If you really pay attention and study the lyrics of Blues songs, you will learn a great deal about the struggles on Southern plantations which gave birth to this form of music. Slavery, sharecropping, and oppression during the Jim Crow and Civil Rights Eras inspired African Americans to tell their story in song.  No one person invented the Blues.  It sprung out of gospel music.






Each song is a varied as the personal experiences of African Americans coming from slavery and involuntary servitude.  Music was the only of the only things they had to bring joy and to ease a troubled mind. This is the reason it may sound mournful to some who do not understand its origins.  The Blues has influenced Jazz, R&B, and  Rock 'n Roll.

People sang the Blues for themselves long before it was commercialized.  It started to become popular in the early 1900's.  The Mississippi Delta is recognized as the place that produced the greatest Blues artists.  Blues was also popular in the Carolinas and Texas.

Blues songs should become a major resource as we study African American history.  See this neglected art form as oral history put to song increases our appreciation for it.  From the Blues, we can gain great insights about the history of our ancestors in these rural areas.  Blues songs help to supplement the missing oral history in our own families.  Sheba, the Mississippi Queen, escaped with her mother and siblings from Sunflower Mississippi in 1965.  She grew up singing the Blues in the cotton fields.

The following video was shared by Sheba and Miami Dade College. Instructor, Robert Moore gathers a few of his friends to teach his students about the history of the Blues.  Listen especially to the words of the song Sheba dedicates to her mother and grandmother.  Sheba will share an article with us soon about the history of the songs included on her album, "Butter on My Roll."