Devil's Punchbowl (Natchez, Mississippi)

For other uses, see Devil's Punch Bowl (disambiguation).

The Devil's Punchbowl was a refugee camp created in Natchez, Mississippi after the American Civil War in an attempt to address a huge influx of self-emancipated enslaved persons. A number of compounding issues, such as poor administration and substandard sanitation, led to a large number of deaths. The exact number of deaths is unknown and often disputed; estimates range from 2,000 to 20,000. ^[1]

Description

In order to house the large numbers of formerly-enslaved African Americans, the Union Army created a camp for them at a location known as the Devil's Punchbowl, a natural pit surrounded by bluffs. Many of the formerly enslaved there died of starvation, smallpox, and other diseases. ^[2] It has been suggested by some that over 18,000 formerly enslaved people died here in one year. ^{[3] [4]} However, the scale of the tragedy has been disputed by multiple historians, with history professor Jim Wiggins arguing the 20,000 estimate is baseless and inflated tenfold, ^[5] and author and activist Ser Seshsh Ab Heter-Clifford M. Boxley referring to the story as "concocted Confederate propaganda" aiming to cast the Union Army in a negative light. ^[6]

References

1. Francis, Marquise (2023-06-17). "The Devil's Punchbowl: Debunking the social media myth of a Civil War massacre". Yahoo News. Retrieved 2023-06-18.
2. "The Devil's Punchbowl (Mississippi), a story".
3. Taite, Tionna (April 11, 2022). "The Devil's Punchbowl" . Retrieved 2 August 2022.
4. Bernish, Claire (March 4, 2017). "The Devil's Punchbowl" . Retrieved 20 May 2023.
5. Francis, Marquise (2023-06-17). "The Devil's Punchbowl: Debunking the social media myth of a Civil War massacre". Yahoo News. Retrieved 2023-06-18.
6. Griffey, Jan (2022-06-17). "Devil's Punchbowl: 'Concocted Confederate propaganda,' Boxley says". The Natchez Democrat. Retrieved 2023-06-18.

31°35′03″N91°24′00″W / 31.5842°N 91.4001°W / 31.5842; -91.4001