A Mississippi sheriff's account of a notorious southern outlaw's heyday in crime Jesse James, John Dillinger, Machine Gun Kelly, Bonnie and Clyde -- James Copeland (born 1823) was the granddaddy of them all. This is his notorious history as recorded by the sheriff who arrested him in 1857. During the 1830s, '40s, and '50s, Copeland and his gang of outlaws ranged over territory extending from Mobile Bay to Lake Pontchartrain. The name "Copeland" became a fearsome household word. To this day, many are amazed that the life of one so young could have been so overfilled with felony. Dr. Pitt's startling narrative of Copeland's notorious life and heyday in crime was first published in 1858 and reprinted in 1874, 1909, 1980, and 1992. The account has never failed to fascinate. J. R. S. Pitts, a country physician, was the sheriff in Augusta, the Mississippi town where James Copeland was hanged. John D. W. Guice is Professor Emeritus, Department of History, at the University of Southern Mississippi.

During the early years of the U.S. Republic, its vital southwestern quadrant - encompassing the modern-day states between South Carolina and Louisiana - experienced nearly unceasing conflict. In The Old Southwest, 1795-1830: Frontiers in Conflict, historians Thomas D. Clark and John D. W. Guice analyze the many disputes that resulted when the United States pushed aside a hundred thousand Indians and overtook the final vestiges of Spanish, French, and British presence in the wilderness. Leaders such as Andrew Jackson, who emerged during the Creek War, introduced new policies of Indian removal and state making, along with a decided willingness to let adventurous settlers open up the new territories as a part of the Manifest Destiny of a growing country.