Obviously, I am terrible at taking breaks.

I’m in Columbus, Mississippi, this morning, about to head home. I came to search for traces of Wyatt Moye and Robert S. Adams, slavetraders who funneled enslaved people from eastern North Carolina, including what is now Wilson County, to the notorious slave markets at Aberdeen, Mississippi.

I spent Juneteenth copying deeds at Chancery Court; talking settlement of Mississippi, the internal slave trade, and convict leasing with a local brother looking at property records for his church; poring over old news columns at the public library; and dodging mad thunderstorms.

It’s hard, heavy stuff, but the warmth of the folks I’ve encountered have countered the weight. I’ll share some photos today and gradually write up what I’ve found.

Aberdeen is an old town by Mississippi standards and was a powerhouse in the antebellum era. From an outsider’s perspective, it doesn’t lean heavily into magnolias and Big House tropes though, even though it’s got plenty of both.

Tina Robbins at the Visitor’s Bureau provided a wonderful welcome to town and lots of helpful material, including an African-American history driving tour.

Paradise Alley was back of the main street, and the block in which Black folk once gathered for shopping and entertainment among their own. 

Slavetrading was good money. This was Robert S. Adams’ house in Aberdeen. 

The Tombigbee at sunset, Columbus.

I would pay good money for these kind of clearly delineated property records. Props to Monroe County.

Or these.

Both the Choctaw and Chickasaw have ties to this area. Waterways still flow with indigenous names — Tombigbee, Luxapallila, Buttahatchee, Boguegaba, Boguefala, Mattubby, Tubbalubba, Tallabinnela. And deed books reflect the transfers of property from Native people after the Chickasaw Cession of 1832.

Wyatt Moye’s house in Aberdeen. He later moved on to Louisiana to expand his human trafficking activity.

The Masonic Temple.

Home of Bukka White, and maybe Howling Wolf and Albert King.

Y’all know I love a vernacular headstone artist. This was the most remarkable marker of several in Monroe County’s Mount Hebron Missionary Baptist Church cemetery. The stone reads: Nubin White Jr. born Oct. 25 1935 Died Sept. 4 1980 He Drove The School Bus For Ten Years In Aberdeen He Work At Antional Cushion Spring Co.