Mississippi

The perfect keepsake of a trip to beautiful, historic Natchez, this delightful postcard book also allows a slice of the antebellum South to be sent to friends and family. Stanton Hall, the headquarters for the world-famous annual Natchez Pilgrimage, and Texada, a brick building that has served as everthing from a tavern to a town meeting hall, are but two of the architectural marvels presented.

For visitors to Natchez, this postcard book will preserve many fond memories and will also allow them to send the essence of the Old South to friends and family unable to visit Natchez themselves.

Authors Ryan Starrett and Josh Foreman chart a Gulf Coast odyssey with French adventurers, English colonists, Spanish Dons, American filibusters, Indian warriors, African Maroons, and pirate outlaws .

For centuries, the shoreline between Galveston and Tallahassee was marked by the desperate deeds of men who fought for God, gold, and glory, as well as those who simply wanted to be left alone. Regardless of motive, the Gulf Coast has seen its share of seafaring warriors and miscreants, from the Tattooed Serpent and Osceola to Iberville and Davy Crockett. It harbored privateers and pirates such as William Augustus Bowles and the Brothers Laffite .

Rare and vintage photographs document the fascinating history of Gulfport, from small port city to modern urban hub.

Gulfport's name says it all. The port and railroads were the foundation for this community. In 1900, at two years old, its population was only a little over 1,000. However, by 1906, that number had grown to over 14,000. A wide channel and deepened basin provided for the 36 ships anchored in the harbor. Capt. William T. Hardy's railroad was complete. Wealthy oilman Capt. Joseph T. Jones had made good on his promises of a train depot, an office building, banks, schools, churches, and stores. The luxurious Great Southern Hotel stood as a star costing over $350,000 to build. Gulfport was a thriving port city. The golfing, hunting, and waterfront activities were an early appeal. Images reflect great fortune and the desperate losses in Gulfport.

Washington County, located on the Mississippi River in the heart of the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta, is the culture that cotton built.

Founded by hearty pioneers willing to risk even their lives for the unexcelled wealth that the ""white gold"" of cotton promised, the county was literally carved out of a swampy, cane-covered wilderness where the brave were as likely to reap an early grave as elaborate grandeur. This collection of more than two hundred photographs from the late nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth depicts the unique and pervasive dichotomies that the struggle to weave the ""Cotton Kingdom"" produced, especially the twin threads of prosperity and poverty. Here men struck it rich in an unprecedented short time, but here they lost it just as quickly. While high cotton bought white men opulent homes and the leisure to produce literary classics, simultaneously it bought the black man little more than a shotgun shack and the pain that birthed the blues. Witness the challenges presented to the mule by the machine and to the isolation of the county's way of life by international war and the infusion of industry. Despite the divisions, this collection also illustrates the common, commendable effort by the citizens of one American county in the South to clear their land, cultivate their fields, build their homes, pave their streets, construct their highways, lay their railroads, and protect it all from flood, fever, and fire with an unfaltering faith in the future.

Natchez, Mississippi, attracts thousands of visitors annually. One look through these pages and it is easy to see why. Beautiful exterior shots, rare interior photographs, and moving descriptions capture the essence of one of the largest and best-preserved collections of antebellum architecture in the country. Natchez truly is a living museum.

King's Tavern, circa 1789, is believed to be the oldest building in Natchez and still operates as a tavern and restaurant. The stately Greek Revival Stanton Hall occupies an entire city block and is considered one of America's finest house museums. Longwood, the largest octagonal house in the country, stands unfinished today because Northern workers stopped in their tracks and left for home at the outbreak of the Civil War.

For those fortunate enough to experience this bastion of the Old South or for those who hope to visit one day, The Majesty of Natchez makes the perfect memento or gift book. It presents the grandeur of this quintessential Southern town in all its radiant splendor.

Pelican's acclaimed Majesty Series takes detailed looks at the unique architecture of historic cities and geographic areas throughout the South. The nine titles currently in the ever-growing series include Colonial Williamsburg, Savannah, and New Orleans.