[2nd Amendment]

Natchez Mississippi 20,000 freedman deaths during reconstruction “The Devil’s Punchbowl”

[DoodleDawg]

Natchez Mississippi 20,000 freedman deaths during reconstruction “The Devil’s Punchbowl”

Reconstruction? Most accounts have it happening during the war while the Union troops occupied Natchez. Regardless of the when, the fact is that there is no reputable documentation that it ever existed much less that tens of thousands of blacks were killed there.

[BroJoeK]

2nd Amendment: "Natchez Mississippi 20,000 freedman deaths during reconstruction 'The Devil’s Punchbowl' "

I can't find any real history on "The Devil's Punchbowl", but plenty of propaganda from both pro-Confederate and black history sites.
The most frequent quote is this:

"...as researcher Paula Westbrook**, who has extensively studied Devil’s Punchbowl, noted,
'When the slaves were released from the plantations during the occupation they overran Natchez.
And the population went from about 10,000 to 120,000 overnight.' "

Supposedly a camp was set up in a geological formation called "the Devil's Punchbowl" due to its shape, surrounded by high cliffs.
This camp is called variously a "contraband camp" or "refugee camp" or "concentration camp" or "death camp" depending on the authors' biases.
"Contraband camp" implies during the Civil War while "refugee camp" suggests post-war and it's never stated just exactly when it happened, or how long it lasted.

Conditions were said to be crowded & unsanitary with deaths ("killed" say propagandists) put at 20,000 (out of 120,000?) by some, 1,000 by others.

Bottom line: serious histories don't touch these claims, suggesting the documentation is too poor to confirm any of it.

Claimed to be "the Devil's Punchbowl" near Natchez, Mississippi:

**Is Paula Westbrook a paranormal investigator?