Imagine what is happening in this picture and write about what it was like for the people who lived through it...
In this lesson you will take an imagined road trip through Mississippi to visit two sites where you will learn about African-American life in the South in the early part of the 20th century, and how that life was reflected in Country Blues music.
You will visit three stations where you will examine a series of artifacts including film clips, photographs, visual art, and readings. Next, answer a series of questions about these artifacts.
Answer questions as we watch, observe, listen...
● Station 1: Indianola, Mississippi
- Film: The BluesWere Born
- Dictionary + Film: My Back PorchGuitar
- Song: Hard Time Killin’ Floor Blues (Skip James, 1931)
Skip James – Hard Time Killing Floor Lyrics
- Hard time's is here
An ev'rywhere you go
Times are harder
Than th'ever been befo'
Um, hm-hm
Um-hm
Um, hm-hm
Um, hm-hm-hm
You know that people
They are driftin' from do' to do'
But they can't find no heaven
I don't care where they go
Um, hm-hm
Um-uh-hm
Mm-hm-hm
Um, hm-hm-hm
People, if I ever can get up
Off a-this old hard killin' flo'
Lord, I'll never get down
This low no mo'
Um, hm-hm-hm
Hm, um-hm
Hm, hm-hm
Hm, hm-hm-hm
Well, you hear me singin'
This old lonesome song
People, you know these hard times
Can't last us so long
Hm, hm-hm
Hmm, hmm
Hm, hm-hm
Hm, hm-hm, oh Lord
You know, you'll say you had money
You better be sho'
But these hard times gon' kill you
Just drive a lonely soul
Um, hm-hm
Umm, hmm
Umm, hm-hm
Hm, hm-hm-hm
(guitar)
Umm-hm
Hmm-hm-hm
Umm-hm
Hm-hm-hm
Hmm, hm-hm-hm
(guitar to end)
● Station 2: Yazoo City in the Mississippi Delta. Poor southerners, black and white alike, lived in the shadow of natural disaster. Examine songs, paintings, and imagery to learn about the floods, pestilence, and drought that threatened the lives of southern field workers. The resources for this station are:
- Video: Bessie Smith, “Homeless Blues” (1927)
- Video: Charley Patton, “Bo Weavil Blues” (1929)
- Video: Son House, "Death Letter Blues" (1968)
- Image: Paintings of Jacob Lawrence from the Great Migration Series, Panel 8, Panel 9
- Image: Photo of destruction from the 1927 Mississippi River flood
● Station 3: Hillhouse, Mississippi. Even though slavery was abolished after the Civil War, African-American and white tenant farmers lived a life of grinding poverty under the rules of sharecropping. Students will examine texts to learn about this economic system. The resources are:
- Video: Lightnin’ Hopkins, “Cotton” (1959)
- Handout: Explanation of Sharecropping (from PBS, "Sharecropping in Mississippi")
- Image: Paintings of Jacob Lawrence from the Great Migration Series, Panel 17
- Images: Dorothea Lange, Photographs of Sharecroppers (c. 1937)
No comments:
Post a Comment