Rosenbaum, Art

Description

Art Rosenbaum records Doc Barnes and Lucy Barnes in Athens, Georgia. Doc shares his memories of Athens as a boy. There were only dirt streets, no paved streets, and mules and wagons were used as transportation for local industry. He and his father and older brother hauled lumber from Barnett Shoals Road to Athens in a two-horse wagon. They would work through the night, and sometimes his father would let him drive the wagon. As an adult, Barnes plowed mules and picked cotton. His wife Lucy picked cotton too, and they often sang together as they worked. They worked for multiple cotton farmers in the area. They picked five hundred pounds of cotton per person per day, for 40 cents per hundred pounds. In another job, white employees earned less money than he but worked a lot less. Barnes' work was in Whitehall, Georgia, and he often sang while he worked. He and Lucy sing songs from their childhood. Barnes shares stories told to him by his father, who lived during slavery. Songs and interview segments: Interview - Work - Work Songs: Tin Can Alley - Little Sally Walker - Go Skipping Through The Window, We Shall Rise, Open The Door For The Children, Interview, Walk Together Little Children, I Was Lost In A World Of Sin, Alone And Motherless, Everybody Goin' To Have A Wonderful Time.

Record Contributed By

Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Georgia