03762nam 2200685Ia 450 991096600620332120251117084637.01-283-58315-197866138956080-252-09237-6(CKB)2670000000240911(EBL)3413987(SSID)ssj0000711038(PQKBManifestationID)11444675(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000711038(PQKBWorkID)10681834(PQKB)11591963(MiAaPQ)EBC3413987(OCoLC)654313968(MdBmJHUP)muse23782(Au-PeEL)EBL3413987(CaPaEBR)ebr10593659(CaONFJC)MIL389560(OCoLC)923494548(BIP)46595204(BIP)14593283(EXLCZ)99267000000024091120071226d2008 ub 0engur|n|---|||||txtccrBlues empress in black Chattanooga Bessie Smith and the emerging urban South /Michelle R. Scott1st ed.Urbana University of Illinois Pressc20081 online resource (218 p.)Description based upon print version of record.0-252-07545-5 0-252-03338-8 Includes bibliographical references (p. [173]-191) and index.Introduction: uncovering the life of a blues woman -- Beyond the contraband camps: Black Chattanooga from the Civil War to 1880 -- The freest town on the map: Black migration to new south Chattanooga -- The empress's playground: Bessie Smith and Black childhood in the urban South -- Life on Big Ninth Street: the emerging blues culture in Chattanooga -- An empress in vaudeville: Bessie Smith on the theater circuit.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. _x000B__x000B_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.SingersUnited StatesBiographyBlues (Music)TennesseeChattanoogaHistory and criticismAfrican AmericansTennesseeChattanoogaHistoryChattanooga (Tenn.)HistorySingersBlues (Music)History and criticism.African AmericansHistory.782.421643092BScott Michelle R.1974-1871222MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910966006203321Blues empress in black Chattanooga4479939UNINA