The Lynching Blues: Robert Johnson\u27s Hellhound on My Trail as a Lynching Ballad

Despite Johnson’s small body of recorded blues, his “Hellhound on My Trail” (1937) is noted as one of blues music’s most terrifying songs, as well as a cornerstone of early blues music. Blues historians have interpreted “Hellhound on My Trail” in a variety of ways; however, the most popular interpretation is that the song evokes Johnson’s fabled deal with the Devil—a deal in which Johnson sold his soul in exchange for musical prowess. Though there are dangers in assuming that Johnson’s lyrics are real-to-life biographical descriptions, I will argue that the impetus and context for Johnson’s “Hellhound on My Trail” may be partially biographical, specifically, that Robert Johnson’s stepfather Charles Dodds’s near lynching and flight from the Mississippi Delta in 1909 is a plausible rhetorical context in which to understand the song. Rather than simply an ode to his deal with the Devil, Johnson’s “Hellhound on My Trail” can also be understood as a lynching ballad that describes grassroots responses to lynching, such as flight and the anxieties that arise from perpetually fleeing lynch mob violence.https://egrove.olemiss.edu/studythesouth/1021/thumbnail.jp

Arm-in-cage testing of natural human-derived mosquito repellents

BACKGROUND: Individual human subjects are differentially attractive to mosquitoes and other biting insects. Previous investigations have demonstrated that this can be attributed partly to enhanced production of natural repellent chemicals by those individuals that attract few mosquitoes in the laboratory. The most important compounds in this respect include three aldehydes, octanal, nonanal and decanal, and two ketones, 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one and geranylacetone [(E)-6,10-dimethylundeca-5,9-dien-2-one]. In olfactometer trials, these compounds interfered with attraction of mosquitoes to a host and consequently show promise as novel mosquito repellents. METHODS: To test whether these chemicals could provide protection against mosquitoes, laboratory repellency trials were carried out to test the chemicals individually at different concentrations and in different mixtures and ratios with three major disease vectors: Anopheles gambiae, Culex quinquefasciatus and Aedes aegypti. RESULTS: Up to 100% repellency was achieved depending on the type of repellent compound tested, the concentration and the relative composition of the mixture. The greatest effect was observed by mixing together two compounds, 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one and geranylacetone in a 1:1 ratio. This mixture exceeded the repellency of DEET when presented at low concentrations. The repellent effect of this mixture was maintained over several hours. Altering the ratio of these compounds significantly affected the behavioural response of the mosquitoes, providing evidence for the ability of mosquitoes to detect and respond to specific mixtures and ratios of natural repellent compounds that are associated with host location. CONCLUSION: The optimum mixture of 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one and geranylacetone was a 1:1 ratio and this provided the most effective protection against all species of mosquito tested. With further improvements in formulation, selected blends of these compounds have the potential to be exploited and developed as human-derived novel repellents for personal protection

Resisting Lynching: Black Grassroots Responses to Lynching in the Mississippi and Arkansas Deltas, 1882-1938

???Resisting Lynching: Black Grassroots Responses to Lynching in the Mississippi and Arkansas Deltas, 1882-1938??? explores the social and cultural history of the black experience of lynching. It highlights the pervasiveness of lynch mob violence, the failure of local, state, and federal governments to prevent lynching and how these factors combined to shape the development of black grassroots protest in the Delta region. As such, this dissertation traces how Delta blacks responded to the crisis of white lynch mob violence in a variety of contexts. Specifically, it examines the rise and decline of black lynch mobs, black violent confrontations with white mobs as well as lynching???s impact on black popular culture and historical memory. My main contention is that these disparate but related responses represent a grassroots tradition of black resistance to white lynch mob violence. This dissertation counters histories of lynching that have tended to view black lynch victims and black communities as primarily passive victims of white mob violence. It moves beyond histories of black anti-lynching protest that have primarily focused on prominent black spokespersons and national organizations that lobbied for state and federal anti-lynching legislation. In contrast, it demonstrates that Delta blacks routinely organized resistance to lynching through social networks and vigorously contested white rationales for mob violence. In highlighting black grassroots resistance, I argue that histories of lynching are not necessarily stories of black victimization and disempowerment. Rather, the history of lynching provides a fertile ground upon which to understand black self activity and the social and political dynamics that produce it. As such, ???Resisting Lynching??? aims to contribute to a new and emerging trend within lynching scholarship that seeks to ???rehumanize??? black lynch victims by situating the black response as the focal point of lynching narratives

Resisting Lynching: Black Grassroots Responses to Lynching in the Mississippi and Arkansas Deltas, 1882--1938

241 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009.This dissertation counters histories of lynching that have tended to view black lynch victims and black communities as primarily passive victims of white mob violence. It moves beyond histories of black anti-lynching protest that have primarily focused on prominent black spokespersons and national organizations that lobbied for state and federal anti-lynching legislation. In contrast, it demonstrates that Delta blacks routinely organized resistance to lynching through social networks and vigorously contested white rationales for mob violence. In highlighting black grassroots resistance, I argue that histories of lynching are not necessarily stories of black victimization and disempowerment. Rather, the history of lynching provides a fertile ground upon which to understand black self activity and the social and political dynamics that produce it. Within this context, "Resisting Lynching" aims to contribute to a new and emerging trend within lynching scholarship that seeks to "rehumanize" black lynch victims by situating the black response as the focal point of lynching narratives.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD

Resisting Lynching: Black Grassroots Responses to Lynching in the Mississippi and Arkansas Deltas, 1882--1938

241 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009.This dissertation counters histories of lynching that have tended to view black lynch victims and black communities as primarily passive victims of white mob violence. It moves beyond histories of black anti-lynching protest that have primarily focused on prominent black spokespersons and national organizations that lobbied for state and federal anti-lynching legislation. In contrast, it demonstrates that Delta blacks routinely organized resistance to lynching through social networks and vigorously contested white rationales for mob violence. In highlighting black grassroots resistance, I argue that histories of lynching are not necessarily stories of black victimization and disempowerment. Rather, the history of lynching provides a fertile ground upon which to understand black self activity and the social and political dynamics that produce it. Within this context, "Resisting Lynching" aims to contribute to a new and emerging trend within lynching scholarship that seeks to "rehumanize" black lynch victims by situating the black response as the focal point of lynching narratives.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD

Panel 4: Comics and the South

Moderator: Marc Watkin