Born into a family of lumbermen, Hickman acquired firsthand knowledge of forest industries. Later, as a student of history, he devoted years of painstaking work to gathering materials on lumbering. His information comes from many sources, including interviews with loggers, rafters, sawmill and turpentine workers, and company managers, and from company records, land records, diaries, old newspapers, lumber trade journals, and government documents.
While the author's purpose is to share the history of a natural resource, he also gives the reader the panorama of Mississippi. Mississippi Harvest interprets the state's people, agriculture, industry, government, politics, economy, and culture through the lens of one of the state's earliest and most lasting economic engines.