A USM professor will shine a light on an often neglected part of Mississippi history during the November meeting of the Natchez Hostorical Society

Max Grivno, faculty member of the University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, will talk about Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto.

Grivno’s presentation is titled, “Hernando De Soto and the First European Contact with the Mississippi Civilization of the Lower Mississippi Valley.” It will be given at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2022, at the Historic Natchez Foundation at 108 S. Commerce St. The program will follow a social time set for 6:30 p.m.

 Grivno said he is happy to be speaking again before the NHS.

 “The lecture covers an important, but often overlooked period in the region’s history,” he said. “It shows not only the devastation caused by De Soto’s raid in the southeast but also considers how Native people built new societies in its aftermath.”  

Grivno is an associate professor at USM. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Maryland-College Park, where he also earned his master’s degree. Grivno completed his bachelor’s degree at St. Olaf College.

Grivno is the author of Gleanings of Freedom: Free and Slave Labor along the Mason-Dixon Line, 1790-1860 (University of Illinois Press, 2011); and Historic Resource Study, Ferry Hill Plantation (Forgotten Books, 2017). In addition to Mississippi History, his expertise is in Antebellum South, Slavery, Economic and Labor History.

For more information, visit http://natchezhistoricalsociety.org/67001.html.