HIUS 131 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Race Record, Binge Drinking, The Chicago Defender
HIUS 131 – Lecture 16 – The Blues in American Culture, 1910s-1920s
Introduction
• Mass production and consumer culture contributed to the shaping of a new artistic form among
the most impoverished and oppressed people of American society
• Consumer culture in the blues
• Blues songs express the changing experience of blacks during the era of WWI and the decades
immediately following it
• Starting in mid-1890s and early 20th century, Southern states began imposing laws and altering
their constitutions to disenfranchise almost the entire black population of the South, along with
many poor whites
o Ipositio of these las folloed the rise of Populis, the Colored Farers Alliae
o In order to clean up the system during a time of revolt, need to make sure those who
shouldt ote at ote
o Literacy tests, poll taxes, understanding clauses (explaining Constitution)
o When Bryan lost to McKinley, many Populists blamed their defeat on black voters
• Majority of Southern black people lived in desperate poverty
• 20% of blacks owned land, but it was bad land for the most part; 80% did not own land and they
worked primarily as sharecroppers
o Dividing up plantations into pieces of 10-15 acre lands for black families to work; planters
would provide tools and seed for 2/3 of the crop
o Having to buy from the plantation store
o Having to always give the planter 2/3 of crops, even if there was a drought
o Black families always in debt to the plantation owner
• System of laws limited the opportunities for black people
o Vagrancy laws made it so that black men could be arrested for being jobless
o Mississippi pig law made theft of cattle/pigs punishable by 5 years in jail
o The state authorized jails to lease out prisoners to corporations, became cheap/convict
labor
• So popular in Florida that they got rid of jails, would just be sent to work
• Convict labor system
• Intensification and codification of segregation
o Dominated the South by the early 20th century
o Many hospitals refused to admit black people
o Plessy v. Ferguson 1898 separate but equal
o In places where races mixed, black people had to wait for white people to be served first
o In Tennessee, a man who had killed his wife refused to be hung with black men, and state
respected his wished and hung him alone
o Segregation in schools
• In the Deep South, black children got no education
▪ Literacy rates very low
• Precursors to the blues
o Songs that slaves sang
o Songs that black people sang in churches
o The work song
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
The Work Song
• Songs that groups of men sang outdoors while they worked
• Leader would shout out a line and the others would follow with the next line
• Song creating rhythm for work as men would work in beat to song
• Seldom completely formalized
o Handed down from generation to generation, but groups would make changes on the spot
o So used to this kind of singing that they could produce the sound on the spot, was a
tradition
• Howard Odom heard a group of workmen singing, and wrote down the lyrics but they were
singing about him
• Fostered community and camaraderie
• Escape from drudgery of work
• Supervisors realized that singing made the work go more quickly, they would ignore words that
ould hae aused puishet if those ords oulde ee said to the diretly
o Way for them to criticize their bosses
• Blues drew on the musical form of the work song
o Religion, vocalization
Delta Blues
• Blues began around the turn of the century in Southern Mississippi
• Many think that the blues began on a single plantation, the Dockery Plantation, at the turn of the
century
o So isolated that it had its own currency, most born there died there without leaving it
• The first blues singers were dirt poor, the sons and grandsons of former slaves, tended to be
outcasts even in their own families (victims of abuse, alcoholics, broken homes)
• Blues as a genre dependent on the mass production of cheap instruments, available to even those
who were dirt poor in isolated Mississippi
• Blues singers supported themselves by traveling from plantation to plantation, entertaining
sharecroppers at night
• Differences between blues and work songs
o Sung solo
• Vs. sung by group
o Accompanied by instrument
• Vs. a cappella
o Cetered o sigers o feeligs ad life
• Highly personal form
• Vs. collective experience of work song
o Traveling entertainers
• Vs. singing while working
Charlie Patton
• Family of former slaves moved to Dockery Plantation when he was 6 or 7 years old
• One of earliest blues singers
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Hius 131 lecture 16 the blues in american culture, 1910s-1920s. Starting in mid-1890s and early 20th century, southern states began imposing laws and altering their constitutions to disenfranchise almost the entire black population of the south, along with many poor whites. I(cid:373)positio(cid:374) of these la(cid:449)s follo(cid:449)ed the rise of populis(cid:373), the colored far(cid:373)ers(cid:859) allia(cid:374)(cid:272)e. So popular in florida that they got rid of jails, would just be sent to work: convict labor system. Intensification and codification of segregation: dominated the south by the early 20th century, many hospitals refused to admit black people, plessy v. ferguson 1898 separate but equal. In places where races mixed, black people had to wait for white people to be served first. In tennessee, a man who had killed his wife refused to be hung with black men, and state respected his wished and hung him alone: segregation in schools. In the deep south, black children got no education.
