Record Album, "Negro Prison Songs," 1958

Summary

Folklorist Alan Lomax, believing all people and cultures deserved equal respect, spent his career documenting remote musical traditions. This record's powerful songs, collected 1947-8 at the Mississippi State Penitentiary, attest to the parallels between the Deep South's oppressive prison system--requiring arduous physical labor under constant threat of physical punishment--and the experiences of enslaved work groups on 19th-century plantations.

Folklorist Alan Lomax, believing all people and cultures deserved equal respect, spent his career documenting remote musical traditions. This record's powerful songs, collected 1947-8 at the Mississippi State Penitentiary, attest to the parallels between the Deep South's oppressive prison system--requiring arduous physical labor under constant threat of physical punishment--and the experiences of enslaved work groups on 19th-century plantations.

Artifact

Phonograph record

Date Made

1958

Subject Date

1947

Location

Not on exhibit to the public.

Object ID

2001.142.53

Credit

From the Collections of The Henry Ford.

Material

Vinyl
Paper (Fiber product)
Cardboard

Dimensions

Height: 12.25 in

Width: 12.25 in

Inscriptions

cover, front: Negro Prison Songs Mississippi State Penitentiary Work Songs and Blues Recorded, Edited and Annotated By Alan Lomax Stereo cover, back: TLP 1020 Negro Prison Songs from the Mississippi State Penitentiary Tradition Records

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