How Lead Belly twice won freedom from prison through his music – Far Out Magazine

In 2018, former prison guard of the Texas Imperial State Prison Farm in Sugar Land, Reginald Moore, had his long-held suspicions proven. For decades, he maintained that the remains of some 100 formerly enslaved people and black prisoners, who had been forced to work during the states convict leasing programme, were buried on the prison grounds. In April 2018, construction workers found the remains on the site where folk legendLead Bellyhad been held prisoner in the late 1910s.

Lead Belly (real name Huddie William Ledbetter) was incarcerated at Imperial State Prison in 1918 to serve a 35-year murder and aggravated assault sentence. It is alleged that the virtuosic musician had shot a male rival in a fight over a woman. Texas immoral convict leasing programme, which often saw convicts worked to death while on lease to private parties, had only been discontinued eight years prior to Ledbetters arrival.

However, according to Moore, little else had changed since the 1910 abolition. It was horrific, he said, perHoustonia Magazine. The buildings were unsanitary, no good water, the food was bad, they were swarmed with flies and mosquitoes. The convict leasing was over, but Lead Belly lived in the same buildings black men before him had lived in, and he worked the prison fields.

At first, the erratic character Ledbetter attempted to escape the prison, but when these attempts failed, he opted to become a reputable prisoner. Its reported that he worked particularly hard and that his nickname stems from his brazen work ethic.

While imprisoned, Ledbetter was granted access to a guitar, and he began entertaining his fellow prisoners. It didnt take long for his talent to fall upon the ears of the warden, R.J. Flanagan. When he played for the warden, Moore remembered, He was playing about a block from the unmarked graves of the black men who had died in that system.

After Governor Pat Neff took office in 1921, he became one of several high-ranking political figures to be invited to Flanagans frequent soires. For added entertainment value, Flanagan began to welcome Ledbetter to his porch to perform in front of his distinguished guests.

The sharp folkie saw an opportunity and penned his now-classic song, Governor Pat Neff (Sweet Mary). The lyrics pleaded with the governor for his release so he could go home to his wife. If I had the Governor Neff like you got me, Id a-wake up in the mornin, I would set you free, he sang. Goin back to Mary, sweet Mary, the lyrics read.

Ledbetters objectives were audacious, to say the least, given that Neff had gained office with promises to right the wrongs of the previous governor, who had sold pardons to inmates. Alas, the tenacious Ledbetter continued to play for the governor and on Neffs final day in office in 1925, he granted the musician his freedom.

Lead Bellys story isnt the norm, Fred McGhee, an expert in African American archaeology, wrote of the feat. The story of the Imperial Prison Farm goes far deeper than Lead Belly. What happened for him, singing his way to freedom, that didnt happen for the majority of the quasi-enslaved African Americans who toiled there, many of whom died there.

Leadbetter spent the next five years as a free man, but his mischievous ways landed him back in the hands of the law in 1930. This time, he was imprisoned at Angola, the most notorious prison in the State of Louisiana, for charges of attempted murder.

While serving his term in Angola, Ledbetter wrote some of his mostwell-known songs, including Angola Blues. In the mid-30s, musicologists Alan and John Lomax tracked him down and recorded his performance of Midnight Special, the song that would ignite his rise to national acclaim. Just a few years later, in 1939, Ledbetter was turned loose early due to good behaviour and no doubt a helping hand from his rising fame.

It was that bad, Moore was quoted as saying. Lead Belly had talent that let things turn out differently for him. He won his freedom here. Most other people werent so lucky.

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How Lead Belly twice won freedom from prison through his music - Far Out Magazine