Editing Rosedale, Mississippi (section)

==History==
[[File:A Y Scott Residence, Rosedale, Mississippi (1920).jpg|thumb|left|The A. Y. Scott Residence in Rosedale, 1920.  Scott was a director of the Rosedale Oil Mill.<ref>{{cite web | title = Rosedale Oil Mill | publisher = MississippiCorps | url = http://www.mississippicorps.com/corp/410123.html | access-date = June 2, 2015}}</ref>]]

Rosedale was settled around 1838 and became one of the two county seats in 1872.<ref name="hellmann">{{cite book |last=Hellmann |first=Paul T. |author-link= |date=2006-02-02 |title=Historical Gazetteer of the United States |url= |location= |publisher= |page=604 |isbn=9781135948597 }}</ref>   This area was developed by European American planters for extensive cotton [[plantations in the American South|plantations]], dependent on [[slavery in the United States|enslaved]] laborers. After the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] and emancipation, some [[freedmen]] managed to clear and buy land in the bottomlands, with many becoming landowners before the end of the nineteenth century. By 1910, a lengthy recession and declining economic and political conditions resulted in most blacks in the state losing their land. They could not compete with the financing gained by railroads, which were constructed in the area beginning in 1882<ref>John C. Willis, ''Forgotten Time: The Yazoo-Mississippi Delta after the Civil War''. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2000</ref> Many stayed in the area to work as [[sharecropper]]s and laborers. The railroad brought new business to Rosedale, which had a depot and shipped cotton to northern and other markets. Rosedale incorporated as a town February 2, 1882 and became a city in 1930.<ref name="hellmann" /><ref>{{cite act |type=Act |index= |date=February 2, 1882 |article= |article-type= |legislature=State of Mississippi |title=Chapter CCCCXII, an act to incorporate the town of Rosedale in Bolivar county |trans-title= |page= |url= |language=}}</ref>

Beginning in the early twentieth century, tens of thousands of blacks left the state of Mississippi as part of the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]], north by railroad to Chicago and other Midwestern industrial cities. During and after World War II, others went to California to work in the defense industry. Others remained where their families had lived for generations, with strong local ties.

In 2007, the Mississippi Blues Commission placed a historic marker at Rosedale's former [[Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad]] depot site, designating it as a site on the [[Mississippi Blues Trail]]. The marker commemorates the sites in the original lyrics of legendary blues artist [[Robert Johnson]]'s song "[[Travelling Riverside Blues]]". He traced the railway route which ran south from [[Friars Point, Mississippi|Friars Point]] to Rosedale among other stops, including [[Vicksburg, Mississippi|Vicksburg]] and north to [[Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis]]. The marker emphasizes that a common theme of blues songs was riding on the railroad, which was seen as a [[metaphor]] for travel and escape from poverty and Jim Crow in the Delta.<!--dead link.<ref>
{{cite web
|url=http://www.visitmississippi.org/press_news/BolivarCountyPressReleaseFeb2007.pdf
|title=Mississippi Blues Trail Markers To Be Unveiled in Bolivar County
|publisher=Mississippi Development Authority
|access-date=2008-05-29
}}
</ref>--> It also commemorates another common blues theme, life on the banks of a moody river bank, a theme heard in [[Charlie Patton]]'s "[[High Water Everywhere]]".<!--dead link.<ref>
{{cite web
|url=http://www.atlantamagazine.com/uploadedFiles/Atlanta/Travel/November07%20Travel.pdf
|title=Great Southern Getaways – Mississippi
|publisher=''Atlanta Magazine]] 
|access-date=2008-05-31
|last=Cloues
|first=Kacey}}</ref>-->

Locals claim that [[Robert Johnson#Devil legend|Johnson sold his soul to the Devil]] at the intersection of Mississippi state highways [[Mississippi Highway 1|1]] and [[Mississippi Highway 8|8]], on the south end of town, and that he tells this story metaphorically in "[[Cross Road Blues]]." Other artists have referred to his songs.<ref>Tributes to these songs have been recorded by many artists, notably a live performance titled "[[Cross Road Blues|Crossroads]]" by [[Cream (band)|Cream]] in 1968, and one of "Traveling Riverside Blues" by [[Led Zeppelin]] in 1997 on their [[BBC Sessions (Led Zeppelin album)|''BBC Sessions'']] album.</ref> Johnson's deal with the Devil is mentioned as occurring in Rosedale in 1930 in an episode of the TV series ''[[Supernatural (U.S. TV series)|Supernatural]].'' However, a number of other [[Mississippi Delta|Delta]] municipalities claim that the transaction took place in or near their boundaries.