Italians

The rural Deep South, including Mississippi, never attracted large numbers of immigrants, and this was especially so for Italians. There were few large cities and the potential for work in agriculture was plagued by competition from slavery and by prejudice toward Catholic foreigners. As a result Italian immigration was slow, concentrated in specific areas and radiated from New Orleans.

Early Italians, lacking a nation of their own, offered their services and skills to the Spanish and French. The first Italians entered Mississippi as members of the De Soto expedition in the 1540s. Berardo Peloso, who had been a member of the De Soto expedition, in 1558 piloted a ship and discovered Pascagoula Bay.

In 1699 the French settled the Gulf Coast in the vicinity of Biloxi and later at Fort Maurepas (Ocean Springs) and Fort Rosalie (Natchez). Italians from Piedmont came as convicts, settlers, and soldiers. One of the more famous was Enrico Tonti; born in Naples he received military training in France. Prior to his death in 1704, because of yellow fever, he served as a skilled Indian agent and successful soldier when diplomacy failed.

During the nineteenth century, many Italians entered Mississippi through the port of New Orleans. Carrying produce into the Mississippi Basin, they were attracted to Natchez and Vicksburg, where their small numbers and the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the communities allowed them social access. Names like L. A. Cusmani were commonly found in city directories advertising “family groceries, tobacco, cigars, liquor and plantation supplies.”

When the Civil War began in April 1861, over one hundred Italian immigrants were living in Mississippi. Names like Grillo, Leoni, Rietti were found in Mississippi Confederate cavalry and infantry regiments. They served with distinction on the battlefield and some paid the ultimate price. During the siege at Vicksburg in 1863, Italians and other residents of the city lived in caves and tightened their belts as General Grant’s army threatened the city. Unfortunately, the Italians' participation in the Civil War is an untold story.

In the late nineteenth century, massive emigration began from Italy, caused by lack of economic and social opportunities and compulsory military service. Italians from Calabria, Sicily, and the Marches entered Mississippi through New Orleans, where many maintain family ties. Along the Gulf Coast at Biloxi, Ocean Springs, and Gulfport many Italians were farmers, merchants, or employees in the fishing and canning industries. The Caruso family operated one of the largest canning plants on the Gulf Coast, while the Deangelo family operated the Italian Shipyard at Moss Point (1881-1934). In Mississippi where foreigners and Catholics were few in numbers, Italian shopkeepers took steps to maintain a low profile and sold primarily American goods. Families who settled in towns like Hattiesburg, Laurel and Granada, maintained strong ties with relatives and friends in New Orleans.

In the 1880s the first Italians were attracted to the Mississippi Delta to work on levee repair and remained to farm or hire out as laborers to cotton planters. Many lived in plantation housing and some developed small stores or “rolling stores” to serve the rural communities. Italian farmers successfully struggled to make the land turn a profit.

Throughout the state, Italians brought with them their culture. Families carried the tradition of baked bread and beehive-shaped outdoors appeared next to shacks and homes. To supplement their diets they developed large gardens and raised poultry and hogs. Frugal in their ways, few Italians ran up large debts at the plantation commissaries.

In 1904 there were two hundred Italians living in Natchez who were merchants, small proprietors, and truck farmers; another one hundred were in Canton and thirty in Gulfport. In 1910 over one thousand Italians were living in Bolivar and Washington counties in the Delta and another thousand were scattered throughout the state.

The coming of Italians saw the establishment of mutual benefit societies in Bay St. Louis, Clarksdale, Shaw, Greenville, Jackson, and Natchez. These societies served as social and assimilative centers for the immigrants. Although some Italians joined Protestant denominations, the majority remained Catholic and their presence helped to expand the Catholic Church in Mississippi. Bishop Joseph Brunini, who came from an old Italian American family in Vicksburg, served as bishop of the Diocese of Jackson-Natchez, where he worked to promote his faith and ecumenical ties with non-Catholics.

From the late nineteenth century, Italian Americans were involved in local and state politics. Mississippi-born Frank J. Arrighi (1838-1906) was the city assessor in Vicksburg until his death. The Botto family played a prominent role in the community as well. In 1900 Andrew, of Italian ancestry with roots going back to eighteenth century Virginia, was elected governor. During his term in office the new state capitol building was constructed in Jackson.

At the opening of the twenty-first century the last of the original immigrants could still be found working the land and enjoying the fruits of their labors. Younger Italian Americans continue to enter politics and the professions. In many communities such as Jackson, in the Delta, and along the Gulf Coast, Italian Americans maintain their cultural and social ties and their rich traditions and values from the past.

Russell M. Magnaghi

Emily Fogg Meade, “Italian Immigration into the South,” The South Atlantic Quarterly (1905);

Russell M. Magnaghi, “Louisiana’s Italian Immigrants prior to 1870,” Louisiana History (Winter 1986); Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Jackson, has oral interviews, which formed the basis of this study; Girolamo Moroni, “Dati circa i raccolti del 1912 e le condizioni del nostri agricoltori nel distretto consolare di New Orleans,” Bollettino dell'Emigrazione (1913).