The Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad (Y&MV) was incorporated in 1882 and was part of the

Illinois Central Railroad The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the Central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama. A line al ...

system (IC). Construction began in

Jackson, Mississippi Jackson, officially the City of Jackson, is the capital of and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city is also one of two county seats of Hinds County, along with Raymond. The city had a population of 153,701 at t ...

, and continued to

Yazoo City, Mississippi Yazoo City is a U.S. city in Yazoo County, Mississippi. It was named after the Yazoo River, which, in turn was named by the French explorer Robert La Salle in 1682 as "Rivière des Yazous" in reference to the Yazoo tribe living near the river's ...

. The line was later expanded through the

Mississippi Delta The Mississippi Delta, also known as the Yazoo–Mississippi Delta, or simply the Delta, is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi (and portions of Arkansas and Louisiana) that lies between the Mississippi and Yaz ...

and on to

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mo ...

. In 1886, the IC purchased the

Mississippi and Tennessee Railroad The Mississippi and Tennessee Railroad was an American railroad constructed in the 1850s, connecting Memphis, Tennessee with Grenada, Mississippi. In Grenada, the line connected with the Mississippi Central Railroad. History The railroad was ...

. In 1892, the IC bought the Memphis to New Orleans line, forming the Louisville, New Orleans and Texas Railway. These lines were merged into the Y&MV. Main lines included Memphis to New Orleans via Vicksburg and Baton Rouge, Memphis to Tutwiler, Clarksdale, MS to Yazoo City, Clarksdale to Jackson, MS, and Jackson to Natchez. Between 1945 and 1946, the IC began to absorb its subsidiaries. The Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad ceased to operate as an independent railroad. Later railroad restructuring ended passenger service on this line.

Blues music

The railroad - or its predecessor, the Yazoo Delta Railway ( Moorhead- Ruleville) - is featured in a number of

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the ...

songs by African-American artists as the Yellow Dog Railroad. According to W. C. Handy, locals assigned the words "Yellow Dog" to the letters Y.D. on the freight trains which they saw passing. The Mississippi Blues Commission placed a historic marker at the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad depot site in Rosedale, Mississippi, designating it as a site on the Mississippi Blues Trail. The marker commemorates the original lyrics of legendary blues artist Robert Johnson's "Traveling Riverside Blues," which traced the route of the Y&MV. It ran south from

Friars Point Friars Point is a town in Coahoma County, Mississippi, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 896. Situated on the Mississippi River, Friars Point was once a busy port town, and remains the only place in Coahoma County with pub ...

to Vicksburg, with stops including Rosedale; and north to Memphis. The marker emphasizes a common theme of

songs of riding on the railroad, which is seen as a

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wi ...

for escape.

References

External links

Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Chapter NRHS

Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Company Ledger(MUM00497)
at the University of Mississippi, Archives and Special Collections. {{DEFAULTSORT:Yazoo Mississippi Valley Railroad Defunct Mississippi railroads Former Class I railroads in the United States Predecessors of the Illinois Central Railroad Railway companies established in 1882 Railway companies disestablished in 1946 Defunct Tennessee railroads Defunct Louisiana railroads Defunct Arkansas railroads

Blues music

See also

References

External links