AMST 211 1st Edition Lecture 20Outline of Current Lecture 1. George Caleb Bingham2. Mark Twain3. Rivers and floods4. Georgia and Henry Speller5. Concluding ThoughtsCurrent LectureSouthern RiversIf the American South is a body, the arteries are the rivers. We think of the watershed of the Mississippi and all that flows into it. The Yazu and the Tallahachee, the Chattahoochee, the Eno, etc. Rivers have shaped the texts, art, and material cultures of the American South. From Captain Smith’s exploration, to expansion of the colonies. We want to think about how the rivers have influenced a variety of tradition. “Ode to Billy Joe” by Bobbie Gentry. George Caleb Bingham: artist. Think about the drainages of the rivers represented. It is the way in which rivers flow into the landscape. They are conduits that facilitate the intertwining of cultures. They are avenues, highways, and forces that facilitates the movements of people and ideas. Mark Twain: made the Mississippi River a gateway to freedom. They were liminal spaces, thresholds, places between different identities. The river was a place of diversity and differences. Transcended race, class, and gender. Rivers and floods: rivers are symbolic of uncontrollable southern forces. They unleash by humans and nature, violence, racial power, environment, etc. They are literary examples. We want to think about great flood stories. William Faulkner: As I Lay Dying. The title derives from book 9 of the Odyssey. These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.Narratives about race, power, identity derive from the river. Paul Robeson’s “Old Man River” “He must know somethin but don’t say nothin” The themes articulated here are deeply felt. Georgia and Henry Speller: Boat on the River, House on the Hill. Henry Speller said the only timethey were in the river were when they worked. They didn’t swim for pleasure. The pleasure of the river belonged to the house on the hill. Tennessee Valley Authority Act, 1933: Made the Tennessee river into a giant force for change through the removal of Appalachian communities. Themes of upheaval resonate. Mississippi River BasinMap of 1749: Think about settlement long before Europeans. People lived near waterways for fertility and prosperous life. Rivers flooded, but Native Americans moved their fields in response. Southern Rivers remained undomesticated. Map of New Orleans, 1723: Man might actually control nature, and domesticate. Levees began to stretch along Mississippi River to control flooding and maintain navigation. Mississippi River Flood of 1927: exceeded only by Hurricane Katrina. Winter rains brought waterlevels to flood stage and water reached the levees in more than 100 places. 30,000 African Americans were forced to join work gangs at levees. Crevasse at Mound: Levee burst with a power equalling Niagara Falls. The river carried 3 million cubic ft of water per second. Flooded area larger than New England. Responses of Song: “Blackwater Blues"1965: Hurricane Betsy Geography of Social Vulnerability: South’s segregated past. There are poverish areas followed bysuburban areas. Industrial Canal Breach, spatial segregationSuperdome: white and black. People that were wealthy evacuated, poor people stayed. Beasts of the Southern WildJoe Minter: Katrina on High