Up Jumped the Devil
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Driggs, Frank. Robert Johnson: King of the Delta Blues Singers. Columbia, 1961.
Gioia, Ted. “100 Years of Robert Johnson.” Robert Johnson: The Complete Original Masters Centennial Edition. Sony Music Entertainment, 2011: 3.
LaVere, Stephen C. Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings. Sony Columbia, 1990.
LaVere, Stephen C. “An Ambition Realized.” Robert Johnson: The Complete Original Masters Centennial Edition. Sony Music Entertainment, 2011: 6.
LaVere, Stephen C. “Art and Law Prevail.” Robert Johnson: The Complete Original Masters Centennial Edition. Sony Music Entertainment, 2011: 14.
Waxman, John. Robert Johnson: King of the Delta Blues Singers, vol. 2. Columbia, 1970.
Census Records
Alabama
Alabama. Pine Level, Enumeration District #140, Montgomery County. 1870 U.S. census, population schedule. Digital images. Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com: 2016.
Alabama. Pine Level, Enumeration District #140, Montgomery County. 1880 U.S. census, population schedule. Digital images. Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com: 2016.
Alabama. Dublin (Precinct 14), Enumeration District #117, Montgomery County. 1900 U.S. census, population schedule. Digital images. Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com: 2016.
Arkansas
Arkansas. Lucas Township, Enumeration District #61, Crittenden County. 1920 U.S. census, population schedule. Digital images. Ancestry.com http://www.ancestry.com: 2016.
Arkansas. Big Creek Township, Enumeration District #114, Lee County. 1920 U.S. census, population schedule. Digital images. Ancestry.com http://www.ancestry.com: 2016.
Arkansas. St. Francis Township, Second Ward, Enumeration District #54-21, Phillips County. 1930 U.S. census, population schedule. Digital images. Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com: 2016.
Arkansas. St. Francis Township, Helena City, Enumeration District #54-21, Phillips County. 1930 U.S. census, population schedule. Digital images. Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com: 2016.
Mississippi
Mississippi. Hazlehurst, Beat 1, Copiah County, 1870 U.S. census, population schedule. Digital images. Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com: 2016.
Mississippi. Hazlehurst, Townships 1 and 2 east of RR, Copiah County, 1870 U.S. census, population schedule. Digital images. Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com: 2016.
Mississippi. Hazlehurst, Townships 9 and 10 east of RR, Copiah County, 1870 U.S. census, population schedule. Digital images. Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com: 2016.
Mississippi. Hazlehurst, Beat 1, Copiah County, 1880 U.S. census, population schedule. Digital images. Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com: 2016.
Mississippi. Hazlehurst, Townships 1 and 2 east of RR, Copiah County, 1880 U.S. census, population schedule. Digital images. Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com: 2016.
Mississippi. Beat 3, Copiah County, 1880 U.S. census, population schedule. Digital images. Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com: 2016.
Mississippi. Hazlehurst, West Precinct, Part of Beat 1, Enumeration District #31, Copiah County. 1900 U.S. census, population schedule. Digital images. Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com: 2016.
Mississippi. Hazlehurst, West Precinct, Part of Beat 1, Enumeration District #33, Copiah County. 1900 U.S. census, population schedule. Digital images. Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com: 2016.
Mississippi. Part of Beat 2, Enumeration District #35, Copiah County. 1900 U.S. census, population schedule. Digital images. Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com: 2016.
Mississippi. Hazlehurst, Beat 1, Enumeration District #45, Copiah County. 1910 U.S. census, population schedule. Digital images. Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com: 2016.
Mississippi. Hazlehurst, Beat 1, Enumeration District #44, Copiah County. 1910 U.S. census, population schedule. Digital images. Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com: 2016.
Mississippi. Commerce, Beat 1, Enumeration District #98, Tunica County. 1910 U.S. census, population schedule. Digital images. Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com: 2016.
Mississippi. Hazlehurst, Enumeration District #47, Copiah County. 1920 U.S. census, population schedule. Digital images. Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com: 2016.
Mississippi. Beat 3, Enumeration District #6-24, Bolivar County. 1930 U.S. census, population schedule. Digital images. Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com: 2016.
Mississippi. Rosedale City, Enumeration District #6-8, Bolivar County. 1930 U.S. census, population schedule. Digital images. Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com: 2016.
Mississippi. Hazlehurst, Beat 3, Enumeration District #6-24, Copiah County. 1930 U.S. census, population schedule. Digital images. Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com: 2016.
Mississippi. Hazlehurst, Beat 3, Enumeration District #17-10, Copiah County. 1930 U.S. census, population schedule. Digital images. Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com: 2016.
Mississippi. Beat 3, Enumeration District #17-10, DeSoto County. 1930 U.S. census, population schedule. Digital images. Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com: 2016.
Mississippi. Beat 4, Enumeration District #17-11, DeSoto County. 1930 U.S. census, population schedule. Digital images. Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com: 2016.
Mississippi. Beat 4, Enumeration District #42-27, Leflore County. 1940 U.S. census, population schedule. Digital images. Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com: 2016.
Tennessee
Tennessee. Memphis (part of), Enumeration District #176, Shelby County. 1920 U.S. census, population schedule. Digital images. Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com: 2016.
Tennessee. Memphis (Ward 10), Enumeration District #9, Shelby County. 1940 U.S. census, population schedule. Digital images. Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com: 2016.
City Directories
R.L. Polk & Co., Memphis City Directory. 1908, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918, 1919, 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938.
Digital Sanborn Maps 1867–1970
Helena (Phillips County), Arkansas, 1926–1950.
West Memphis (Crittenden County), Arkansas, 1938.
Clarksdale (Coahoma County), Mississippi, 1929–1948.
Friars Point, Mississippi, 1924–1936.
Greenwood (Leflore County), Mississippi, 1926–1948.
Hazlehurst (Copiah County), Mississippi, 1886, 1892, 1897, 1902, 1907, 1913, 1925, 1925–43.
Rosedale (Bolivar County), Mississippi, 1924–1945.
Memphis (Shelby County), Tennessee, 1907, 1927, 1907–51.
Dallas (Dallas County), Texas, 1921–1952.
San Antonio (Bexar County), Texas, 1911–1951.
Vital Records
Death Certificates
Death certificate for Virginia Johnson, April 10, 1930. File No. 7664, Mississippi State Board of Health. Certified copy in possession of authors.
Death certificate for Robert L. Johnson, August 16, 1938. File No. 13704, Mississippi State Board of Health. Certified copy in possession of authors.
Death certificate for Charlie Dodds Spencer, November 28, 1940. File No. 28840, Tennessee State Board of Health. Certified copy in possession of authors.
Death certificate for Mollie Spencer, March 12, 1942. File No. C427, Tennessee State Board of Health. Certified copy in possession of authors.
Death record for Isaiah Zimmerman, August 3, 1967. Social Security Death Index, 1935–2014. Digital images. Ancestry.com. http://www.ancestry.com: 2016.
Marriage Licenses
C. C. Dodds and Julia Majors, February 2, 1889. Mississippi. Hazlehurst, City of. Copiah County. Marriage Certificates. Recorder of Deeds, City of Hazlehurst.
Noah Johnson and Mary Nelson, December 2, 1904. Mississippi. Hazlehurst, City of. Copiah County. Marriage Certificates. Recorder of Deeds, City of Hazlehurst.
Robert Johnson and Virginia Travis, February 16, 1929. Mississippi. Tunica, City of. Tunica County. Marriage Certificates. Recorder of Deeds, City
of Hazlehurst.
Robert Johnson and Callie Craft, May 4, 1931. Mississippi. Hazlehurst, City of. Copiah County. Marriage Certificates. Recorder of Deeds, City of Hazlehurst.
NOTES
Introduction
1Samuel Charters, The Country Blues (New York: Rinehart, 1959).
2Charters, Country Blues, 207–210.
3Robert Johnson, Robert Johnson: King of the Delta Blues Singers (New York: Columbia Records, 1961).
4Frank Driggs, Liner notes, Robert Johnson: King of the Delta Blues Singers (New York: Columbia Records, 1961).
5Pete Welding, Liner notes, Robert Johnson: King of the Delta Blues Singers, Vol II (New York: Columbia Records, 1970).
6Samuel Charters, Robert Johnson (New York: Oak Publications, 1972).
7Bruce Cook, Listen to the Blues (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1973).
8Peter Guralnick, “Searching for Robert Johnson,” Living Blues 53 (Summer-Autumn, 1982).
9Peter Guralnick, Searching for Robert Johnson” (New York: Dutton, 1989).
10“The Death of Robert Johnson,” Living Blues 94, special issue (November/December, 1990).
11Lawrence Cohn, e-mail to Bruce Conforth, January 4, 2016.
12Stephen LaVere, Liner notes, Robert Johnson, The Complete Recordings (New York: Columbia Records, 1990).
13The Search for Robert Johnson, directed by Chris Hunt (1992; Sony Music Entertainment, 2000) DVD.
14Barry Lee Pearson and Bill McCulloch, Robert Johnson: Lost and Found (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2003).
15Elijah Wald, Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues (New York: Amistad, 2004).
16Tom Graves, Crossroads: The Life and Afterlife of Blues Legend Robert Johnson (Spokane, WA: Demers Books, 2008).
17Steve LaVere, foreword to Crossroads: The Life and Afterlife of Blues Legend Robert Johnson, by Tom Graves (Spokane, Washington: Demers Books, 2008).
18Graves’s first chapter, “The Early Years,” is only four pages long, does not at all discuss Johnson’s childhood in Memphis (a very curious omission since Graves lives and teaches in that town), and devotes a full page and a half to the history of the diddley bow and Hawaiian music. In Graves’s second chapter, “Johnson as a Young Man,” Johnson’s life from age ten to nineteen is covered in only three pages. Chapter 3, “The Walking Musician Years,” is a scant seven pages that includes only one sentence about Ike Zimmerman (who Graves, following LaVere’s lead, erroneously identifies as Ike Zinermon), the guitarist who may have been Johnson’s greatest mentor. Chapter 4, “The Recording Years,” is another short seven-page offering with its majority dealing with the mechanics of recording in the 1930s. Finally, chapter 5, “The Death of a Rising Star,” is nine pages devoted to speculation about Johnson’s murder.
19Robert Johnson, Robert Johnson, The Complete Original Masters: Centennial Edition (Columbia: B00512ZFRU. 2011).
20Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, Hellhound on My Ale (Rehoboth Beach, DE: 2011).
Chapter 1: Robert Johnson Is in Town
1Hugh Jenkins (owner of Robert Johnson’s birthplace and longtime friend of Rosa Redman), interview by Bruce Conforth, Hazlehurst, Mississippi, August 14, 2017.
2Elizabeth Moore, interview with Gayle Dean Wardlow, Mitchner Plantation, May 18, 1968.
3Robert Hirsberg (son of the original owners of Hirsberg’s store in Friars Point, Mississippi), interview by Bruce Conforth, May 16, 2008.
Chapter 2: Before the Beginning
1“Mississippi Black Codes” in Laws of the State of Mississippi, Passed at a Called Session of the Mississippi Legislature, Held in Columbus, February and March, 1865 (Meridian, MS: J.J. Shannon & Co., 1865).
2James C. Cobb, The Most Southern Place on Earth: The Mississippi Delta and the Roots of Regional Identity (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994).
3According to the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, between 9.6 and 10.8 million Africans arrived in the Americas as a result of the slave trade. Over 90 percent of African slaves went directly to either the Caribbean or South America, while only 6 percent, or 600,000 to 650,000 Africans, were imported directly into North America. http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/slavery-and-anti-slavery/resources/facts-about-slave-trade-and-slavery. Other sources such as the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database (http://www.slavevoyages.org/tast/index.faces) put the number of Africans coming directly to North America even lower, perhaps as low as 305,000.
4Henry Louis Gates Jr., “Free Blacks Lived in the North, Right?,” The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, PBS, 2013. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/history/free-blacks-lived-in-the-north-right.
5Census records for the Dodds, Majors, and Johnson families are all from the US Department of Commerce United States Census.
6Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, State: Mississippi; County: Copiah; Hazlehurst, Part of Beat One; Enumeration District 33, Sheet 7, June 8, 1900.
7LaVere, Complete Recordings, 5.
8Randall Day, executive director of the Hazlehurst Area Chamber of Commerce, interview with Bruce Conforth, Hazlehurst, Mississippi, August 14, 2016.
9R. L. Polk & Co. 1908 Memphis City Directory; Dan Handwerker, interview by Bruce Conforth, Memphis, TN, May 7, 2015.
10Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, State: Mississippi; County: Copiah; Hazlehurst City; Enumeration District 45, Sheet 6-B, April 20, 1910.
11Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, State: Mississippi; County: Copiah; Hazlehurst City; Enumeration District 44, Sheet 13-B, May 3, 1910.
12Marriage license of Noah Johnson and Mary Nelson, December 14, 1904, Copiah County Courthouse, Hazlehurst, Mississippi.
Chapter 3: Memphis Days
1As important as Robert’s early life in Memphis was (it was crucial in shaping his musical and adult life), of the few works that have attempted to tell any portion of Robert Johnson’s life story none have spent more than a few sentences on his childhood in Memphis. Some of this is undoubtedly due to the belief that there was no information to be had about this period in Johnson’s life. Some of it is also due to the fact that apparently no one tried to put together information based upon contextual data: material that ends up revealing quite a bit about young Robert and the man he would become.
2Robert “Mack” McCormick, Search for Robert Johnson, DVD.
3Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, State: Tennessee; County: Shelby; Memphis, (Part of); Enumeration District 176, Sheet 2-A, January 3, 1920. This record was made after Julia Majors had taken Robert back from the Spencer family, hence his absence. Charles’s wife Mollie is erroneously identified as Mandy. This type of census error was common on these early records.
4Preston Lauterbach, Beale Street Dynasty: Sex, Song, and the Struggle for the Soul of Memphis (New York: W. W. Norton, 2016), 121.
5George W. Lee, Beale Street: Where the Blues Began (College Park, MD: McGrath Publishing Co., 1934), 82–83.
6Lee, Beale Street, 79.
7Lee, Beale Street, 80.
8Larry Nager, Memphis Beat: The Life and Times of America’s Musical Crossroads (New York: St. Martin’s, 1998), 24.
9Bengt Olsson, Memphis Blues and Jug Bands (Studio Vista, 1970), 22.
10Tony Kail, A Secret History of Memphis Hoodoo: Rootworkers, Conjurers & Spirituals (Charleston, SC: History Press, 2017) 29–30.
11“Voudouism, African Fetich Worship Among the Memphis Negroes,” Memphis Daily Appeal, date and author unknown, reprinted in Paschal Randolph’s Seership! (1870), excerpted at www.southern-sporots.com.
12R. L. Windum, Can’t You Hear the Wind Howl: The Life & Music of Robert Johnson, directed by Peter Meyer (WinStar Home Entertainment, 1998), DVD.
13R. L. Polk & Co. 1917 Memphis City Directory.
14Gayle Dean Wardlow, Chasin’ That Devil Music (San Francisco: Backbeat Books, 1998), 201.
15The Public School System of Memphis, Tennessee. A Report of a Survey M
ade under the Direction of the Commissioner of Education (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1920), 72.
16LaVere,Complete Recordings, 5.
Chapter 4: Back to the Delta
1Nikki Walker, “Horseshoe Lake, Arkansas,” The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture (Little Rock, AR: Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, Central Arkansas Library System, 2018), http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=7164.
2Nikki Walker, “Horseshoe Lake.”
3An incorrect age for Robert is not unusual. Ages reported on census records were highly unreliable. Julia’s reported age and those of all her children were inconsistent from one census record to the next.
4Margaret Elizabeth Woolfolk, A History of Crittenden County, Arkansas (Greenville, SC: Southern Historical Press, 1991), 83.
5Tom Freeland, “‘He Would Go Out and Stay Out’—Some Witnesses to the Short Life of Robert Johnson,” Living Blues (March 2000): 44.
6Lawrence A. Jones and David Durand, eds., Mortgage Lending Experience in Agriculture (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1954), 95–96.
7David “Honeyboy” Edwards, interview with Gayle Dean Wardlow, 1991.
8Indian Creek school record 1924, Tunica County, Mississippi.
9Guralnick, Searching for Robert Johnson, 12–13.
10Guralnick, Searching for Robert Johnson, 13.
11Windum, Can’t You Hear the Wind Howl, DVD.
12Freeland, “‘He Would Go Out and Stay Out,’” 44.
13Freeland, “‘He Would Go Out and Stay Out,’” 44.
14Freeland, “‘He Would Go Out and Stay Out,’” 44.
15Dr. Richard Taylor, email correspondence to Dr. Bruce Conforth, February 5, 2016.
16Debra Devi, “Robert Johnson and the Myth of the Illiterate Bluesman,” Huffpost: Arts & Culture, December 8, 2013, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/debra-devi/robert-johnson-and-the-my_b_1628118.html.
17Israel “Wink” Clark, Search for Robert Johnson, DVD.
18Pearson and McCulloch, Robert Johnson, 6.
19R. L.Windum, Can’t You Hear the Wind Howl, DVD.
20Willie Mason, Can’t You Hear the Wind Howl, DVD.
21Freeland, “‘He Would Go Out and Stay Out,’” 44.