Mossback: Ecology, Emancipation, and Foraging for Hope in Painful Places

During the colonial era, many rural southerners lived in the swampy areas of North Carolina, scratching out a living by trap and scrap. They came to be called mossbacks, a pejorative term suggesting they moved so slowly that moss grew on their clothing. The term is also used to describe large fish and turtles who show similar growth on their shells, as well as Confederate deserters during the Civil War who refused to fight. After the war, the historical record mentions "mossy-backs" in the South who fought against the Ku Klux Klan.

In Mossback, David Pritchett seeks to reclaim the word and celebrate those who move so deliberately through the natural world that they can fully observe, appreciate, and ultimately become a part of it. Mossbacks carry their environment on their backs instead of subjugating it to human will and motive. They understand kinship by virtue of their union with the living world and protect the land and relations they depend on.

Pritchett's essays traverse a variety of terrains, exploring landscapes and mythologies at the intersection of environmental, indigenous, and social justice. From the heart of the swamp to the modern gridlines remaking our watersheds, from the inner soulscape of trauma to textured ecologies linking story and place, he uses geography, history, genealogy, and story to search for glimpses of light in dark places and hope in painful legacies.