Shadow and shelter

"In Shadow and Shelter: The Swamp in Southern Culture, Anthony Wilson examines the relationship between the ecological history of the southern swamp and the evolution of southern culture from the colonial era to the present. To early European colonists, the swamp was a place linked with sin and impurity. To the plantation elite, it was a practical obstacle to agricultural development. For the many excluded from the white southern aristocracy - African Americans, Native Americans, Acadians, and poor, rural whites - the swamp meant something very different, providing shelter and sustenance and offering separation and protection from the dominant plantation culture."--Jacket.