re: Pictures from the Natchez City Cemetery

Friend,

Suggesting the collapse of Natchez occurred because school bussing started is silly. Natchez was a city built on trade along the river. Its rise to becoming a city was entirely due to cotton. When cotton crashed in America, cities that depended on cotton crashed. New Orleans was able to survive because it had a far better location and did not depend entirely on cotton. As cotton declined, the produce trade kept New Orleans trucking in world commerce. That momentum, of course, meant there was a lot of money in the city, and the city maintained its status as the banking capital of the South, which it had been since the 1830s. New Orleans' role in American banking is quite fascinating, as it is the origin of commonwealth banking. Anyway, New Orleans continued to evolve, due to its more educated inhabitants and better geographic position, leaning later on gas and oil, and later, tourism.

Natchez, on the other hand, is a failed city from a failed economy and society. It was unable to evolve like New Orleans did, and thus, it, like Vicksburg, are no longer cities at all. It is not a bad place to spend a weekend at a Bed and Breakfast, though. But not more than a weekend.

Yours,
TulaneLSU