Southern Journey: The Migrations of the American South, 1790–2020 by Edward L. Ayers

Abstract

Reviewed by: Southern Journey: The Migrations of the American South, 1790–2020 by Edward L. Ayers Amy E. Potter Southern Journey: The Migrations of the American South, 1790–2020. Edward L. Ayers with maps by Justin Madron and Nathaniel Ayers. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2020. xi and 176 pp., maps, notes, and index. $39.95 hardcover. (ISBN 9780807173015). Edward L. Ayers in the book Southern Journey: The Migrations of the American South 1790–2020 explores how the "migrations of the South weave throughout American history, with indigenous, enslaved, citizen, and immigrant people moving among one another" (ix). Ayers accompanies a remarkable textual history with spatial data, echoing the age-old cry of the geographer that "understanding the scale, velocity, and consequences of southern migration requires a conversation between maps and narrative, each raising questions and offering answers to the other" (ix.) Ayers is an accomplished historian of American history who is professor emeritus at the University of Richmond. He received the National Humanities Medal from President Obama. Justin Madron and Nathaniel Ayers, also of the University of Richmond, created the maps that are featured throughout the book. The book begins with a brief set of instructions to the reader focused particularly on the use of eighty-one in-color maps throughout the book in order "to reveal patterns we could not otherwise see … across two hundred years of American history" (ix) Ayers outlines the value of maps and also describes the methodological complications that can arise when using census data in this way. After this brief introduction, the book is then divided into three sections, each focused on a different time period of migration for the South. Chapter 1, entitled "Creating the South, 1790–1860," introduces the reader to the new United States. Three migration themes dominate this chapter: the forced removal of Indigenous people, White settler infill, and the forced migration of enslaved Africans to plantations within the region. During this period, Ayers writes, "The volatile combination of an expansive settler society and an expansive slave society would define the South" (7). Chapter 2 entitled "The Restless South, 1860–1940" details the unraveling of the "settler-slave society," the continuing removal of Native people and the subsequent migrations after the Civil War. Chapter 3 titled "Arrival and Return, 1940–2020" examines the migrations resulting from WWII, the investment of billions of dollars in the US South (including the establishment of military bases), Civil Rights, changing immigration laws, and federally funded interstate highways. During this time period Ayers writes, "The South became, virtually overnight, one of the most diverse areas of the United States" (107). The strengths of the book are quite numerous, including the ways the author was able to incorporate detailed information into a rather concise text that covers 200 years of Southern migration history (see for example the Great Migration and the subsequent [End Page 168] return of Black Americans to cities like Atlanta as well as the impacts of retirees to Florida). Furthermore, the author avoids the traditional pitfalls of painting the region solely against the backdrop of White and Black racial binaries and additionally engages with the impacts of settler colonialism and genocide of Native Americans. The recent book by Tiffany Lethabo King came to mind while reading Ayers' work reminding us that "Genocide and slavery do not have an edge. While the force of their haunt has distinct feelings at the stress points and instantiations of Black fungibility and Native genocide, the violence moves as one" (King 2019, x). In addition to engaging with Black and Native American forced migrations, Ayers also details historic and present-day Latinx movements to Texas, and more recent migrations to the region from Asia, which ultimately paved the way for the election of notable politicians from the South Asian diaspora like South Carolina's Nikki Haley and Louisiana's Bobby Jindal. While the book's accompanying text is certainly without question impressive, its expanse can also at times be disorienting. The author does not clearly define the South (outside of a map of Southern cities which includes Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Baltimore (xii)), drawing instead upon what could possibly be considered more peripheral regional examples (Florida...