Vicksburg Civil War Museum

06/25/2026

06/25/2026

The Under-Documented Immigrant

There are those who say, “Slavery happened a long time ago.”
Consider this: the people who endured slavery did not choose the timeline.

There are those who say, “I never owned slaves.”
Consider this: the enslaved did not get to choose their owner.

There are those who say, “I am tired of hearing about slavery.”
Consider this: enslaved people were tired of being bought, sold, separated, beaten, and denied freedom.

There are those who say, “Talking about slavery divides people.”
Consider this: slavery divided husbands from wives, parents from children, and families from one another.

There are those who say, “We should stop talking about slavery and move forward.”
Consider this: millions of enslaved people were never allowed to move freely.

The enslaved were not undocumented because their stories did not matter. They were under-documented because history often preserved their value as property instead of their humanity as people.

Three questions to consider:

1. If slavery was a long time ago, when did its effects end?

2. When we say we are tired of hearing about slavery, are we talking about the crime or the victims of the crime?

3. If enslaved people were documented, why were they recorded so well as property but remembered so poorly as people?

06/24/2026

Discover the best things to do in Vicksburg MS, from the National Military Park and USS Cairo to downtown museums, riverfront murals and local art galleries.

06/24/2026

One of the First Places in Mississippi to Experience Freedom

When most people think of Vicksburg during the Civil War, they think of a 47-day siege, cannon fire, and a July 4th surrender.

But something else happened in 1863.

Vicksburg became one of the first places in Mississippi where formerly enslaved people could begin building new lives.

What the Union Army called contraband camps were established for men, women, and children who had escaped slavery or been liberated by advancing Union forces.

Schools soon followed.

Many of the first students were not children but adults who had been denied an education under slavery. Men and women sat in classrooms learning to read and write for the first time.

Banks followed as well.

For the first time, Black people could earn wages, save money, and participate in economic life as something other than property.

The camps were far from perfect. They faced overcrowding, disease, poverty, and uncertainty.

But they also represented something new.

A place where freedom could begin to take shape through education, work, family, faith, and hope for the future.

Vicksburg is remembered for a Union military victory.

It should also be remembered as one of the places where freedom was not just declared—it was built.

06/23/2026

Not Every White Southerner Supported Slavery—or Its Aftermath

History is not improved by pretending every white Southerner believed the same thing.

Some white Southerners opposed secession. Some remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War. Some later supported Reconstruction, Black citizenship, Black voting rights, public education, and the right of formerly enslaved people to participate in government.

For that, they were often called scalawags.

They were not condemned for being outsiders. They were condemned because they believed Black Southerners should have a place in the South’s future.

The word was meant as an insult. It was used against white Southerners who refused to accept that the South’s future had to be built on the same racial order as its past.

That does not mean every white Southerner opposed slavery.

It means they had choices.

Some defended slavery. Some defended the Confederacy. Some defended the Union. Some worked with formerly enslaved people to build something different after the war.

History becomes dishonest when we pretend any group was all one thing.

The South was never one voice.

06/22/2026

06/22/2026

Why Some Southerners Hate Talking About Slavery

For many people, slavery is the ultimate “what about.”

The war was about states’ rights.
What about slavery?

We were defending our homes.
What about slavery?

Southerners were Christian.
What about slavery?

Some slave owners treated their slaves well.
What about slavery?

Slavery was not the cause of the war.
What about slavery?

That is why the subject makes people uncomfortable. Not because it is irrelevant to Southern history, but because it forces every comforting version of that history to answer the same question.

What about slavery?