Dockery Farm Birth Place Of The Delta Blues

http://www.dockeryfarms.org/bluesI liked bugs doc. so I thought you guys might enjoy this. I don't have a youtube page so I have to edit down my vids to get them under the Nations 100meg limit.Part 1The music that was created, at least in part, by Dockery farm workers a century ago continues to influence popular culture to this day. It was a welcome diversion from their hard lives and a form of personal expression that spoke of woes and joys alike in a musical language all its own. Will Dockery, the son of a Confederate general that died at the battle of Bull Run, founded the plantation. Young Will Dockery had graduated from the University of Mississippi and in 1885, with a gift of $1,000 from his grandmother, purchased forest and swampland in the Mississippi Delta near the Yazoo and Sunflower Rivers. Recognizing the richness of the soil, he cleared the woods and drained the swamps opening the land for cotton. Word went out for workers and before long African-American families began to flock to Dockery Farms in search of work in the fields and, as tenant farmers (sharecroppers,) they cultivated cotton on the rich farmland. Throughout the South, large landowners opened their fields to sharecroppers who would lease plots of land to tend themselves. In return they had to share part of their harvested crops as rent for the use of the land. Contracts for sharecroppers were often harsh and many lived on the verge of starvation. Will Dockery had earned a good reputation for treating his African-American workers and sharecroppers fairly and thus attracted ambitious workers from throughout the South.The Dockery plantation by its peak in the mid 1930s consisted of 18,000 acres and extended over 28 square miles of rich fertile lowland along the Sunflower River. Will Dockery managed the land until the 1930s when his son, Joe Rice Dockery, took over and maintained the plantation through the Great Depression until his death in 1982. His widow, Keith Dockery McLean then ran the farm, which diversified to produce corn, rice and soybeans. In 1994, she turned the farm over to hired managers. It was Ms. McLean that realized that Dockery Farms was a hotbed of the blues and later in her life came to take pride in the farm's significance as a source of this music. Since her death in 2006, her daughters and grandchildren have owned Dockery and have established a foundation in hopes of funding research into its extensive historic archives of the Delta Blues. part 2 at start of comments.

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RTZGUITARS February 21, 2014 at 2:28pm

thanks Darryl when I first found this I couldn't stop watching it .
darryl kernaghan February 21, 2014 at 7:20am

missed this at the time rt,great post
RTZGUITARS November 30, 2013 at 4:13pm

Found it on the archive John just had to post it.
Uncle John November 30, 2013 at 9:00am

Wonderful stuff, RTZ. Somehow I missed it when you posted it.
RTZGUITARS July 21, 2013 at 4:16pm

This is on YouTube but I found it on the archive and just wanted it on my page.
Downtown Vinnie July 21, 2013 at 12:53pm

great lesson,way cool, gives ya goosebumps seein where it all started, awesome work, bud salud to u
RTZGUITARS January 30, 2013 at 2:06pm

Thanks bug 30 years ago this information would of been tough to find.

The guy on guitar for Mavis is Rick Holmstrom.

Her singing can move anyone alot more of her on youtube.
BUGGY (C) January 30, 2013 at 12:30pm

Cool Vid and Music RTZ
RTZGUITARS January 30, 2013 at 12:11pm

Yep wes, one interesting thing I found reading this stuff, Pop Staples is the father and founder of the Staples Singers a church group. Out of this group came one of the strongest female blues singer Mavis Staples. This song was about the civil rights movement as young people went north too fight for their rights.
RTZGUITARS January 29, 2013 at 11:11pm

Check out the web site James it really is some good stuff. Anyone into the slide and delta blues should check this site. I wonder what kind of instruments may have been made here.

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