I'm a historian of the nineteenth century South who taught U. S. history at Texas State University, San Marcos, for almost 25 years. My research interests center on people who lived outside the law--not necessarily "outlaws" as we might imagine them, but outside the law nonetheless. The South's Civil War home front, including Unionists and other men and women who fought against the Confederacy, mixed race communities, and the history of racial identity are my special interests.
On June 26, 2022, I joined the Southern California Civil War Roundtable Alliance via zoom to discuss the Free State of Jones and more. In this video of the event, I provide […]
The 74 Interview: Howard Historian Daryl Scott on ‘Grievance History,’ the 1619 Project and the ‘Possibility that We Rend Ourselves on the Question of Race’
by Vikki Bynum Adopted in 1918 at age five months by his cousin Bertie Bynum Smith and her husband Sollie, my father did not meet his biological father and siblings until age […]
By Kianga Lucas of Native American Roots Thank you, Kianga, for this wonderful history of Frankey Anderson’s death! I came across this case in the Granville County, North Carolina, court records around […]
Black River Roustabouts, Lost and Found In January 1882, John Woodson, a twenty-two-year-old Black roustabout from Hannibal, Missouri, drowned near Hanging Rock, Ohio, while working on the sternwheeler John L. Rhoads, an elegant […]
I hope you’ll join us on June 26 for this discussion on Civil War dissent and The Free State of Jones!
So pleased to post Gregg’s latest essay from his Lost River Stories blog—and delighted to serve as his illustrator! —Vikki Bynum When I first came across twenty-two-year-old Rose (Steimel) Mosenthein in my […]
By Vikki Bynum Gregg Andrews, my husband and fellow historian, has just launched his first blog, “Lost River Stories: Invisibles of the Mississippi Valley”! Growing up in the cement company town of […]
“I was born in 1934. I’m the ninth child of 10 children. We grew up on a small farm in Jones County, Mississippi, between Laurel and Soso. In those days we heard […]
By Victoria Bynum In his new book, The South: Jim Crow and Its Afterlives, political scientist Adolph Reed Jr. reminds readers that those born in the 1940s will soon be the last […]
Renegade South 