Midnight Special was composed by Huddie "Leadbelly" Leadbetter. Leadbelly was doing time on the " Harlem Farm" of the Texas prison system when he wrote Midnight Special. The Harlem Farm today has been renamed the "Jester Unit" of the Texas Dept of Criminal Justice. The Midnight Special was what the prison inmates called the train that ran nightly between San Antonio and Houston along US Hwy 90A through Sugarland , Texas. The train typicaly passed the Harlem Farm around midnight and the inmates viewed it's light as their ticket to freedom. Leadbelly liked to drink and he liked to fight. He ended up on the Harlem Farm for killing a man in a knife fight. He also served time on the "Shaw Farm" which was sold by the state of Texas in 1930. He also did time in Louisiana at the "Angola State Prison" .
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