Longtime MS editor appears on BookTV
Former Indianola Enteprise-Tocsin editor and publisher Jim Abbott appeared as the moderator this weekend on C-SPAN II BookTV. Abbott introduced a panel discussion on the book “Cotton and Race in the Making of America” by author Gene Dattel.
Dattel’s book presents a social and economic history of the role of cotton in the United States. The greatest export crop of the country for 130 years, its cultivation fed the textile industry and allowed the U.S. to broker independent trade with Europe. However, the production of cotton was also marked by slave labor and the author recounts that the prevalence of slavery was linked to where cotton was often grown. He was joined in discussion by civil rights activists Carver Randle and Lee Daniels. This event was held November 11, 2009, at the B.B. King Museum in Indianola.