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Mass incarceration in the context of the United States refers to the incarceration and the criminalisation of more of its own citizens that any other country in world history.

Mass incarceration in the US surged in the 1970s. This was due to over-policing in deprived and marginalised communities, longer sentencing for minor crimes, as well as harsh restrictions upon being released.

Despite the US making up only 5% of the world's population, it makes up 20% of the world's prison population.

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Deepwater Horizon was a deepwater drilling rig at the Macondo Prospect (Mississippi Canyon)of the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Louisiana. It was built in 2001 and leased to British Petroleum.

At 7:45 pm CDT on April 20, 2010, the oil rig exploded due to an eruption of seawater and methane gas, eventually killing 11 workers. Deepwater Horizon sank on the morning of April 22, 2010.

Before the oil rig was capped 3 months later, 134 million gallons of oil spilled into the gulf, affecting 70,000 square miles of ocean — the largest offshore oil spill in American history.

https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/deepwater-horizon-bp-gulf-mexico-oil-spill

https://darrp.noaa.gov/oil-spills/deepwater-horizon

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Hoodoo is a folk religion originally developed by African American slaves in the American South. The word Hoodoo possibly came from Voodoo, which in many of the Gbe languages spoken in West Africa means divinity.

Hoodoo is a combination of African Americans' botanical knowledge that they acquired in Southern states, traditional Central and West African cultural elements, and Christianity (since many were forced by slaveholders to convert).

Conjuration was a key element of Hoodoo and was particularly frightening for slaveholders, who suspected African Americans of organizing revolts through magic tricks. This became a symbol of resistance against white supremacy and was described by Frederick Douglass.

https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/hoodoo-in-st-louis-an-african-american-religious-tradition.htm

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Gris-gris bag is a small cloth bag that serves as an amulet that protects people from ill fortune. Before the emancipation, the bag was often considered by slaveholders to be a curse on them and soon developed negative connotations — this came as no surprise because slaves used it to harm their owners.

Maman Brigitte is the Ioa (a god in African Hoodoo) of death and is responsible for guarding cemeteries and graves. Graves of female persons are often dedicated to Maman Brigitte. She has the magical power to take the souls of those dying as well as heal sicknesses.

Enslaved African Americans used Christian iconology such as Mary Magdalene to represent her (an example of syncretism).

https://www.nps.gov/afbg/learn/historyculture/manman-brigitte.htm

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Magical realism is a literary genre in which fantastical things are treated in the real world and it is a part of the realism genre of fiction.

The word magical realism was first used in 1925 by German art critic Franz Roh in his book called After Expressionism: Magical Realism. He utilized to describe the New Objectivity, a style of painting that was popular in Germany. The reason why Roh used magical realism is to emphasize how magical and fantastic normal objects can be thought in the real world when you look at them.

Some famous books that are examples of magical realism are “The Metamorphosis, One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Kingdom of this World, Moonbath, and Midnight’s Children.”

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Parchman prison or also known as Mississippi State Penitentiary is a prison farm in mississippi that is known for the horrific conditions and trauma caused upon the black community. It was created in 1901 from what previously used to be farms.

It is notorious because the prison exploited the 13th amendment by convict leasing where most of the black inmates were forced to labour on farms. Initially there were 3 farms, the smallest where the white convicts worked, the medium sized where women who are mostly black and the largest farmed by black men. The inmates were practically slaves again and for profit purposes, incarceration of black men began to rise. Other ethical issues occur in the prison as the living conditions were uninhabitable, convicts were over worked and segregation of races became a huge problem.

In 1971, the case of Gates v. Collier was ruled in favour of the inmates, from then the prison began to desegregate and build better cells for the convicts. However, in the modern times the prisoners are still majorly black and feared by the black community. In the novel ‘Sing, Unburied, Sing’ it is mentioned as a haunted place.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/inside-mississippis-notorious-parchman-prison

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Southern gothic literature is a genre that developed in the 19th century and is mostly used by writers from the south of America. Similar to gothic literature it is characterised by presences of desolated settings, grotesque, oppressed characters and horrific, transgressive thoughts. Some key elements to the genre are violence and crime.

Stories in the genre also are relevant to shed light on the south’s historic past problems of racism, slavery and patriarchy.

The most well known writers of southern gothic are Edgar Allan Poe, William Faulkner, Truman Capote, and Carson McCullers. The novel we will study by Jesmyn ward is a contemporary example of this writing style.

https://oxfordre.com/literature/search?btog=chap&f_0=keyword&q_0=Gothic%20literature

https://selfpublishing.com/what-is-southern-gothic/

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The Meth Epidemic refers to the outbreak of methamphetamine usage in America.

Methamphetamine is a dangerous drug from the group amphetamine-type stimulants. After a Japanese chemist found an easier way of creating methamphetamine by using phosphorus and iodine.

Meth can be used to treat ADHD and obesity disorders and in the world war 2 it was used by military personnel’s to enhance endurance and adrenaline. However, illegal forms of meth quickly became outlawed and prohibited in the USA. In the 1980s regulations became tighter on usage but this did not prevent the explosion of meth usage in 1990s.

Meth usage has continued to grow and become the number one drug issue of USA. In 2018, 1.8 million people reported to use meth but this grew to 2.5 million in 2021.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/meth/faqs/

https://www.history.com/topics/crime/history-of-meth

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The Mississippi Gulf Coast is the area of Mississippi along the Mississippi Sound at the northern extreme of the Gulf of the Mexico.

In 1699, Pierre Le Moyne d’lberville arrived on the Mississippi Gulf Coast to establish a colony and build Fort Maurepas, which was served as the first capital of French Louisiana. As the time went by, the French settlers found the area to be difficult to maintain a settlement. Death of crops, lack of fresh water, lack of discipline, and illness led to difficulty to maintain a settlement. In 1701, the capital of French Louisiana was moved to Mobile which is the city and the country seat of Alabama.

Some fun facts about the Mississippi Gulf Coast is that they are responsible for producing about 70% of the nation’s oysters and shrimps.

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Mississippi is the 32nd largest state in the USA with an area that covers 48,430 square miles. It is the 31st most populous state and its population density ranks 32nd in the United States.

In 1800, there were only 7,600 people in Mississippi, nut just ten years later, it had increased by over 300% to 31,306. This was by far the biggest population spike in the state’s history. In 1850, it had even increased to 606,526 people. By the start of the 20th century, the population of Mississippi had exceeded 1.5 million. Up until the 1930s, black Americans made up the majority of citizens in Mississippi and there is still a large black community in the state. In 2010, Mississippi had the highest proportion of African Americans in the United States.

White: 57.36%

Black or African American: 37.53%

Two or more races: 2.36%

Other race: 1.28%

Asian: 0.98%

Native American: 0.45%

Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander: 0.04%