The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi

The story of Till’s murder is about the “rise and rot of a tribe of people” (79). There are many facets to the explanation of Till’s murder. On one level, Till was murdered in that barn because that is where Leslie Milam farmed. For generations, humans have been trying to generate wealth from the Delta. The rich land of the Delta has been valued, while the poor people working there have been expendable.

The barn sits almost at the center of the Mississippi Delta. Drew, founded in 1899, was once a dense forest. The Delta, not the West, was the last part of the continental US that was settled. When the Spanish arrived in the Delta in 1541, they mapped territory to enable wealth to be made from “distant strangers” (85). The French followed the Spanish. Via intermarriage, they infiltrated the society of the Choctaw tribe, who sold deerskins to the French. The Natchez tribe attacked the French but were soundly defeated and eradicated.

The history of Township 22, exposed via maps, explains how one of Thompson’s interviewees, Gloria Dickerson, came to live there. Her ancestors came from Georgia to follow the cotton boom and worked for Widow Belle Parker.