Blues empress in black Chattanooga : Bessie Smith and the emerging urban South 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 empresss 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