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32-619: Dockery Plantation was a 25,600-acre (104 km) cotton plantation and sawmill in Dockery, Mississippi , on the Sunflower River between Ruleville and Cleveland, Mississippi . It is widely regarded as the place where Delta blues music was born. Blues musicians resident at Dockery included Charley Patton , Robert Johnson and Howlin' Wolf . The property was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006. The plantation

64-558: A gospel singer. By the end of 2016, the Mississippi Blues Trail had placed nearly 200 markers. They honored individual artists, clubs, record companies, radio stations, and historic events, but also the plantations, streets, cities, and counties that developed as centers of blues activity. Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman was also commemorated, as folklorists such as Alan Lomax recorded blues there by inmates (most notably Bukka White ) on several occasions, dating to

96-533: A high marginal product of labor realized through the increasing number of enslaved people. Plantings of the Pará rubber tree ( Hevea brasiliensis ) are usually called plantations. Oil palm agriculture rapidly expands across wet tropical regions and is usually developed at a plantation scale. Fruit orchards are sometimes considered to be plantations. These include tobacco , sugarcane , pineapple , bell pepper , and cotton , especially in historical usage. Before

128-508: A lack of natural regeneration. The tree species used in a plantation are also an important factor. Where non-native varieties or species are grown, few native faunas are adapted to exploit these, and further biodiversity loss occurs. However, even non-native tree species may serve as corridors for wildlife and act as a buffer for native forests, reducing edge effect . Once a plantation is established, managing it becomes an important environmental factor. The most critical aspect of management

160-507: A natural forest is cleared for a planted forest, then a reduction in biodiversity and loss of habitat will likely result. In some cases, their establishment may involve draining wetlands to replace mixed hardwoods that formerly predominated with pine species. If a plantation is established on abandoned agricultural land or highly degraded land, it can increase both habitat and biodiversity. A planted forest can be profitably established on lands that will not support agriculture or suffer from

192-567: A portion of the land in return for a share of the crop, while others were itinerant workers. Dockery earned a good reputation for treating his workers and sharecroppers fairly and thus attracted workers from throughout the South. Dockery's land was relatively remote, but was opened up for development by a new branch of the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad , known as the Yellow Dog . Around 1900, Dockery had

224-550: A rail terminal built on his plantation, so connecting his land with the main rail system at Rosedale . Because of its circuitous route, this local line was known as the "Pea Vine". Dockery Plantation eventually supported over 2,000 workers, who were paid in the plantation's own coins. In addition to the railroad terminal, it had its own plantation store , post office, school, doctor, and churches. The workers’ quarters included boardinghouses, where they lived, socialized and played music, particularly guitars, which had been introduced to

256-649: A tool of environmental restoration . Sugar plantations were highly valued in the Caribbean by the British and French colonists in the 17th and 18th centuries, and the use of sugar in Europe rose during this period. Sugarcane is still an important crop in Cuba. Sugar plantations also arose in countries such as Barbados and Cuba because of the natural endowments that they had. These natural endowments included soil conducive to growing sugar and

288-468: Is in the Mississippi Delta , but other regions of the state are also commemorated. Several out-of-state markers have also been erected where blues with Mississippi roots has had significance, such as Chicago . The list of markers and locations was developed by a panel of blues scholars and historians. The trail has been implemented in stages as funds have become available. The National Endowment for

320-420: Is the rotation period. Plantations harvested on more extended rotation periods (30 years or more) can provide similar benefits to a naturally regenerated forest managed for wood production on a similar rotation. This is especially true if native species are used. In the case of exotic species, the habitat can be improved significantly if the impact is mitigated by measures such as leaving blocks of native species in

352-627: The American Civil War . The mild temperate climate , plentiful rainfall, and fertile soils of the Southeastern United States allowed the flourishing of large plantations, where large numbers of enslaved Africans were held captive and forced to produce crops to create wealth for a white elite . When Newfoundland was colonized by England in 1610, the original colonists were called "planters", and their fishing rooms were known as "fishing plantations". These terms were used well into

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384-540: The Southern United States from the 17th into the 20th century. The complex included everything from the main residence down to the pens for livestock . Until the abolition of slavery , such plantations were generally self-sufficient settlements that relied on the forced labor of enslaved people. Plantations are an important aspect of the history of the Southern United States , particularly before

416-493: The company store . In Brazil, a sugarcane plantation was termed an engenho ("engine"), and the 17th-century English usage for organized colonial production was "factory." Such colonial social and economic structures are discussed at Plantation economy . Sugar workers on plantations in Cuba and elsewhere in the Caribbean lived in company towns known as bateyes . Plantation complexes were common on agricultural plantations in

448-522: The 20th century. The following three plantations are maintained by the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador as provincial heritage sites: Other fishing plantations: [REDACTED] Media related to Plantations at Wikimedia Commons Mississippi Blues Trail The Mississippi Blues Trail was created by the Mississippi Blues Commission in 2006 to place interpretive markers at

480-570: The Arts , National Endowment for the Humanities , and Mississippi Department of Transportation have provided grants for funding of various markers, which are co-sponsored with funds from local communities. The marker texts are researched and written by Jim O'Neal and Scott Barretta, former editors of Living Blues magazine, together with an editorial and design team that has included Wanda Clark; Chrissy Wilson; Allan Hammons; and Sylvester Oliver. Prior to

512-603: The Delta blues. The property was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006. Today the site hosts a small number of private tours, lectures, and events in partnership with the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, Delta State University , and other academic and cultural institutions. Dockery is still a working farm, producing soybeans, rice, and corn (but not cotton.) There is a private house located behind

544-492: The Mississippi Blues Trail. Apart from the town’s unique historical legacy, which includes printing its own money, Dockery was home to famed bluesman Charley Patton and played a significant role in the development of the Delta blues. Cotton plantation In modern use, the term usually refers only to large-scale estates. Before about 1860, it was the usual term for a farm of any size in the southern parts of British North America , with, as Noah Webster noted, "farm" becoming

576-772: The Service Station, which is used by members of the Dockery family and their relatives as a "vacation" home, although it is not anyone's primary residence. A marker designating Dockery Plantation as a site on the Mississippi Blues Trail is an acknowledgment of the important contribution of the plantation to the development of the blues in Mississippi. The marker was placed in Cleveland, Mississippi . Governor Haley Barbour stated I’m pleased to include Dockery Plantation on

608-567: The area by Mexican workers in the 1890s. Dockery took no interest in his workers' music, but he made it easy for them to travel and to spend their leisure time as they pleased. Charley Patton and his family are believed to have moved around 1900 to the Dockery Plantation, where he came under the influence of an older musician, Henry Sloan . In turn, Patton became the central figure of a group of blues musicians including Willie Brown , Tommy Johnson , and Eddie "Son" House , who played around

640-461: The commercial production of timber or tree products such as palm oil , coffee , or rubber . Teak and bamboo plantations in India have given good results and an alternative crop solution to farmers of central India, where conventional farming was widespread. But due to the rising input costs of agriculture, many farmers have done teak and bamboo plantations, which require very little water (only during

672-530: The earliest examples of plantations were the latifundia of the Roman Empire , which produced large quantities of grain, wine, and olive oil for export. Plantation agriculture proliferated with the increase in international trade and the development of a worldwide economy that followed the expansion of European colonialism . Tree plantations, in the United States often called tree farms , are established for

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704-431: The farms. In 1936, the plantation was inherited by Joe Rice Dockery (1906–1982). With agricultural mechanisation and the employment attractions of the larger cities further north, the plantation settlements gradually disappeared, although some of the historic buildings remain. The farm later diversified to produce corn, rice and soybeans. Later members of the Dockery family have established a foundation to fund research into

736-464: The first two years). Teak and bamboo have legal protection from theft. Bamboo, once planted, gives output for 50 years till flowering occurs. Teak requires 20 years to grow to full maturity and fetch returns. These may be established for watershed or soil protection. They are established for erosion control, landslide stabilization, and windbreaks. Such plantations are established to foster native species and promote forest regeneration on degraded lands as

768-699: The founding of the Mississippi Blues Trail, two preliminary markers were placed in Indianola, Mississippi , at a corner where B.B. King played as a young man, and at the Club Ebony. The first three Mississippi Blues Trail markers were dedicated on December 11, 2006. The first, at Holly Ridge , is dedicated to Delta blues pioneer Charley Patton . The second marker is located by the Southern Whispers Restaurant on Nelson Street in Greenville . Nelson Street,

800-518: The home of many nightclubs, cafes, and juke joints over the years, was once the primary center of African-American business, entertainment, and social life in the Delta. For many decades this historic strip drew crowds to the flourishing club scene to hear Delta blues ; big band ; jump blues ; rhythm & blues ; and jazz . The third marker was unveiled at the original location of WGRM radio station in Greenwood , where B.B. King first broadcast as

832-469: The local area. Because of its location, central to Sunflower County ’s black population of some 35,000 in 1920, the plantation became known as a centre for informal musical entertainment. By the mid-1920s, the group widened to include a younger generation of musicians, including Robert Johnson , Chester " Howlin’ Wolf " Burnett, Roebuck "Pops" Staples , and David "Honeyboy" Edwards . Some of these were itinerant workers, while others lived more permanently on

864-539: The low wages typically paid to plantation workers are the basis of plantation profitability in some areas. In more recent times, overt slavery has been replaced by para-slavery or slavery-in-kind , including the sharecropping system , and even that has been severely reduced. At its most extreme, workers are in " debt bondage ": they must work to pay off a debt at such punitive interest rates that it may never be paid off. Others work unreasonably long hours and are paid subsistence wages that (in practice) may only be spent in

896-471: The most notable historical sites related to the birth, growth, and influence of the blues throughout (and in some cases beyond) the state of Mississippi . Within the state the trail extends from the Gulf Coast north along several highways to (among other points) Natchez , Vicksburg , Jackson , Leland, Greenwood, Clarksdale, Tunica, Grenada, Oxford, Columbus, and Meridian. The largest concentration of markers

928-579: The plantation or retaining corridors of natural forest. In Brazil, similar measures are required by government regulation. Plantation owners extensively used enslaved Africans to work on early plantations (such as tobacco, rice, cotton, hemp, and sugar plantations) in the American colonies and the United States, throughout the Caribbean, the Americas, and in European-occupied areas of Africa. In modern times,

960-521: The rise of cotton in the American South, indigo and rice were also sometimes called plantation crops. Probably the most critical factor a plantation has on the local environment is the site where the plantation is established. In Brazil, coffee plantations would use slash-and-burn agriculture, tearing down rainforests and planting coffee trees that depleted the nutrients in soil. Once the soil had been sapped, growers would move on to another place. If

992-637: The usual term from about Maryland northward. The enslavement of people was the norm in Maryland and states southward. The plantations there were forced-labor farms. The term "plantation" was used in most British colonies but very rarely in the United Kingdom itself in this sense. There it was used mainly for tree plantations , areas artificially planted with trees, whether purely for commercial forestry , or partly for ornamental effect in gardens and parks, when it might also cover plantings of garden shrubs. Among

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1024-601: Was started in 1895 by Will Dockery (1865–1936), a graduate of the University of Mississippi who originally bought the land for its timber but soon recognized the richness of its soil. At the time, much of the Delta area was still a wilderness of cypress and gum trees, roamed by panthers and wolves and plagued with mosquitoes. The land was gradually cleared and drained for cotton cultivation, which encouraged an influx of black labourers. Some became settled sharecroppers , who would work

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