0:00:02 > 0:00:04I have crossed the Atlantic
0:00:04 > 0:00:07to ride the railroads of North America
0:00:07 > 0:00:09with my reliable Appleton's guide.
0:00:12 > 0:00:14Published in the late 19th century,
0:00:14 > 0:00:17Appleton's General Guide to North America
0:00:17 > 0:00:20will direct me to all that's novel,
0:00:20 > 0:00:23beautiful, memorable
0:00:23 > 0:00:26and striking in the United States.
0:00:26 > 0:00:27THEY SHOUT
0:00:27 > 0:00:30As I journey across this vast continent,
0:00:30 > 0:00:34I'll discover how pioneers and cowboys conquered the West...
0:00:36 > 0:00:39..and how the railroads tied this nation together,
0:00:39 > 0:00:43helping to create the global super-state of today.
0:01:07 > 0:01:11The so-called Mainline of Mid-America
0:01:11 > 0:01:15takes me deeper into the fertile heartland of Illinois -
0:01:15 > 0:01:17Abraham Lincoln country.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21At the time of my guidebook, this was a land of plenty,
0:01:21 > 0:01:24above and below ground.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32I'm continuing towards the south.
0:01:32 > 0:01:34During my time in Illinois,
0:01:34 > 0:01:38my journey has taken me away from the Mississippi
0:01:38 > 0:01:40but I've been running parallel with it,
0:01:40 > 0:01:43and the river will feature again in my travels
0:01:43 > 0:01:45before I arrive in Memphis, Tennessee.
0:01:47 > 0:01:49During the years immediately after my guidebook,
0:01:49 > 0:01:51the United States overtook Great Britain
0:01:51 > 0:01:54as the world's largest economy -
0:01:54 > 0:01:56an extraordinary achievement
0:01:56 > 0:01:59in the century since its war of independence.
0:01:59 > 0:02:04I want to discover what fuelled the people and the machines that carried
0:02:04 > 0:02:08America from its political through to its industrial revolutions.
0:02:13 > 0:02:17My rail journey has charted the birth of the industrial Midwest.
0:02:17 > 0:02:21I started in Minneapolis, a 19th-century powerhouse,
0:02:21 > 0:02:25before heading south along the trade route of the Mississippi
0:02:25 > 0:02:28to La Crosse in rural Wisconsin.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31Striking out east, I called at Lake Michigan's Milwaukee,
0:02:31 > 0:02:36then headed south to recall rail's golden age in Chicago.
0:02:36 > 0:02:39I'm now travelling south again through Illinois' rich prairies,
0:02:39 > 0:02:42whose produce fed the urban masses,
0:02:42 > 0:02:43before I end my journey
0:02:43 > 0:02:46at the musical utopia of Memphis.
0:02:47 > 0:02:50Today I begin in Mattoon, Illinois,
0:02:50 > 0:02:52then visit the fruit bowl of Centralia,
0:02:52 > 0:02:54the coalfields at Carbondale,
0:02:54 > 0:02:57from there I'll cross into Kentucky,
0:02:57 > 0:03:00stopping at Columbus before heading into Tennessee,
0:03:00 > 0:03:03finishing my journey in the home of the blues.
0:03:05 > 0:03:08Along the way I'll be testing my frontier resolve...
0:03:09 > 0:03:14Abraham Lincoln split rails and then the United States.
0:03:14 > 0:03:18..unearthing Illinois' elixir of life...
0:03:18 > 0:03:19I'm making apple butter.
0:03:19 > 0:03:22See, all this fruit makes you young and good-looking, Michael.
0:03:22 > 0:03:24MICHAEL LAUGHS
0:03:24 > 0:03:26..get my ducks in a row...
0:03:29 > 0:03:31Don't let 'em get away.
0:03:31 > 0:03:34I think this is the bizarrest thing I've ever been involved in.
0:03:34 > 0:03:37..and get a dose of the blues.
0:03:37 > 0:03:39HE PLAYS BLUES RIFFS
0:03:59 > 0:04:02I'll be visiting Mattoon, Illinois.
0:04:02 > 0:04:04The guidebook tells me that the Chicago branch
0:04:04 > 0:04:07of the Illinois Central crosses here
0:04:07 > 0:04:09and here are the machine shops,
0:04:09 > 0:04:12roundhouse and car works of the railroad.
0:04:12 > 0:04:14But I'll be heading into the countryside
0:04:14 > 0:04:18to investigate the humble origins of the most divisive,
0:04:18 > 0:04:22most decisive figure in United States history.
0:04:36 > 0:04:40The junction town of Mattoon was born in the 1850s
0:04:40 > 0:04:44and soon flourished as the United States railroad network grew.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55Close by, it's possible to glimpse rural Illinois
0:04:55 > 0:04:58as it was before the trains arrived.
0:04:59 > 0:05:04The Lincoln Log Cabin Historical Site recreates a lost way of life
0:05:04 > 0:05:09that shaped the character of one of America's greatest presidents.
0:05:13 > 0:05:15This log cabin is moving.
0:05:15 > 0:05:19It gives a very good idea of the meagre conditions
0:05:19 > 0:05:22of Abraham Lincoln's childhood.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25And you can imagine, no doubt, that he would learn here
0:05:25 > 0:05:28the necessity of hard work and the virtues of self-reliance
0:05:28 > 0:05:31and I understand how that would create a man of principle.
0:05:31 > 0:05:36But few people have written or spoken more beautiful English prose
0:05:36 > 0:05:39than Lincoln and I wonder how he learnt that craft.
0:05:44 > 0:05:46This is the reconstructed home
0:05:46 > 0:05:49of Abraham Lincoln's father and stepmother,
0:05:49 > 0:05:51Thomas and Sarah Lincoln,
0:05:51 > 0:05:52in its original location.
0:05:55 > 0:05:58Matthew Mittelstaedt looks after this historic site.
0:06:01 > 0:06:02Matthew.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05- Good morning.- Hi. Michael. Good to see you.
0:06:06 > 0:06:07Well, basic living, eh?
0:06:07 > 0:06:11It is. But, really, it's a simple home
0:06:11 > 0:06:15but it was a home that was familiar to a number of Americans
0:06:15 > 0:06:17in addition to Abraham Lincoln.
0:06:18 > 0:06:21Born in Kentucky and raised in Indiana,
0:06:21 > 0:06:22Abraham Lincoln had left home
0:06:22 > 0:06:26by the time that Thomas and Sarah finally settled here,
0:06:26 > 0:06:29but they continued to live the frontier lifestyle
0:06:29 > 0:06:31that he had known as a boy.
0:06:32 > 0:06:33Children had to work in those days.
0:06:33 > 0:06:36They did. Children worked very hard.
0:06:36 > 0:06:40They were part of the economy of the farm and of the home.
0:06:40 > 0:06:42Children were taught to work very young.
0:06:42 > 0:06:46Girls were learning to sew and to stitch and to cook just beside
0:06:46 > 0:06:49their mother. Boys were learning to take care of the livestock,
0:06:49 > 0:06:52filling up the firebox, bringing the water in from the well.
0:06:52 > 0:06:53Splitting rails, of course.
0:06:53 > 0:06:57Abraham Lincoln is known as the Rail-Splitter in his later years
0:06:57 > 0:07:00as a politician, but that was a very common chore on the farm.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04Made out of felled trees with pioneers' sweat,
0:07:04 > 0:07:08split-rail fencing marked boundaries and penned in livestock.
0:07:11 > 0:07:14My image of Lincoln is tall and gangly and,
0:07:14 > 0:07:16of course, rather cerebral.
0:07:16 > 0:07:17Was he good at splitting rails?
0:07:17 > 0:07:20He was. Everyone understood splitting rails
0:07:20 > 0:07:23and so being the Rail-Splitter candidate in 1860,
0:07:23 > 0:07:26they understood that to be a hard worker, an honest man.
0:07:26 > 0:07:30And so they utilised that imagery...
0:07:30 > 0:07:32to further his campaign.
0:07:32 > 0:07:35The man who writes the Gettysburg Address -
0:07:35 > 0:07:39where do you think he got that power with the English language from?
0:07:39 > 0:07:41Abraham Lincoln loved to read.
0:07:41 > 0:07:43You know, he started as a young boy reading from the Bible
0:07:43 > 0:07:45but then he went on to read poetry,
0:07:45 > 0:07:49and Lincoln liked to think of himself as a poet anyway.
0:07:49 > 0:07:53The Gettysburg Address actually begins in a very biblical way, doesn't it?
0:07:53 > 0:07:55- "Four score and seven years ago..." - It does indeed.
0:07:55 > 0:07:59Lincoln left his father's farm aged 22
0:07:59 > 0:08:02and found work as a boatman and a shop clerk.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05Self-taught, he became a successful attorney
0:08:05 > 0:08:07before moving into politics.
0:08:09 > 0:08:12To find out how life on the frontier shaped the great man,
0:08:12 > 0:08:16I'm attempting to get to grips with his rustic daily slog.
0:08:18 > 0:08:22- So this is what all the good fences around here were made of?- Yes, sir.
0:08:30 > 0:08:34Abraham Lincoln split rails and then the United States.
0:08:37 > 0:08:40I'm teased that a seasoned rail-splitter
0:08:40 > 0:08:43could get through about 700 of these logs a day.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52Ah! Tough work.
0:08:52 > 0:08:53Yes, it is.
0:08:53 > 0:08:56I can see why he'd want to sit in the Oval Office after this.
0:09:00 > 0:09:02Doing well.
0:09:02 > 0:09:03Thank you, Mark.
0:09:14 > 0:09:16- Yay!- Well, you did pretty well.
0:09:17 > 0:09:21About 699 to go.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24About another 2,000 to finish up fixing the fence over there.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28I'm your man, Mark. Don't worry. Have faith.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39When Lincoln's nephew visited him in Washington
0:09:39 > 0:09:43at the height of the Civil War in 1864,
0:09:43 > 0:09:45he commented that if his uncle hadn't been
0:09:45 > 0:09:49brought up to maul rails, he would never have withstood
0:09:49 > 0:09:52the rigours of the White House.
0:09:52 > 0:09:53I believe him.
0:09:59 > 0:10:02After all that heated exertion,
0:10:02 > 0:10:05it's a relief to hear some cool sounds drifting my way.
0:10:05 > 0:10:08THEY PLAY OLD-TIME MUSIC
0:10:20 > 0:10:21- Hello.- Hello.
0:10:21 > 0:10:23Thank you for your music.
0:10:23 > 0:10:24Well, you're welcome.
0:10:24 > 0:10:27Sounds like the Southern music to me, is that right?
0:10:27 > 0:10:28- It is, yes.- Where are you all from?
0:10:28 > 0:10:30- Alabama.- Alabama.
0:10:30 > 0:10:34Here you are at one of the great shrines to Abe Lincoln.
0:10:34 > 0:10:38How do you feel about Abe Lincoln, being Alabamans?
0:10:38 > 0:10:40We like him, his favourite song was Dixie.
0:10:40 > 0:10:42THEY LAUGH
0:10:42 > 0:10:45That's a very clever political answer.
0:10:45 > 0:10:47Wow, that's good.
0:10:47 > 0:10:51'Although written in New York and popular in the North before the American Civil War,
0:10:51 > 0:10:54'Dixie became the anthem of the South.
0:10:54 > 0:11:00'At the end of the war, Lincoln tried to reclaim it is an American rather than a Confederate song.'
0:11:00 > 0:11:02You don't happen to know, do you,
0:11:02 > 0:11:05how to play Abe's favourite, Dixie, do you?
0:11:05 > 0:11:07- We sure do.- Sure, we can do that.
0:11:07 > 0:11:09Would you give me a little rendition of Dixie, please?
0:11:09 > 0:11:11THEY PLAY DIXIE
0:11:43 > 0:11:48I'm picking up my rail journey to delve deeper into the countryside
0:11:48 > 0:11:51for a sweeter taste of Illinois' agricultural heritage.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16HORN BLARES
0:12:21 > 0:12:24My next stop will be Centralia, Illinois.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27The guidebook tells me we've entered the great fruit-growing region
0:12:27 > 0:12:29of central Illinois.
0:12:29 > 0:12:34"For many miles, the railroad traverses a country of prolific orchards.
0:12:34 > 0:12:39"Vast quantities of peaches are shipped annually to Chicago."
0:12:39 > 0:12:43Fruit brought zest to an otherwise unhealthy city.
0:12:43 > 0:12:46I owe that insight to my APPLE-ton.
0:12:54 > 0:13:00Centralia lies at the midpoint of the Illinois Central's rail route.
0:13:10 > 0:13:12BELL RINGS
0:13:12 > 0:13:16I'm struck by an unexpected landmark.
0:13:16 > 0:13:18This is a carillon,
0:13:18 > 0:13:21an instrument that sounds through bells in a tower.
0:13:21 > 0:13:25It had its European heyday over 300 years ago
0:13:25 > 0:13:28but became popular in America in the 20th century.
0:13:31 > 0:13:33Sorry to interrupt you.
0:13:33 > 0:13:36I was frankly surprised to find a carillon in the United States.
0:13:36 > 0:13:38Are there many in the USA?
0:13:38 > 0:13:41Oh, yes. There are around 180 in the States.
0:13:41 > 0:13:43Where does the carillon originate?
0:13:43 > 0:13:48The carillon comes originally from the Netherlands and Belgium.
0:13:48 > 0:13:50- And where are you from? - I am from the Netherlands.
0:13:51 > 0:13:54And how long have you been working here?
0:13:54 > 0:13:56I've been working here... This is my very first day.
0:13:56 > 0:13:58- Your very first day? - My very first day.
0:13:58 > 0:14:01HORN BLARES I hear a locomotive.
0:14:01 > 0:14:02- Yes.- And that gives me an idea.
0:14:02 > 0:14:05Do you have a train piece you can play for me?
0:14:05 > 0:14:09Absolutely. I was thinking about Chattanooga Choo Choo.
0:14:11 > 0:14:12Take it away, Roy.
0:14:14 > 0:14:17BELLS PLAY CHATTANOOGA CHOO CHOO
0:14:47 > 0:14:52I've made my way east, out into Centralia's green belt.
0:14:54 > 0:14:59My guide claims that this region enjoyed great prosperity from its fruit.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02I'm joining the apple harvest with historian John Shaw.
0:15:07 > 0:15:11John, when did they start planting fruit around Centralia?
0:15:11 > 0:15:14The first settler came here in 1817,
0:15:14 > 0:15:17and one of the first acts was to plant an apple or two.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20That would have been just for his own consumption, I suppose?
0:15:20 > 0:15:25- Yes.- My guidebook mentions vast quantities of peaches
0:15:25 > 0:15:26going to Chicago.
0:15:26 > 0:15:30So what made the difference? What enabled them to go commercial?
0:15:31 > 0:15:34The railroad was the thing that made it all possible.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37They could take their fruit to Centralia, put it on a train
0:15:37 > 0:15:40and have it in Chicago the next day or sometimes in two days.
0:15:40 > 0:15:42Later, as the markets developed more,
0:15:42 > 0:15:45they started growing strawberries and peaches and raspberries -
0:15:45 > 0:15:47all sorts of fruit in this area.
0:15:49 > 0:15:53Now, I would have thought that strawberries, raspberries and so on...
0:15:54 > 0:15:57..need to be kept very fresh, don't they, on the journey?
0:15:57 > 0:15:59That was the big problem when they first started -
0:15:59 > 0:16:02they would try to ship strawberries directly from the fields
0:16:02 > 0:16:04and that did not work for strawberries.
0:16:04 > 0:16:09And then in 1866, at Cobden, about 70 miles south of here,
0:16:09 > 0:16:12a man by the name of Parker Earle developed a system.
0:16:12 > 0:16:15He built boxes that would hold 100lb of ice
0:16:15 > 0:16:18and 200 quarts of strawberries.
0:16:21 > 0:16:26Just a year after Parker Earle's pioneering ice chests,
0:16:26 > 0:16:29the first refrigerated rail car was patented.
0:16:30 > 0:16:33Known as reefers, by the 1880s,
0:16:33 > 0:16:36these cars were supplying much-needed variety
0:16:36 > 0:16:39to the monotonous diet of pioneers and industrial workers.
0:16:44 > 0:16:46This orchard belongs to the Schwartz family,
0:16:46 > 0:16:51who have been cultivating a variety of fruits here since the 1950s.
0:16:54 > 0:16:58- I'm Michael.- Michael. Tom. - And what are you doing in that pot?
0:16:58 > 0:17:00I'm making apple butter.
0:17:00 > 0:17:03And you call it apple butter because you would spread it on bread?
0:17:03 > 0:17:06You'd spread it on bread. It's apples that's been cooked down.
0:17:06 > 0:17:08You can cook as long as eight or nine hours.
0:17:08 > 0:17:09Is it very traditional, Tom?
0:17:09 > 0:17:11Yes. Very.
0:17:11 > 0:17:13But do you think it goes back to the days of Abraham Lincoln,
0:17:13 > 0:17:17- all the way back there, do you think?- I'm sure that's why he looked so good.
0:17:17 > 0:17:19See, all this fruit makes you young and good-looking, Michael.
0:17:19 > 0:17:22MICHAEL CHUCKLES Mm, wow!
0:17:22 > 0:17:26- Look at that!- Nice and thick.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29- Cooked down just right.- Mm!
0:17:29 > 0:17:32Oh, it's fabulous. And it's really nice when it's still warm, isn't it?
0:17:32 > 0:17:35- Oh, it's still warm. Oh, yeah.- Mm!
0:17:36 > 0:17:38This farm is a family affair.
0:17:38 > 0:17:42On the production line, Tom's brother takes charge of packing.
0:17:44 > 0:17:46But he welcomes an extra pair of hands,
0:17:46 > 0:17:48and it's a pleasure to help out.
0:17:50 > 0:17:53How long have you been pouring apple butter?
0:17:53 > 0:17:55- 50 years.- And so this is typical, is it?
0:17:55 > 0:17:58- You get the family together like this?- Oh, yeah.
0:17:59 > 0:18:01Nobody else'll put up with us.
0:18:03 > 0:18:04There we go, sir.
0:18:08 > 0:18:10You're getting better. I tell you what -
0:18:10 > 0:18:12he's on probation but I guess he'll work out.
0:18:13 > 0:18:14You're hired!
0:18:20 > 0:18:22Along with this region's fine fruit,
0:18:22 > 0:18:25Appleton's suggests a visit downtown
0:18:25 > 0:18:26for something more substantial
0:18:26 > 0:18:29at the Centralia House restaurant,
0:18:29 > 0:18:31which opened in 1854.
0:18:34 > 0:18:36We have your table right here.
0:18:36 > 0:18:38- Thank you very much.- Thank you.
0:18:39 > 0:18:41That's great!
0:18:41 > 0:18:43I'm going to have the shrimp cocktail, please.
0:18:43 > 0:18:46- Sounds great, we'll be right back with that.- Thank you.- Thank you.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50Before the days of rail dining cars,
0:18:50 > 0:18:54this was apparently a popular stopping-off point for passengers.
0:18:54 > 0:18:56Waiters would meet each train as it arrived
0:18:56 > 0:18:59and announce a list of the day's meals.
0:18:59 > 0:19:01- Ah!- Here we are, sir.
0:19:01 > 0:19:05- Oh! Beautifully presented. Thank you very much.- Thank you.
0:19:05 > 0:19:07There's something a little retro about train travel
0:19:07 > 0:19:11in the United States, and about this restaurant,
0:19:11 > 0:19:13and about prawn cocktail.
0:19:22 > 0:19:25As night draws in, I'm returning to the railroad station
0:19:25 > 0:19:28to board the last train of the day.
0:19:47 > 0:19:51My next stop will be the appropriately named Carbondale.
0:19:51 > 0:19:56Appleton's says that the principal business of the area is coal mining,
0:19:56 > 0:20:00about a dozen companies being in active operation.
0:20:00 > 0:20:03Coal was needed by the steel mills,
0:20:03 > 0:20:06by the factories of Chicago and by the railroads.
0:20:08 > 0:20:11All right, ladies and gentlemen, the next and final station stop
0:20:11 > 0:20:13will be Carbondale.
0:20:42 > 0:20:47Early morning. I'm making my way to explore the commodity that was
0:20:47 > 0:20:49essential to America's railroads.
0:20:52 > 0:20:54- Hello, Rosemary.- Hello, how are you?
0:20:54 > 0:20:56- Good to see you.- Good to see you.
0:20:56 > 0:20:58- Where are we headed? - We are headed to the mine.
0:21:00 > 0:21:03Rosemary Feurer is a professor of history
0:21:03 > 0:21:05at Northern Illinois University.
0:21:09 > 0:21:13Rosemary, here we are in this tremendous opencast mine
0:21:13 > 0:21:18here in southern Illinois. When did they first mine coal in this state?
0:21:18 > 0:21:21The first coal mines were in the 1830s but, really,
0:21:21 > 0:21:24it starts getting its traction with the railroads.
0:21:24 > 0:21:26The railroads needed coal for steam
0:21:26 > 0:21:29and they needed to use it for transportation,
0:21:29 > 0:21:32but then industrialisation was highly dependent on coal.
0:21:34 > 0:21:36The 19th-century American coal industry
0:21:36 > 0:21:40relied heavily on immigrant labour.
0:21:40 > 0:21:43British miners were highly prized for their experience
0:21:43 > 0:21:45of dangerous deep-shaft mining.
0:21:47 > 0:21:50This skilled workforce that was needed - was it well paid?
0:21:50 > 0:21:51At first, yes. But, over time,
0:21:51 > 0:21:54employers kept bringing in more and more immigrants
0:21:54 > 0:21:56and they kept mechanising.
0:21:58 > 0:22:01By the 1880s, coal had overtaken wood
0:22:01 > 0:22:04to become the country's largest source of energy.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07But by then, coal miners' wages had fallen.
0:22:07 > 0:22:10Miners battled against their employers
0:22:10 > 0:22:12for better pay and conditions.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18The British workers brought traditions of unionism
0:22:18 > 0:22:19to the state of Illinois.
0:22:19 > 0:22:23They formed the first miners' union in the country in the 1860s.
0:22:23 > 0:22:28The conflicts came because this was a very anti-union culture,
0:22:28 > 0:22:31as far as the mine owners were concerned.
0:22:31 > 0:22:33So where did that all lead?
0:22:33 > 0:22:36There were a series of very bloody struggles,
0:22:36 > 0:22:40in which dozens of workers were killed in the state of Illinois,
0:22:40 > 0:22:43and it's because that's what it took to form a union in this state.
0:22:43 > 0:22:46From the 1890s to the 1920s,
0:22:46 > 0:22:48all of Illinois became unionised
0:22:48 > 0:22:51and that meant that they could govern what the wages were.
0:22:51 > 0:22:53They could say eight hours or nothing.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57So it was a real power for the unions.
0:23:04 > 0:23:08Today, mechanisation has transformed the industry.
0:23:09 > 0:23:12But coal is in the veins of the people of Illinois.
0:23:17 > 0:23:19- Hello, Sue.- Hi, Michael.
0:23:19 > 0:23:21- How are you?- Lovely to see you.
0:23:21 > 0:23:22What a pleasure, what a privilege.
0:23:22 > 0:23:26I've arranged to meet Sue in her family's cafe,
0:23:26 > 0:23:30where they commemorate the community's mining heritage.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36Sue, what is your connection with mining?
0:23:37 > 0:23:42Both sides of my family - the Elwoods,
0:23:42 > 0:23:45who came from Newcastle-on-Tyne, and the Littles,
0:23:45 > 0:23:49who came from the Border area of Scotland and England -
0:23:49 > 0:23:52came here, ended up working in the coal mine.
0:23:54 > 0:23:55Who is this in this photograph?
0:23:55 > 0:23:59This is my husband's father.
0:23:59 > 0:24:01He's 14 years old.
0:24:01 > 0:24:03They didn't go to school.
0:24:03 > 0:24:04They worked.
0:24:04 > 0:24:06Is your dad on this wall?
0:24:06 > 0:24:07Back there.
0:24:08 > 0:24:10That's Bud Little.
0:24:10 > 0:24:14How did your dad feel about working underground, given the dangers?
0:24:14 > 0:24:17My dad loved it.
0:24:17 > 0:24:21And if you ever talk to a soldier who'd been in combat,
0:24:21 > 0:24:24you'd get the same feeling.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27It was, everybody was a group.
0:24:27 > 0:24:29They helped each other.
0:24:29 > 0:24:33They protected each other's back, they worked together.
0:24:33 > 0:24:35My dad loved it.
0:24:37 > 0:24:38Don't ask me why.
0:24:38 > 0:24:41Have you ever been in a mine?
0:24:41 > 0:24:42Yeah, there you go.
0:24:42 > 0:24:44I have. I agree with you.
0:24:44 > 0:24:47- I don't understand it.- I don't understand it but he loved it.
0:24:53 > 0:24:55It's time to leave Illinois,
0:24:55 > 0:24:57but the rails don't take me where I'm going,
0:24:57 > 0:25:00so I've arranged a lift in a fine Corvette.
0:25:02 > 0:25:05Hey, Jimmy. I'm Michael. Good to see you.
0:25:14 > 0:25:18I'm heading over the Mississippi to the state of Kentucky,
0:25:18 > 0:25:21which my Appleton's tells me had a crucial role
0:25:21 > 0:25:22in the American Civil War.
0:25:27 > 0:25:29So, what are the qualities of Kentucky, do you think?
0:25:30 > 0:25:32Well, we have a lot of farming.
0:25:32 > 0:25:35- Real small communities. - And what are the people like?
0:25:35 > 0:25:36Oh, very nice.
0:25:36 > 0:25:38All watch after one another.
0:25:38 > 0:25:40A lot of respect.
0:25:40 > 0:25:42The men still open the doors for the women.
0:25:44 > 0:25:46- And the women don't object?- No.
0:26:00 > 0:26:03- Safe journey.- You too.
0:26:03 > 0:26:04Bye-bye.
0:26:11 > 0:26:15It was starting in 1860 that Lincoln, the Rail-Splitter,
0:26:15 > 0:26:17split the Union.
0:26:17 > 0:26:22He opposed any territorial expansion of slavery.
0:26:22 > 0:26:24And on his election as president,
0:26:24 > 0:26:27a majority of slave-owning states broke from the Union
0:26:27 > 0:26:29to form the Confederate States of America.
0:26:31 > 0:26:35This quiet spot played a pivotal role
0:26:35 > 0:26:37in the bloody conflict that followed.
0:26:38 > 0:26:41"Columbus, Kentucky," says the book,
0:26:41 > 0:26:43"is situated on the slope of a high bluff,
0:26:43 > 0:26:47"commanding the Mississippi for about five miles.
0:26:47 > 0:26:48"At the outbreak of the Civil War,
0:26:48 > 0:26:51"it was strongly fortified by the Confederates,
0:26:51 > 0:26:56"who regarded it as the northern key to the mouth of the Mississippi."
0:26:56 > 0:27:00The river was the artery, the aorta of the South,
0:27:00 > 0:27:05and the Union intended to convert it into a meandering rift that would
0:27:05 > 0:27:07tear the Confederacy apart.
0:27:20 > 0:27:23History professor Berry Craig has joined me
0:27:23 > 0:27:25at this former Confederate fort
0:27:25 > 0:27:29to chart the course of the Mississippi campaign.
0:27:30 > 0:27:33Well, it's obvious from where we are, and the guidebook emphasises it,
0:27:33 > 0:27:36that we're at a strategic point from the point of view of the river.
0:27:36 > 0:27:38Did it have other strategic elements?
0:27:38 > 0:27:41Oh, yes. A railroad came in here.
0:27:41 > 0:27:45The Mobile and Ohio Railroad which, of course, would supply an army.
0:27:45 > 0:27:49It's a very, very strategic place, that when the Confederates come in,
0:27:49 > 0:27:52they heavily fortify this place with artillery.
0:27:52 > 0:27:54Now, if you look down the river,
0:27:54 > 0:27:58they first had long-range guns that could reach way down the river.
0:27:58 > 0:28:01If you happened to come through those guns,
0:28:01 > 0:28:04they had mid-range guns next.
0:28:04 > 0:28:07If you didn't get this close to Columbus as we are here,
0:28:07 > 0:28:11the short-range guns come in. It's a murderous field of fire.
0:28:12 > 0:28:15General Ulysses S Grant on the Union side
0:28:15 > 0:28:19knew that control of the Mississippi was critical.
0:28:19 > 0:28:22A bold assault on impregnable Columbus
0:28:22 > 0:28:26was his first test on the Civil War battlefield.
0:28:26 > 0:28:28What is the Union strategy?
0:28:28 > 0:28:34Grant comes on 7th November, 1861 to probe the Columbus outer defences
0:28:34 > 0:28:37at Belmont, Missouri, which is just over there.
0:28:37 > 0:28:40Well, at this point, the Confederates send reinforcements
0:28:40 > 0:28:43across the river, Grant finds himself surrounded.
0:28:45 > 0:28:49Now, Grant's troops think, "What's the logical thing to do?
0:28:49 > 0:28:51"Surrender." Grant said, "Oh, no.
0:28:51 > 0:28:53"We fought our way in, we'll fight our way out."
0:28:53 > 0:28:55And he did.
0:28:55 > 0:28:57Having battled back to safety,
0:28:57 > 0:28:59Grant revised the Union strategy.
0:28:59 > 0:29:03He encircled Columbus by conquering nearby forts,
0:29:03 > 0:29:06until Confederate commanders were left so vulnerable
0:29:06 > 0:29:09that they relinquished their prize stronghold.
0:29:10 > 0:29:14The Union river campaign drove south and pushed northwards
0:29:14 > 0:29:17from the Gulf of Mexico to seize New Orleans.
0:29:18 > 0:29:22In the summer of 1863, the fall of Vicksburg, Mississippi
0:29:22 > 0:29:25brought the mighty river under Union control
0:29:25 > 0:29:29and split the Confederacy east and west in two.
0:29:30 > 0:29:34What role does this play in the career of General Ulysses S Grant?
0:29:35 > 0:29:39I think it very much illustrates the kind of commander he is.
0:29:39 > 0:29:43Grant is a military commander who never made the same mistake twice.
0:29:43 > 0:29:45He understood that war is total war.
0:29:45 > 0:29:48You fight it to win or you don't get in.
0:29:48 > 0:29:52Grant was made commander of all Union armies in 1864.
0:29:53 > 0:29:58Five years later, he became the 18th President of the United States.
0:29:59 > 0:30:04What do historians say of the significance of the battle here?
0:30:04 > 0:30:07Some historians think that the North won the Civil War
0:30:07 > 0:30:09right here in this part of the country.
0:30:10 > 0:30:15It took four years and cost 600,000 lives,
0:30:15 > 0:30:18but the eventual triumph of Union forces
0:30:18 > 0:30:23ended the Confederate secession, and abolished slavery.
0:30:40 > 0:30:44I'm nearing the end of a thousand-mile railroad journey.
0:30:44 > 0:30:46It began on the mighty Mississippi
0:30:46 > 0:30:50and that is where I will also make my final stop.
0:30:53 > 0:30:58Great rivers bring fertility and prosperity all along their banks,
0:30:58 > 0:31:01so it was with the Nile, in Ancient Egypt,
0:31:01 > 0:31:04and its shimmering city of Memphis,
0:31:04 > 0:31:08so with the Mississippi and its cotton fields.
0:31:08 > 0:31:10In 1826,
0:31:10 > 0:31:14a group of Tennessee entrepreneurs decided to name their river city
0:31:14 > 0:31:16Memphis, too.
0:31:16 > 0:31:18Appleton's tells me,
0:31:18 > 0:31:22"It's the largest city on the river between St Louis and New Orleans."
0:31:22 > 0:31:27Roughly translated, "Memphis" means "place of good abode",
0:31:27 > 0:31:30or more roughly still, "Graceland".
0:31:45 > 0:31:47HORN BLARES
0:31:47 > 0:31:50Ladies and gentlemen, now arriving in Memphis.
0:31:50 > 0:31:52Memphis, Tennessee. Memphis - now arriving.
0:32:04 > 0:32:06Thank you very much. Bye-bye.
0:32:23 > 0:32:28Memphis was a transport hub even before the arrival of the railroads
0:32:28 > 0:32:31because of its strategic position on the Mississippi.
0:32:33 > 0:32:35BOAT HORN BLARES
0:32:36 > 0:32:39Then travellers would have caught their first glimpse of the city
0:32:39 > 0:32:43from one of the hundreds of paddle steamers that plied the waters.
0:32:53 > 0:32:55Appleton's remarks that,
0:32:55 > 0:32:59"The prevailing character of the lower Mississippi is of solemn gloom.
0:32:59 > 0:33:05"The dreary solitude, the trees with melancholy drapery of pendant moss,
0:33:05 > 0:33:09"the vast volume of dark and turbid waters through the wilderness form
0:33:09 > 0:33:13"the most dismal yet impressive landscape."
0:33:13 > 0:33:18And indeed, Memphis has inherited a kind of shabby soulfulness,
0:33:18 > 0:33:22which has been its making in modern times.
0:33:22 > 0:33:26I've come here mainly to think about a man who looked back wistfully on
0:33:26 > 0:33:29childhood days on the Mississippi.
0:33:33 > 0:33:3719th-century writer Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain,
0:33:37 > 0:33:41cemented Mississippi life in American culture.
0:33:41 > 0:33:43Historian Dr Charles Crawford
0:33:43 > 0:33:47can tell me how the river shaped his life and work.
0:33:47 > 0:33:49- Hello, Charles. - I'm glad to meet you, Michael.
0:33:49 > 0:33:52Tell me about Mark Twain. Who was he?
0:33:52 > 0:33:56Mark Twain was, in the opinion of many people,
0:33:56 > 0:33:59the greatest American author who ever lived
0:33:59 > 0:34:04because his novel, Huckleberry Finn,
0:34:04 > 0:34:07about three boys on the river
0:34:07 > 0:34:11is one of the great travel adventures
0:34:11 > 0:34:14cos it is done with such simplicity.
0:34:14 > 0:34:16It can be read by children.
0:34:16 > 0:34:18But with more maturity,
0:34:18 > 0:34:22you see he's commenting on the social aspects
0:34:22 > 0:34:26and economic aspects of society at the time,
0:34:26 > 0:34:33and he's doing it through the view of two young boys and one slave.
0:34:36 > 0:34:39The Mississippi first captured Twain's imagination
0:34:39 > 0:34:44during his childhood in Hannibal, Missouri, some 400 miles upriver.
0:34:44 > 0:34:49Then as a young man he experienced the thrills and spills of life
0:34:49 > 0:34:51as a Mississippi riverboat pilot.
0:34:53 > 0:34:56How safe was it to travel on the steamboats?
0:34:56 > 0:34:58It was extremely hazardous.
0:34:58 > 0:35:05There was great danger of sinking from boiler explosions, from fire,
0:35:05 > 0:35:08of boats running aground to simply sinking.
0:35:08 > 0:35:12Steamboats had a short life expectancy.
0:35:12 > 0:35:14Tell me what was the worst disaster
0:35:14 > 0:35:16that befell a steamboat on the river?
0:35:16 > 0:35:19The worst one occurred in 1865.
0:35:19 > 0:35:23The captain of that boat was being paid per person,
0:35:23 > 0:35:27so he admitted approximately perhaps 2,400 people to a boat
0:35:27 > 0:35:31that should have been limited to 600.
0:35:31 > 0:35:35During the night, several miles north of Memphis, it exploded
0:35:35 > 0:35:41and the loss of life was between 1,500 and 2,000.
0:35:41 > 0:35:44Mark Twain knew the risks all too well.
0:35:45 > 0:35:49His brother also travelled on the Mississippi River
0:35:49 > 0:35:52and, in 1858,
0:35:52 > 0:35:56a steamboat explosion occurred near the city and his brother Henry
0:35:56 > 0:36:02was seriously wounded, was brought to Memphis for treatment.
0:36:02 > 0:36:07They were cared for by the people so much so that Mark Twain said after
0:36:07 > 0:36:11his brother had died said, "God bless Memphis,
0:36:11 > 0:36:14"there is no more noble city on the face of the Earth."
0:36:22 > 0:36:26Late-19th-century United States citizens had to endure danger,
0:36:26 > 0:36:29violence and disease.
0:36:29 > 0:36:33The Civil War claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and fast-growing
0:36:33 > 0:36:38crowded cities were the perfect breeding ground for epidemics.
0:36:38 > 0:36:39In 1878,
0:36:39 > 0:36:44Memphis was gripped by a pestilence that threatened its very existence.
0:36:56 > 0:37:00This lovely spacious place is, according to Appleton's,
0:37:00 > 0:37:05"The principal of the six cemeteries and is known as Elmwood."
0:37:05 > 0:37:09It's the final resting place for 14 Confederate generals
0:37:09 > 0:37:13and for many dead from steamboat disasters,
0:37:13 > 0:37:18but lots of people buried here were not the victims of great events,
0:37:18 > 0:37:21but of something extraordinarily tiny.
0:37:46 > 0:37:49Executive director at Elmwood Kim McCollum
0:37:49 > 0:37:52works to raise awareness of the cemetery's history.
0:37:57 > 0:38:01So, Kim, why are the years just before my guide book was published
0:38:01 > 0:38:02so memorable for Memphis?
0:38:03 > 0:38:08Well, the 1870s brought a lot of turmoil to the city of Memphis
0:38:08 > 0:38:12in the form of a mosquito, the Aedes aegypti mosquito.
0:38:12 > 0:38:16She caused a lot of damage in the form of yellow fever.
0:38:16 > 0:38:18Did people know that the mosquito was to blame?
0:38:18 > 0:38:21No, no-one knew the mosquito was to blame.
0:38:21 > 0:38:26In fact, many believed that it was what Americans called a miasma,
0:38:26 > 0:38:30that was sort of a fog that floated over cities,
0:38:30 > 0:38:34that carried a foul air and infected people.
0:38:34 > 0:38:3817th-century slave ships first brought yellow fever
0:38:38 > 0:38:40to the east coast of America.
0:38:40 > 0:38:42The disease spread,
0:38:42 > 0:38:45aided by the advent of steamboats and railroads.
0:38:45 > 0:38:49In the 1800s, it reached Memphis' crowded streets.
0:38:49 > 0:38:53Why was Memphis particularly badly hit, do you think?
0:38:53 > 0:38:58Memphis was a very unclean city during the yellow fever epidemics.
0:38:58 > 0:39:03There were no sewer systems and the Gayoso Bayou was located downtown,
0:39:03 > 0:39:09which was a large body of water that was stagnant and so the mosquito
0:39:09 > 0:39:12had a wonderful breeding ground in Memphis.
0:39:14 > 0:39:18The city was struck by a series of yellow fever outbreaks,
0:39:18 > 0:39:21each worse than the last.
0:39:21 > 0:39:25So when a case was reported in 1878, panic set in.
0:39:27 > 0:39:28In the year 1878,
0:39:28 > 0:39:32the population of the city of Memphis was approximately 50,000,
0:39:32 > 0:39:35so about 25,000 people chose to leave the city of Memphis
0:39:35 > 0:39:39and they headed up the Mississippi River towards St Louis.
0:39:39 > 0:39:44Most of those were Caucasian people who had the means to leave the city,
0:39:44 > 0:39:47those who remained in the city were largely African-American.
0:39:47 > 0:39:52We liken it to a modern-day Hurricane Katrina in its devastation.
0:39:53 > 0:39:57So what was the impact on the 25,000 who remained?
0:39:57 > 0:40:01Out of the 25,000 who remained in Memphis,
0:40:01 > 0:40:06about 5,000 of those died from the yellow fever.
0:40:06 > 0:40:09In the month of September of 1878,
0:40:09 > 0:40:12about 200 people were dying per day in the city of Memphis
0:40:12 > 0:40:15and about 50 of those people were brought to Elmwood for burial
0:40:15 > 0:40:20and they were buried in trench-style graves in this piece of land
0:40:20 > 0:40:24that we're standing on now, which is called No Man's Land.
0:40:27 > 0:40:31The epidemic upended the social order in Memphis.
0:40:31 > 0:40:34White flight made way for African-Americans to serve for
0:40:34 > 0:40:37the first time as police officers,
0:40:37 > 0:40:40while businessman Robert Reed Church,
0:40:40 > 0:40:44whose mother was a slave, made a fortune snapping up property,
0:40:44 > 0:40:47becoming reputedly the South's first black millionaire.
0:40:49 > 0:40:53Nowadays the people of Memphis remember those who stayed behind
0:40:53 > 0:40:55to serve the victims.
0:40:55 > 0:40:58One unlikely hero was a brothel owner
0:40:58 > 0:41:02who apparently still haunts the cemetery today,
0:41:02 > 0:41:04keeping her story alive.
0:41:04 > 0:41:07Well, Annie Cook, I presume!
0:41:07 > 0:41:09- Good afternoon.- I'm Michael.
0:41:09 > 0:41:12Annie, what sort of business have you been running here in Memphis?
0:41:12 > 0:41:14I've been very successful in Memphis.
0:41:14 > 0:41:18I started out as a housemaid, but there's not a lot of money in that,
0:41:18 > 0:41:23so I knew what the sailors in a rough river town like Memphis needed
0:41:23 > 0:41:26was something a little more exciting than a clean house.
0:41:26 > 0:41:29How did 1878 begin?
0:41:29 > 0:41:34Well, that terrible disease hit Memphis that was nicknamed "yellow fever"
0:41:34 > 0:41:37because you turned as yellow as a banana.
0:41:37 > 0:41:41It was burning you up from the inside out.
0:41:41 > 0:41:43You bled from everywhere -
0:41:43 > 0:41:46your ears, your eyes, your nose, your mouth.
0:41:46 > 0:41:50Luckily, I mean, mercifully, you died within three or four days.
0:41:50 > 0:41:52What did that do to your business?
0:41:52 > 0:41:57Well, I turned my palatial mansion into a hospital.
0:41:57 > 0:42:00- How did you do that?- Well, we just pushed back the furniture,
0:42:00 > 0:42:01rolled up the carpets
0:42:01 > 0:42:03and filled every room with cots
0:42:03 > 0:42:07and they were full with the sick and the dying.
0:42:07 > 0:42:11Well, Annie, thank you very much for all of your services to Memphis.
0:42:11 > 0:42:13- Sure, thank y'all.- Bye-bye.- Bye.
0:42:31 > 0:42:34Appleton's recommends the Peabody Hotel,
0:42:34 > 0:42:37which first opened its doors in 1869.
0:42:44 > 0:42:47It moved to this site in 1925
0:42:47 > 0:42:51and, soon after, a remarkable tradition was born.
0:43:00 > 0:43:01Mr Duck Master, I assume?
0:43:01 > 0:43:03Mr Portillo, great to have you with us.
0:43:03 > 0:43:07Thank you, it's lovely to be here. What's going to happen?
0:43:07 > 0:43:10Well, have you ever seen a duck march before?
0:43:10 > 0:43:12- A duck march? No. - Well, that's all right.
0:43:12 > 0:43:15Have you ridden on an elevator with ducks before?
0:43:15 > 0:43:17- With ducks? No.- That's fine.
0:43:17 > 0:43:21Have you ever seen a Royal Duck Palace?
0:43:21 > 0:43:22- No.- That's all right.
0:43:22 > 0:43:26The Peabody ducks, these guys right here,
0:43:26 > 0:43:29they are a legend here in the city of Memphis and you, sir,
0:43:29 > 0:43:32have been nominated to act as our honorary Duck Master.
0:43:32 > 0:43:36Oh, that is a great honour. I'm humbled.
0:43:36 > 0:43:40Ducks have been a feature here since 1933,
0:43:40 > 0:43:42when an inebriated general manager
0:43:42 > 0:43:46positioned some of them in the fountain of the hotel,
0:43:46 > 0:43:47to the guests' delight.
0:43:47 > 0:43:51Nowadays the daily duck march draws a crowd.
0:43:51 > 0:43:53Here we go. All righty, ducks,
0:43:53 > 0:43:55wait for it, wait for it.
0:43:55 > 0:43:57Very good. I like what you're doing.
0:43:57 > 0:43:59Excellent. Very good, very nice.
0:43:59 > 0:44:01Very good, I think he's got it.
0:44:01 > 0:44:05Duckies, hup, hup.
0:44:05 > 0:44:09Very nice. Double back for you.
0:44:09 > 0:44:12Very good waddle, duckies.
0:44:12 > 0:44:15Look at you guys! Oh, excellent posing, ducks.
0:44:15 > 0:44:18Very nice. Very good!
0:44:20 > 0:44:22Great job!
0:44:27 > 0:44:29The ducks are going to go running right past you
0:44:29 > 0:44:31as soon as that door opens, just so you know,
0:44:31 > 0:44:34if just stay still. There they go.
0:44:34 > 0:44:37- Don't let them get away. - Oh, right!- We got work to do.
0:44:38 > 0:44:40Beautiful day for a duck march.
0:44:40 > 0:44:43I think this is the bizarrest thing I've ever been involved in!
0:44:43 > 0:44:45You're doing great. Pardon me, ducks.
0:44:45 > 0:44:48Pardon me. Thank you, good job.
0:44:48 > 0:44:51- Hooray!- Great job, Duck Master! Thank you very much.
0:44:51 > 0:44:54Wow! Duck Master, what an honour to serve with you.
0:44:54 > 0:44:58It was a pleasure having you with us. Thank you so much.
0:44:58 > 0:45:00Look at this palace that they're in, as well.
0:45:00 > 0:45:01Not bad for ducks, right?
0:45:01 > 0:45:04Well, I'm staying here slightly less time than they are
0:45:04 > 0:45:07and I think my room is not quite as big.
0:45:07 > 0:45:09Well, there's five of them!
0:45:17 > 0:45:19Before I turn in,
0:45:19 > 0:45:22I'm taking a stroll down the famous Beale Street
0:45:22 > 0:45:25to soak up a little Memphis nightlife.
0:45:25 > 0:45:27Around the time of my guidebook,
0:45:27 > 0:45:30this was where African-Americans gathered.
0:45:32 > 0:45:36I suppose Beale Street is what it is today because, about 150 years ago,
0:45:36 > 0:45:39penniless black musicians came here
0:45:39 > 0:45:43who would have faced immense prejudice, I dare say.
0:45:43 > 0:45:44And now, look at this.
0:45:44 > 0:45:49All the neon signs, all the tourism, and it's all down to those guys.
0:45:49 > 0:45:55How the wheel of fortune, how the wheel of fashion, turns.
0:46:09 > 0:46:13A new day and I've been invited to play with a big toy...
0:46:13 > 0:46:16Hi! May I come aboard?
0:46:16 > 0:46:19- Yes, sir.- Thank you very much.
0:46:19 > 0:46:22..to get a feel of Memphis' modern rail story.
0:46:41 > 0:46:45Appleton's tells me that Memphis has an immense railroad
0:46:45 > 0:46:48and steamboat traffic. Of course, it was a hub,
0:46:48 > 0:46:51having both the railroad and the Mississippi River,
0:46:51 > 0:46:54but perhaps more surprising is that even today,
0:46:54 > 0:46:59the big five railroads of North America all converge on Memphis.
0:47:09 > 0:47:14Rail freight today is a 60 billion industry
0:47:14 > 0:47:17and Memphis is America's third largest rail hub.
0:47:22 > 0:47:25And where there are trains...
0:47:25 > 0:47:26there are train spotters.
0:47:32 > 0:47:35- Hello, gentlemen.- Hello! - My name is Michael
0:47:35 > 0:47:37and you look like railway enthusiasts, is that right?
0:47:37 > 0:47:40- Yeah.- Absolutely. - Very, very pleased to meet you.
0:47:40 > 0:47:43Is Memphis a good place to see trains?
0:47:43 > 0:47:45- ALL: Yes. - Yes, it is.- Why so?
0:47:45 > 0:47:48Mainly because we're a crossroads.
0:47:48 > 0:47:51Memphis has always been a crossroads for all the major railroads
0:47:51 > 0:47:54going to the South, going east, going west, going back north.
0:47:54 > 0:47:57We get a tremendous amount of rail activity here.
0:47:57 > 0:48:00We've got two bridges across the Mississippi River
0:48:00 > 0:48:02that gives a gateway to the West.
0:48:02 > 0:48:05What do you like to see or what do you like to photograph?
0:48:05 > 0:48:07Just freight trains coming through.
0:48:07 > 0:48:09That's a Burlington Northern Santa Fe train going through now
0:48:09 > 0:48:12and that's referred to as a double stack,
0:48:12 > 0:48:15those are intermodal containers,
0:48:15 > 0:48:18they can ride on either truck-trailer,
0:48:18 > 0:48:19railroad car or ship.
0:48:19 > 0:48:21Do you go and look at trains abroad?
0:48:21 > 0:48:22I do. We were just there.
0:48:22 > 0:48:24We started out in Prague and went down to Budapest,
0:48:24 > 0:48:26and then we were over in France...
0:48:26 > 0:48:29- When you say "we"...? - Me and my wife.
0:48:29 > 0:48:31You mean your wife puts up with this?
0:48:31 > 0:48:34Yes. Because she gets to go to Europe,
0:48:34 > 0:48:37so I have to have train rides when I'm in Europe,
0:48:37 > 0:48:39so it's a compromise.
0:48:39 > 0:48:42Are there any lady railway enthusiasts?
0:48:42 > 0:48:45- Very few.- Very few.
0:48:45 > 0:48:46I wish there were.
0:48:50 > 0:48:52Along with the railroads,
0:48:52 > 0:48:55the city itself has a history as a cultural crossroads.
0:48:55 > 0:48:59Since travelling black musicians first congregated on Beale Street,
0:48:59 > 0:49:02Memphis has been a musical melting pot.
0:49:16 > 0:49:18In the home of the blues,
0:49:18 > 0:49:23I'm meeting Grammy-nominated musician Cedric Burnside.
0:49:33 > 0:49:37Cedric, how did music begin in your life?
0:49:37 > 0:49:41My big daddy was a big part of my music history.
0:49:41 > 0:49:44RL Burnside. I grew up with him
0:49:44 > 0:49:47because he grew up playing in the juke joints -
0:49:47 > 0:49:48I kind of grew up, too.
0:49:48 > 0:49:51That was the life we had, you know.
0:49:51 > 0:49:52What are you saying with your music?
0:49:52 > 0:49:56What is it you're communicating, do you think?
0:49:56 > 0:49:58Slaves, you know, really started the blues.
0:49:58 > 0:50:02They couldn't talk a whole lot, so they had to do code
0:50:02 > 0:50:05and I kind of think blues is sort of that way still today.
0:50:05 > 0:50:08People go through things, you know,
0:50:08 > 0:50:10they talk about it through their blues.
0:50:10 > 0:50:12It's the roots.
0:50:12 > 0:50:13After the Civil War,
0:50:13 > 0:50:17African-Americans made use of their new-found freedom and the growing
0:50:17 > 0:50:21railroad network to travel, taking their music with them.
0:50:21 > 0:50:25In 1912, the first commercially successful blues song
0:50:25 > 0:50:27was published by WC Handy,
0:50:27 > 0:50:29a Beale Street band leader,
0:50:29 > 0:50:31inspired by a lone musician
0:50:31 > 0:50:34whom he heard playing at a Mississippi rail station.
0:50:34 > 0:50:36During the Great Depression,
0:50:36 > 0:50:39blues men migrated north on the Illinois Central
0:50:39 > 0:50:42and the electrified Chicago blues was born.
0:50:42 > 0:50:45Cedric, there are different sorts of blues.
0:50:45 > 0:50:49How would I distinguish between, I don't know, between Delta blues...
0:50:49 > 0:50:51Chicago blues, hill country blues?
0:50:51 > 0:50:55- Tell me about that.- Well, Delta blues, it's all bars, you know.
0:50:55 > 0:51:00I like to think of hill country blues as film music.
0:51:00 > 0:51:02It don't have any bars.
0:51:02 > 0:51:04It's just a straight beat that goes on through.
0:51:04 > 0:51:08You can't put hill country blues in front of somebody and say, "Play this,"
0:51:08 > 0:51:10because you can't write it, really.
0:51:10 > 0:51:12This is a hill country song I'm about to play you
0:51:12 > 0:51:15that my big daddy used to play all the time.
0:51:15 > 0:51:18And it don't really have too many changes,
0:51:18 > 0:51:25it just has a lot of finger picking and just a strong, hypnotic beat.
0:51:25 > 0:51:27This is called Skinny Woman.
0:51:45 > 0:51:50# Well, I don't want skinny woman
0:51:50 > 0:51:54# Well, I don't want skinny woman
0:51:54 > 0:51:56# Meat don't shake
0:51:56 > 0:51:58# Meat don't shake... #
0:52:20 > 0:52:23- Thank you, Cedric.- You're very welcome, man. Thank y'all.
0:52:39 > 0:52:41In the mid-20th century,
0:52:41 > 0:52:46the blues helped to give birth to a new style of music here in Memphis
0:52:46 > 0:52:49and a local boy was its king.
0:52:53 > 0:52:55I'm joining the 20 million people
0:52:55 > 0:52:58who've made the rock and roll pilgrimage
0:52:58 > 0:53:02to his home since it opened to the public in 1982.
0:53:07 > 0:53:09My guide is Libby Perry.
0:53:11 > 0:53:14- Hello, Libby, I'm Michael. - Hey, Michael, welcome to Graceland.
0:53:14 > 0:53:18Thank you so much. It's really very exciting to be here.
0:53:18 > 0:53:21In what sort of circumstances was Elvis born?
0:53:21 > 0:53:23Elvis was born in Tupelo, Mississippi.
0:53:23 > 0:53:25It's about an hour and a half south of Memphis.
0:53:25 > 0:53:27He was born to a poor family,
0:53:27 > 0:53:32they had a very small shack on the edge of a very poor historically
0:53:32 > 0:53:34African-American neighbourhood.
0:53:34 > 0:53:37Elvis moved to Memphis at the age of 13
0:53:37 > 0:53:40and absorbed its musical influences.
0:53:40 > 0:53:42- Where was he going to hear his music?- Beale Street.
0:53:42 > 0:53:46Everyone goes to Beale Street in Memphis to hear all sorts of music.
0:53:46 > 0:53:48It was the same for Elvis when he was growing up.
0:53:48 > 0:53:52And he really made a lot of connections at Stax and Sun Studio
0:53:52 > 0:53:54with so many up-and-coming Memphis musicians
0:53:54 > 0:53:57that would really help put Memphis on the map in terms of blues
0:53:57 > 0:53:59and gospel and eventually rock and roll.
0:53:59 > 0:54:02And does Elvis himself pick up the blues?
0:54:02 > 0:54:03Yes, absolutely.
0:54:03 > 0:54:08Big influences of Elvis in terms of blues are Big Mama Thornton,
0:54:08 > 0:54:12who actually came out with Hound Dog and that famous song of Elvis'
0:54:12 > 0:54:13is a cover of hers.
0:54:13 > 0:54:16Otis Blackwell was an amazing blues writer
0:54:16 > 0:54:18that Elvis loved to work with.
0:54:18 > 0:54:20He wrote Don't Be Cruel and All Shook Up.
0:54:20 > 0:54:24So, Graceland, I've never been here before, big moment,
0:54:24 > 0:54:26but when does he acquire it?
0:54:26 > 0:54:29Elvis bought Graceland when he was 22,
0:54:29 > 0:54:31it's June 1957,
0:54:31 > 0:54:35came with about 13 acres of land and he paid about 100,000 for it.
0:54:37 > 0:54:40The poor boy from Mississippi had become
0:54:40 > 0:54:43the first global rock and roll superstar,
0:54:43 > 0:54:47thanks to his fusion of rhythm and blues, country and gospel.
0:54:49 > 0:54:51He died aged just 42,
0:54:51 > 0:54:55but it's as though he lives on at Graceland.
0:54:59 > 0:55:01Well, it's a...
0:55:01 > 0:55:03- a time capsule, isn't it? - That's right.
0:55:05 > 0:55:07When Elvis passed away in 1977,
0:55:07 > 0:55:10he was kind of in a very masculine '70s phase,
0:55:10 > 0:55:13so most of what you see here that's white or blue
0:55:13 > 0:55:17was actually red and black, lots of leather and fur.
0:55:17 > 0:55:19So we kind of like to hedge the balance between
0:55:19 > 0:55:21what it was like when he passed away
0:55:21 > 0:55:24and what it was like the majority of the time that he lived here.
0:55:24 > 0:55:26What was the difference that he made to music?
0:55:26 > 0:55:28He is credited with a lot.
0:55:28 > 0:55:32At Sun Studio, downtown, he and Sam Phillips, Johnny Cash,
0:55:32 > 0:55:37Jerry Lee Lewis really blended together blues, gospel, country, R&B,
0:55:37 > 0:55:41soul and created what we now know as the infancy of rock and roll.
0:55:41 > 0:55:44And so many current pop culture and musical artists today
0:55:44 > 0:55:46kind of attribute some of their success,
0:55:46 > 0:55:49some of their musical stylings to the King of Rock 'n' Roll.
0:55:55 > 0:55:59Despite his renown as a rebellious youth whose music and sensuality
0:55:59 > 0:56:05divided generations and families, Elvis was devoted to his parents.
0:56:05 > 0:56:10They lived with him off and on at Graceland and are buried beside him.
0:56:38 > 0:56:40I've been thinking,
0:56:40 > 0:56:43which figures most help you to understand American history?
0:56:43 > 0:56:45Thomas Jefferson, "All men are created equal".
0:56:45 > 0:56:48Abraham Lincoln, the abolition of slavery,
0:56:48 > 0:56:50and Elvis Presley.
0:56:51 > 0:56:53That's not far-fetched because,
0:56:53 > 0:56:55from the second half of the 20th century onwards,
0:56:55 > 0:57:01America, through its entertainment, has global, cultural domination
0:57:01 > 0:57:04and Elvis is absolutely at the heart of that,
0:57:04 > 0:57:06and the interesting thing is
0:57:06 > 0:57:10that he draws his inspiration largely from black Americans.
0:57:32 > 0:57:34Guided by my Appleton's,
0:57:34 > 0:57:39my train journey from Minneapolis to Memphis has left two strong impressions,
0:57:39 > 0:57:42that the Mississippi tells the story of America up to
0:57:42 > 0:57:45the late-19th century.
0:57:45 > 0:57:50Native Americans, fur traders, settlers, steamboats,
0:57:50 > 0:57:53industry and the Civil War.
0:57:53 > 0:57:58And that Chicago carries on the history of the United States,
0:57:58 > 0:58:02sitting at the centre of a vast iron web,
0:58:02 > 0:58:05spinning out new rail lines in every direction,
0:58:05 > 0:58:11growing fat and tall on the profits, because by then access to a railroad
0:58:11 > 0:58:15was more important than proximity to a river...
0:58:15 > 0:58:19Even to this one, the father of the waters.