Frud11
02-14-08, 06:41 AM
This was happening not so long ago (if you're in your early 40s, it had just stopped happening when you were born).
P.S. it's probably pronounced "Braz-uss" down them ways...
The Brazos River runs through Texas, with its mouth located about 50 miles southwest of Houston. Along its lower reaches, there is a large stretch of boggy but fertile soil, which is ideal for growing sugar cane.
Black inmates were sent to several prison farms along the Brazos, to work on chain gangs chopping sugar cane and cotton.
Large numbers of black men were sent to prison, often on minor charges. They paid for their keep by being forced onto work gangs, to perform what was essentially slave labor.
Chopping cane is one of the most unpleasant jobs imaginable. It required ...stand in several inches of muddy water in dense, snake-infested stands of cane, stooping over to chop cane with a machete, during oppressive summer heat, with mosquitoes too thick to even bother swatting them.
White guards watched the inmates from horseback, with rifles ready to shoot anyone who tried to escape. These chain gangs continued to exist into the 1960s.
--www.gillan.com
This "swinging-chant" is sung to a slow 4/4 beat:
"There ain't no more cane on the Brazos
O oho oho o!
Well they ground it all up in molasses
O oho oho o!
O Captain don't you do me like you done your poor shine
O oho oho!
Well they drove that poor Billy 'til he went stone blind
O oho oho o!
And if you comes on the river in Nineteen and four
O oho oho o!
You could find many dead men most every road
'Most every road.
And if you go on the river in Nineteen and ten
O oho oho!
They was driving the women like they drive the men
O oho oho o!
Why don't you rise up you dead men
Help me find my road?
O oho oho o!
Why don't you rise up you dead men
Help me drive my road?
O drive my road?
Well there's some in the building
And there's some in the yard
O oho oho o!
There's some in the graveyard
And there's some going home
Some going home...
Why don't you wake up you people
And lift up your heads?
O oho oho!
You may get your pardon
But you may end up dead
O oho oho o!"
[I]--No more cane on the Brazos, Huddie Leadbetter (Leadbelly)
P.S. it's probably pronounced "Braz-uss" down them ways...
The Brazos River runs through Texas, with its mouth located about 50 miles southwest of Houston. Along its lower reaches, there is a large stretch of boggy but fertile soil, which is ideal for growing sugar cane.
Black inmates were sent to several prison farms along the Brazos, to work on chain gangs chopping sugar cane and cotton.
Large numbers of black men were sent to prison, often on minor charges. They paid for their keep by being forced onto work gangs, to perform what was essentially slave labor.
Chopping cane is one of the most unpleasant jobs imaginable. It required ...stand in several inches of muddy water in dense, snake-infested stands of cane, stooping over to chop cane with a machete, during oppressive summer heat, with mosquitoes too thick to even bother swatting them.
White guards watched the inmates from horseback, with rifles ready to shoot anyone who tried to escape. These chain gangs continued to exist into the 1960s.
--www.gillan.com
This "swinging-chant" is sung to a slow 4/4 beat:
"There ain't no more cane on the Brazos
O oho oho o!
Well they ground it all up in molasses
O oho oho o!
O Captain don't you do me like you done your poor shine
O oho oho!
Well they drove that poor Billy 'til he went stone blind
O oho oho o!
And if you comes on the river in Nineteen and four
O oho oho o!
You could find many dead men most every road
'Most every road.
And if you go on the river in Nineteen and ten
O oho oho!
They was driving the women like they drive the men
O oho oho o!
Why don't you rise up you dead men
Help me find my road?
O oho oho o!
Why don't you rise up you dead men
Help me drive my road?
O drive my road?
Well there's some in the building
And there's some in the yard
O oho oho o!
There's some in the graveyard
And there's some going home
Some going home...
Why don't you wake up you people
And lift up your heads?
O oho oho!
You may get your pardon
But you may end up dead
O oho oho o!"
[I]--No more cane on the Brazos, Huddie Leadbetter (Leadbelly)