WPA Slave Narratives: Problems
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After they were deposited into the Library of Congress, the interviews sat virtually untouched for the next thirty years until the late 1960s. In 1945, Benjamin A. Botkin, one of the men who had organized the narratives for the Library of Congress, wrote a book entitledLaying My Burden Down. This book helped publicize the collection, but historians were still leery of using it. Soon after Botkin’s book was published, the Library of Congress had the collection microfilmed to make it more assessible to the public, believing that as more people became aware of the collection it would get more use.
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Age
There are many reasons why historians and others were not using the narratives during this time. One reason that is cited over and over again is the advanced age of the ex-slaves themselves. C. Vann Woodward notes, “ The very age of the former slaves at the time they were interviewed raises several serious questions-about two-thirds were eighty or more and 15 percent were over ninety-three, with numerous centurions (especially in Texas for unknown reasons) among the group.”1 Woodward presses an additional issue when he suggests that, “Not only is the question of failing memory raised, but also the question of whether longevity may not be partly attributed to exceptionally good rather than typical treatment at slaves.”2 John W. Blassingame contributed to the argument by adding, “And, since only 16 percent of the informants had been 15 years or older when the Civil War began an overwhelming majority of them could only describe how slavery appeared to a black child.”3 By 1979, this argument was beginning to shift, as can be seen in the book Slavery Remembered by Paul D. Escott when he states the following:
"Some authorities contend that intellectual function improves with age. Furthermore, it seems likely that people would remember events that took place at critical junctures in their lives. Just as individuals in modern America remember their wedding days or graduations and family births and deaths, former slaves would be able to recall the day of Jubilee when freedom came or a tragic selling of a relative."4
The advanced age of the ex-slaves was also a concern for historians and others wanting to use the narratives because it could be an indication of what work the ex-slaves did while they were slaves. The advanced age could show that these ex-slaves were not exposed to the harshest treatment that the slave system had to offer since the average age for a slave in 1860 was approximately fifty years. To exemplify this issue the WPA slave narratives contain a high proportion of house servants: a total of 32.7 percent of the total narratives that were taken. This distinction could also account for some of the ex-slaves saying that they were treated well by their masters.
Representation
Just as with the issue of age, there are some areas which some historians see as huge stumbling blocks that must be overcome and others believe are not as important. Other facts about the narratives are also debated by historians. One debate has been over the sample of people that the narratives represent. While the Federal Writers’ Project claims to have included a wide variety of people, that is not entirely true. The number of those interviewed did not match proportionately with the number of slaves from the state. For example, Arkansas had only 3.5% of the slave population in 1860, but 33% of the ex-slaves interviewed by the WPA were from Arkansas. Mississippi was barely represented with only 1% of those interviewed even though the state had 10% of the slave population. Also, more males and urban residents were interviewed than female and rural residents.5 Many historians see this disproportion as a problem. Others, like Paul D. Escott, believe that while at first glance the numbers seem to be weighed more heavily towards states like Arkansas, a closer look reveals that most of the ex-slaves had moved there after the Civil War, and that “... the locations during slavery and Reconstruction of those who were interviewed roughly approximate the location for the entire black population.”6
Methodology
While the above mentioned problems are serious, they are not the only issues with the narratives that are identified by historians. Many historians take issue with how the narratives themselves were collected. The narratives are interviews that were done with an ex-slave. While they were interviewing them, the FWP workers would take notes. Many of the writers had not interviewed people before, and it shows in the information that they were able to get. After the interview was done, they would type up a report of the interview. In this process, the writer would decide what to put in or leave out. Also during this time, some of the writers added dialects to people who had none to try and make the written words sound as they perceived the ex-slaves should sound. After they were done, the narrative would then be edited at the state level before being sent to Washington, where it may have been edited again. John W. Blassingame provides a good example of the type of things that were done:
"[J. Ralph Jones a Georgia interviewer] Jones’s interviews with Rias Body and Washington B. Allen were edited to delete references to cruel punishments, blacks serving in the Union Army, runaways, and blacks voting during Reconstruction. Jones had two interviews with W. B. Allen, and the second one is transcribed in almost identical words to the recording in the WPA typescript. The WPA typescript of the first interview, however list Allen's date and place of birth incorrectly and does not include 1700 words that appear in Jones’s record of the interview. About half of the section excluded from the WPA typescript referred to slave traders, the religious life of the slaves, the tricks they played on the patrollers, and the songs they sang. While the typescript refers to that kind of treatment Allen received from his owners, Jones’s records show that he spent a great deal of time talking about the hard work and cruel floggings characteristic of the plantation. The WPA transcript gives the impression that Allen spoke in dialect, using such words as “fetched,” “de,” “dis,” “chillums,” and “fokes.” But in his records Jones observed that Allen “used his excellent English ...”7
Another problem with how the narratives were done was the fact that most of the interviews were done by white males, completely disregarding the racial tensions that may have existed. Many of the ex-slaves were dependent upon whites, especially during the hard times of the Great Depression. In some cases, ex-slaves were interviewed by the grandchildren of their former owner. This most likely affected how the ex-slaves responded to questions that they were being asked. Another problem was with the questions themselves, as many were leading questions, and the ex-slaves may have given the interviewers the answer that they wanted rather than the truth.
References
1. Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., and Charles T. Davis, eds. The Slave's Narrative. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985. pg. 50-51
2. Ibid
3. Ibid, pg. 88
4. Paul D. Escott Slavery, Remembered: A Record of Twentieth-Century Slave Narratives, Chapel Hill, North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press, 1979, pg.7
5 Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., and Charles T. Davis, eds. The Slave's Narrative. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.
6. Paul D. Escott Slavery, Remembered: A Record of Twentieth-Century Slave Narratives, Chapel Hill, North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press, 1979
7. Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., and Charles T. Davis, eds. The Slave's Narrative. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.pg. 87
Related Pages
WPA Slave Narratives
WPA Slave Narratives: History
WPA Slave Narratives: Uses
WPA Slave Narratives: Addition Information
