Dockery Plantation
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Dockery Farms Historic District
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Dockery Farms in 2005
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| Nearest city | Dockery, Mississippi |
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| Coordinates | 33°43′44″N 90°36′46″W / 33.72889°N 90.61278°WCoordinates: 33°43′44″N 90°36′46″W / 33.72889°N 90.61278°W |
| Area | 6 acres (2.4 ha) |
| Built | 1930 |
| NRHP Reference # | 06000250 |
| Added to NRHP | March 31, 2006 |
Dockery Plantation was a 10,000-acre (40 km2) cotton plantation and sawmill in Dockery, Mississippi, on the Sunflower River between Ruleville and Cleveland, Mississippi. It is widely regarded as the place where Delta blues music was born.Blues musicians resident at Dockery included Charlie Patton, Robert Johnson and Howlin' Wolf. The property was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.
The plantation was started in 1895 by Will Dockery (1865–1936), a graduate of the University of Mississippi who originally bought the land for its timber but soon recognised the richness of its soil. At the time, much of the Delta area was still a wilderness of cypress and gum trees, roamed by panthers and wolves and plagued with mosquitoes. The land was gradually cleared and drained for cotton cultivation, which encouraged an influx of black labourers. Some became settled sharecroppers, who would work a portion of the land in return for a share of the crop, while others were itinerant workers. Dockery earned a good reputation for treating his workers and sharecroppers fairly and thus attracted workers from throughout the South.
Dockery’s land was relatively remote, but was opened up for development by a new branch of the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad, known as the Yellow Dog. Around 1900, Dockery had a rail terminal built on his plantation, so connecting his land with the main rail system at Rosedale. Because of its circuitous route, this local line was known as the "Pea Vine".
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