Blues Empress in Black Chattanooga: Bessie Smith and the Emerging Urban South

By: Michelle R. Scott

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Synopsis: As one of the first African American vocalists to be recorded, Bessie Smith is a prominent figure in American popular culture and African American history. Michelle R. Scott uses Smith's life as a lens to investigate broad issues in history, including industrialization, Southern rural to urban migration, black community development in the post-emancipation era, and black working-class gender conventions. Arguing that the rise of blues culture and the success of female blues artists like Bessie Smith are connected to the rapid migration and industrialization in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Scott focuses her analysis on Chattanooga, Tennessee, the large industrial and transportation center where Smith was born. This study explores how the expansion of the Southern railroads and the development of iron foundries, steel mills, and sawmills created vast employment opportunities in the postbellum era. Chronicling the growth and development of the African American Chattanooga community, Scott examines the Smith family's migration to Chattanooga and the popular music of black Chattanooga during the first decade of the twentieth century, and culminates by delving into Smith's early years on the vaudeville circuit.

Book Quality:: Publisher Quality
ISBN-13:: 9780252092374
Related ISBNs:: 9780252075452, 9780252033384
Publisher:: University of Illinois Press
Date of Addition:: 10/04/16
Copyrighted By:: Michelle R. Scott
Adult content:: No
Language:: English
Has Image Descriptions:: No
Categories:: History, Nonfiction, Biographies and Memoirs, Social Studies, Music
Submitted By:: Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:: This is a copyrighted book.