Blues in the Lower Chattahoochee Valley
Steve Bransford, Emory University
Essay Sections:
Introduction | The
Region | Topics and Terms | Blues
Artists | Bryant, Daniel and
Mitchell | Audio Interview Excerpts |Assorted
Audio Performances |Recommended Resources
The Region:
This section provides geographical,
sociological, and historical
information about the Lower Chattahoochee Valley.
Historian Fred Fussell offers a precise geographical
definition of the region:
The Lower Chattahoochee River Valley region . . .
is marked at its northern end by the point at which the Chattahoochee
River, as it flows through the Georgia Piedmont, first touches Alabama.
The southern end of the region is designated by the point where it connects
with the Flint River at the Florida border. There the two joined rivers
become the Appalachicola and flow on southward to the Gulf. East to west
the Chattahoochee River’s sphere of influence is defined by its
watershed—with its thousands of tributaries—the creeks, streams,
brooks, and branches which feed it. So defined, the lower Chattahoochee
River valley region is, in essence, the geographical center of the Deep
South. There are a total of eighteen counties that lie within the nucleus
of the Lower Chattahoochee Valley region—seven in Alabama, eleven
in Georgia. The Chattahoochee region begins, in the north, at Troup County
in Georgia and Chambers County in Alabama and then runs southward through
Lee, Russell, Barbour, Henry, and Dale Counties in Alabama and through
Harris, Muscogee, Chattahoochee, Stewart, Quitman, Randolph, Clay, Early,
and Decatur Counties in Georgia to end up in Houston County in Alabama
and Seminole County in Georgia, both of which border the Florida state
line.
(Fussell, Fred. A Chattahoochee Album: Images of Traditional People and Folksy Places Around the Lower Chattahoochee Valley [Eufala, AL: Historic Chattahoochee Comission, 2000] page 1)
(Fussell, Fred. A Chattahoochee Album: Images of Traditional People and Folksy Places Around the Lower Chattahoochee Valley [Eufala, AL: Historic Chattahoochee Comission, 2000] page 1)
Map:
 |
NASA's group in Southeast Regional Climate Assessment
produced this map. It contains only 16 counties, but helps contextualize
where the region is and what it looks like. Please click on the map to access a larger version. |
Fussell's definition of the region is extremely
helpful, but there are a number of great blues artists who are from
towns just outside the main eighteen Lower Chattahoochee counties:
Cecil Barfield from Bronwood, GA (in Terrell County,
approximately twelve miles east of Randolph County)
Cliff Scott and Dixon Hunt from Draneville, GA (in Marion County, approximately ten miles east of Stewart County)
Jim Bunkley and Golden Bailey from Geneva, GA (in Talbot County, approximately eight miles east of Muscogee County)
Albert Macon and Robert Thomas from Society Hill, AL (in Macon County, one mile outside the intersection of Lee and Russell Counties)
Green Paschal from Talbotton, GA (in Talbot County approximately eight miles east of Muscogee County)
Jessie Clarence Gorman and Bud Grant from Thomaston, GA (five miles east of Talbot County)
Cliff Scott and Dixon Hunt from Draneville, GA (in Marion County, approximately ten miles east of Stewart County)
Jim Bunkley and Golden Bailey from Geneva, GA (in Talbot County, approximately eight miles east of Muscogee County)
Albert Macon and Robert Thomas from Society Hill, AL (in Macon County, one mile outside the intersection of Lee and Russell Counties)
Green Paschal from Talbotton, GA (in Talbot County approximately eight miles east of Muscogee County)
Jessie Clarence Gorman and Bud Grant from Thomaston, GA (five miles east of Talbot County)
Because these artists are integral parts of the regional
blues sound, I have stretched the boundaries of the region to include
them. In addition to the eighteen counties that Fussell lists, I have
expanded the region to include Marion, Talbot, and Terrell Counties in
Georgia; the town of Thomaston, Georgia; and the tiny town of Society
Hill in Alabama.
(all figures taken from the 2000 U.S. Census)
Total population of all 21 counties in Lower Chattahoochee Valley: 761,915
Population on Georgia side: 377,220
% White/% Black on Georgia side: 54.7/40.8 (206,490/153,960)
Population on Alabama side: 384,695
% White/% Black on Alabama side: 68.3/28.8 (262,842/110,940)
% White/% Black in region: 61.6/34.8 (469,332/264,900)
% White/% Black in state of Georgia: 65.1/28.7 (5,329,381/2, 349,512)
% White/% Black in state of Alabama: 71.1/26.0 (3,161,888/1,156,246)
% White/% Black in all of United States: 75.1/12.3 (211,347,900/34,614890)
Population on Georgia side: 377,220
% White/% Black on Georgia side: 54.7/40.8 (206,490/153,960)
Population on Alabama side: 384,695
% White/% Black on Alabama side: 68.3/28.8 (262,842/110,940)
% White/% Black in region: 61.6/34.8 (469,332/264,900)
% White/% Black in state of Georgia: 65.1/28.7 (5,329,381/2, 349,512)
% White/% Black in state of Alabama: 71.1/26.0 (3,161,888/1,156,246)
% White/% Black in all of United States: 75.1/12.3 (211,347,900/34,614890)
These figures show that there is a higher percentage
of African Americans living in the Lower Chattahoochee Valley as compared
to the overall percentages for Georgia, Alabama, and the United States.
The percentage of black to white in Georgia is notably higher than in
Alabama. For more information, please visit a
racial breakdown of the population of the fourteen Georgia counties
in
the Lower Chattahoochee Valley.
Video:
 |
Interview with George Mitchell (2:44 min.)
Mitchell discusses the racial problems he observed
in the lower Chattahoochee Valley, including a story about how he
was chased off a plantation owner's land while recording Cecil Barfield.
|
The percentage of people living below the poverty line in the
United States is 12.4%, and the per capita income of an American adult is $21,587.
In comparison, the percentage of people living below the poverty line in Georgia is 13%, and the per capita income of an adult in Georgia is $21,154; (See Table) while the percentage of people living below the poverty line in Alabama is 16.1%, and the per capita income of an adult in Alabama is $18,189 (See Table.) With the exception of Houston (in the southeast corner of the state on the Florida border, containing the town of Dothan) and Dale (just northwest of Houston County), all the Alabama counties in the Chattahoochee Region are poorer than the state average.
In comparison, the percentage of people living below the poverty line in Georgia is 13%, and the per capita income of an adult in Georgia is $21,154; (See Table) while the percentage of people living below the poverty line in Alabama is 16.1%, and the per capita income of an adult in Alabama is $18,189 (See Table.) With the exception of Houston (in the southeast corner of the state on the Florida border, containing the town of Dothan) and Dale (just northwest of Houston County), all the Alabama counties in the Chattahoochee Region are poorer than the state average.
(taken primarily from A Chattahoochee Album by Fred Fussell)
It is believed that Native Americans lived in and around the region for ten
thousand years before the invading Spaniards came in the late 17th century.
The very first European settlement in the Chattahoochee Valley came in 1689 by Spanish monks who built the mission and fort of Apalachicola, approximately 15 miles south of Columbus in Russell County Alabama.
The 1825 Treaty of Indian Springs opened the way for the forced removal of the native people from the region. Cotton plantations, textile mills, and riverboat operations quickly sprouted up after this point.
Georgians and not Alabamians have controlled the industry on the river. In the past, the river was the main transportation route between rural communities but today that is no longer the case.
In 1900, 75.3 percent of all black farmers were tenants or sharecroppers in the South, and as late as 1910, 78.8 percent of all blacks in the South lived in rural areas, the majority in the Cotton Belt.
Masses of country people devastated by the Great Depression left their family farms in Southeast Alabama and made their way to the textile communities of Columbus and the other mill towns to the north. In the '30s thru the '50s thousands of black families left the region to seek their fortune elsewhere in the urban centers of the Northeast and Midwest. Atlanta was the "gravitational center of the Southeast".
Columbus was the last city of its size in the U.S. to be connected to the interstate highway system.
Immigration has increased in the region, making the area more diverse than just the black white split
In Harris County lies the western side of the ending segment of the Southern Appalachian mountains: the Pine Mountain Ridge, where the mountains, the Piedmont, and the coastal plain converge.
Flat-land agriculture and pine tree forestry are the principal, and sometimes only substantial economic activities within extensive sections of the region.
The word Chattahoochee is usually declared as originating in the Muskogean language and usually means something like "painted rock".
The very first European settlement in the Chattahoochee Valley came in 1689 by Spanish monks who built the mission and fort of Apalachicola, approximately 15 miles south of Columbus in Russell County Alabama.
The 1825 Treaty of Indian Springs opened the way for the forced removal of the native people from the region. Cotton plantations, textile mills, and riverboat operations quickly sprouted up after this point.
Georgians and not Alabamians have controlled the industry on the river. In the past, the river was the main transportation route between rural communities but today that is no longer the case.
In 1900, 75.3 percent of all black farmers were tenants or sharecroppers in the South, and as late as 1910, 78.8 percent of all blacks in the South lived in rural areas, the majority in the Cotton Belt.
Masses of country people devastated by the Great Depression left their family farms in Southeast Alabama and made their way to the textile communities of Columbus and the other mill towns to the north. In the '30s thru the '50s thousands of black families left the region to seek their fortune elsewhere in the urban centers of the Northeast and Midwest. Atlanta was the "gravitational center of the Southeast".
Columbus was the last city of its size in the U.S. to be connected to the interstate highway system.
Immigration has increased in the region, making the area more diverse than just the black white split
In Harris County lies the western side of the ending segment of the Southern Appalachian mountains: the Pine Mountain Ridge, where the mountains, the Piedmont, and the coastal plain converge.
Flat-land agriculture and pine tree forestry are the principal, and sometimes only substantial economic activities within extensive sections of the region.
The word Chattahoochee is usually declared as originating in the Muskogean language and usually means something like "painted rock".
Essay Sections:
Introduction | The
Region | Topics and Terms | Blues
Artists | Bryant, Daniel and
Mitchell | Audio Interview Excerpts |Assorted
Audio Performances |Recommended Resources
