Electric chair blues: Black expression and execution in the era of Jim Crow

Abstract

In March 1927, blues singer Bessie Smith laid down four tracks for Columbia Records in New York City. One of these tunes, “Send me to the ‘Lectric Chair,” stands as a landmark in that it is the first blues comment on the most powerful punishment of the time. Less than a year later, the country blues star Blind Lemon Jefferson captured his “‘Lectric Chair Blues” in Chicago for Paramount. Again, the electric chair becomes a catalyst for composition in blues song. But why would these performers decide to document this horrific ending in song and at this particular time? If we look to the history of electrocution as the means to carry out the death penalty, it becomes obvious that both artists reflected on a reality of their era. By the time these songs were recorded, the electric chair had become the dominant method used to send prisoners to their end, especially in southern states. By closely examining the situations expressed in these two songs, we discover some important historical details about the electric chair and find indications of the African‐American community's reaction to this reality of the legal system of the Jim Crow era.