a clear path for the reader to follow. The harsher real history is made more palatable and understandable with the flair of current day events.
This is a thought-provoking book that should appeal to most history buffs as well as those of us who have ventured into the regal homes of the deep south and not realized the story behind the facade.

A fantastic exploration of the South and some of the characteristics which define the region. Every town is not like Natchez, MS, but the uniqueness of Natchez and some of its residents provide the perfect conduit to illustrate the positives and negatives of the South. There is a charm and honesty to the writing. It is easy to visualize the scene in Natchez, and the past and present are effortless weaved together to advance the narrative.

A very thought-provoking and eye opening read! Grant delivers the complicated and sometimes shocking history of Nachez, Mississippi with delicacy and honesty. Readers are simultaneously taken back in time and given insight into the current culture of this unique southern town. Institutions such as slavery, segregation and racism have long shaped many communities across the nation; Grant delves deep into the beginnings of such long lived ideologies in this timely and insightful book.