Parchman Farm

Parchman main gate

Between Clarksdale and Greenwood lies Parchman Farm, part of the Mississippi State Penetentiary.  18,000 acres of prime farmland.  That's a lot of land.  I tried to approach Parchman from the west side and ended up driving about 15 miles to get around to the front gate.

Parchman was established in 1901 and operates today.  In its prime, Parchman was run as a cotton plantation at a profit ... an enormous profit ... for the State.  That may be the reason that it was so very easy to get sent to Parchman if you happened to be an able-bodied black man.  Parchman is important to the blues because it is the source of Library of Congress recordings of the work songs that are part and parcel of the blues.