To my father, William Melvin, Senior, 1894–1958, who, when I was too young to realize it, sacrificed so much for me that it is improbable he was ever again truly happy.

To MSL, who, when I needed it most, gave me enough love and kindness and encouragement to start me writing seriously.

Epigraph

The greater part of what my neighbors call good

I believe in my soul to be bad,

and if I repent of anything,

it is very likely to be my good behavior.

What demon possessed me that I behaved so well?

If a man does not keep pace with his companions,

perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.

Let him step to the music which he hears,

however measured or far away.

—HENRY DAVID THOREAU

The State

AN EXCERPT from THE THUMB-NAIL ALMANAC, 1961…page 643:

An East South Central state in the Deep South, it is bounded on the north by Tennessee; east by Alabama; south by the Gulf of Mexico; west by Mississippi.

CAPITAL: Willson City. AREA: 50,163 square miles. POPULATION: (1960 Census, preliminary) 1,802,268. MOTTO: With Honor and Arms We Dare Defend Our Rights. ADMITTED TO UNION: 1818

EARLY HISTORY—DEWEY WILLSON:

Although the state’s history is a rich and varied one, it is known predominately as the home of Confederate General Dewey Willson, who, in 1825, was born in Sutton, a small town 27 miles north of the Gulfport city of New Marsails. Willson matriculated at the United States Military Academy at West Point (class of 1842), rose to the rank of colonel in the Federal Army before the outbreak of the Civil War. Upon the state’s secession in 1861, he resigned his commission and was given the rank of General of the Confederate Army. He was the chief architect of the two well-known southern victories at Bull’s Horn Creek and at Harmon’s Draw, the latter fought less than 3 miles from his birthplace. His victory at Harmon’s Draw permanently frustrated northern attempts to reach and capture New Marsails.

In 1870, with the state’s re-admittance to the Union, Willson became its governor. Shortly thereafter, he chose the site, initiated construction, and, in large part, designed the new state capital which now bears his name. Upon his retirement from public life in 1878, he returned to Sutton. On April 5, 1889, having just returned from the dedication of a ten-foot bronze likeness of himself which the townspeople of Sutton had erected in their Square, he was stricken and died. He is considered by most historians to have been, after Lee, the Confederacy’s greatest general.

RECENT HISTORY:

In June 1957, for reasons yet to be determined, all the state’s Negro inhabitants departed. Today, it is unique in being the only state in the Union that cannot count even one member of the Negro race among its citizens.

The African