Providence. - book reviews

Christian Century, June 16, 1993 by Perry H. Biddle, Jr.

Providence is the name of a plantation on a square mile of land designated Section 13 of Township 16, North Range, in Holmes County, Mississippi. Will Campbell is well qualified to write about Section 13, since he grew up in rural Mississippi, In the 1950s he was brought in to help when members of a cooperative farm on Section 13 were being run out of the county. He later served on the board that owned the land. This book is his account of his struggle to do justice for the poor Choctaws, blacks and whites on Section 13.

Willie Morris and other literary critics have hailed this as Campbell's best piece of writing. Campbell, who calls himself a "bootleg preacher," has turned out ten books from his log-cabin office on a 40-acre farm near Nashville. He and his wife, Brenda, have raised a family there, and Campbell has found his voice in Writing.

Campbell sets the stage in his first chapter, which is the briefest and most powerful one. He singles out Section 13 as a microcosm of the whole nation and, in a sense, of the rest of the earth. Then Campbell, a longtime leader in the civil rights and antiwar movements, alternates between being an objective recorder of facts and being a participant intimately involved in the story. He draws the reader into the book's making as he gives details about the age of a particular character, or describes the operation of a medical clinic for the poor. The reader becomes a sleuth with Campbell in seeking answers to the problems he uncovers.

A lifelong critic of the status quo and of institutions of all kinds, Campbell holds up for judgment the facts of history: the removal of the Choctaw from their lands, the enslavement of African-Americans, the oppression of sharecroppers of all races. Campbell includes the story of a young Choctaw boy and his friend of European descent. It is a story that permeates all of Campbell's writing: the search for community. This theme is explored in great detail in Campbell's autobiography, Brother to a Dragonfly, in which he reflects on the close relationship he had with his older brother Joe.

This book offers history for people who don't like history. It is the story of America, of the struggle over race relations and economic justice, and of the search for community.