As you know, I like numbers. Numbers are welcome here at the Farm. Some of us like them more than others, but we all like numbers to one degree or another. (Recall, Tiger’s highrise is 412 1/4… and we’re still adding on: 412 3/4 is bound to be a destination.)

Every now and again an issue will come along that calls out for numbers.

Did you know that there are three counties and one Louisiana parish named after Jefferson Davis? There are eight counties named after Robert E. Lee. They are in The South– if you can call North Carolina “The South” still.

I uncovered these dozen counties using a crappy old book about the counties of the United States and I looked at the Wikipedia page for each to get the numbers I used to determine the ratio of white to black individuals– according to the 2010 US Census.

So, for example, the number of black individuals in Jeff Davis County, Texas (according to the 2010 US census as at Wikipedia) is 1% of the total population of 2342. On the other hand, 59.9% of the population of Jefferson Davis County, Mississippi (pop. 12,487) are black. Likewise with Lee. Lee county Arkansas is 57% black. Lee County, Kentucky is about 95% white.

There are a lot of things you can imagine doing with three pieces of data. Here’s one thing I did.

I summed everything because you have to see the whole picture before you can begin to know what numbers to focus on. On which numbers to focus.

The sum of my sample states’ population was 4,015,411– just over 4 million people live in counties whose names refer to Southern Civil War Heroes.

The sum of individuals in my dozen states who identified* as black on the 2010 US Census that got copied into Wikipedia was 124,401– just under 12.5k.

12.25% of individuals in my sample are black. The national percentage is 13.2. So it’s 1-point whiter or other-er than the entire country which includes some lily-white places. Based on this alone, I’d have to say the dozen Southern States I sampled look remarkably like the rest of the country– black v. white.

So in a region of the country that grossly resembles the rest of the country, a huge segment of the population is living and working and otherwise carrying on just fine or not within an artificially contrived area of land “named” in honor of some dead guy who was part of the losing side but is still honored. (Isn’t that how civilized men conduct war?)

Jeff Davis was a statesman, by the way. He served as a cabinet member, I think. For sure he was a US Senator from Mississippi several times. He was also a militia man, I think.

Back to the data.

Collecting a sheet of paper filled with numbers and notes is fun! You should try it sometime!

One of the notes I have on my piece of paper says,

Leflore– Greenwood Leflore Choctaw Chief opposed.

So– Lee County Mississippi is on the same page as Leflore County in my crappy old book of counties and so I just happened to glance at the Leflore entry. Greenwood Leflore has a county and the county seat named after him. Greenwood is a big deal city out that way. The City of New Orleans stops there. Greenwood, Mississippi is home to the Alluvian Hotel. And Viking Range!

Leflore opposed session.

And don’t forget about the Free State of Jones. From that Infallible Source:

The reality is more complicated, for the only votes possible at the Secession Convention were for immediate secession, on the one hand, or a more cautious, co-operative approach to secession among several Southern states, on the other. Powell almost certainly voted for the more conservative approach to secession—the only position realistically available to him that was consistent with the anti-secessionist views of his constituency.^[5]

[“the only position” LOL Because that’s what folks do, right? They do what is realistic and consistent. LOL]

Jones County, Mississippi did not join the State of Mississippi in seceding. Seems the citizens of Jones County just didn’t have an interest in the war.

Anyhow– that’s just how I am looking at the data– and where it took me– this evening.