The Old South sheds new light on the people and events that shaped the South. It deftly shows how the South's diverse people interacted with each other in ways that affect the region and the nation to this day. Each chapter is accompanied by historical documents that illuminate the South's people in intimate and telling ways. The story tells of first contacts between area natives and Europeans, resulting in a clash of cultures that transformed societies. Subsequent struggles for land and power, strategies to subdue and enslave, and efforts to resist and survive laid the foundations of what would become a distinct region called the South.