9 comments

  1. Aristotle Tziampiris

    This is superb, thank you for sharing

    1. Donna R Causey

      Thanks!

  2. Bill Tate

    Donna, I know I’m like thousands of others who get the greatest pleasure in hearing and reading about our state’s history. Thank you so for your time and effort. I particularly like the fact that you show the location of a county when you speak of it. We’re all learning and enjoying! I’m from Sylacauga in Talladega County and have learned new things about my town and my county.

    1. Donna R Causey

      Hi Bill,
      Thank you! I enjoy discovering and sharing these treasures.

  3. Vanessa Brown

    Marcia McIntyre Risner thought you might enjoy this video

  4. Cyn Carpenter

    And many of those former slaves altered their stories; they did not want to upset the white people they were talking to about slavery. Long-standing habits.

    1. Mark Evan White

      And many altered it the other way also. Not wanting to offend those who were the ultimate feds who defeated their Homeland society.
      It works both ways. By that time the Union had been the arbitrators of the law for several decades. And they controlled the money.

    2. Sharon Goodlett Hicks

      …how would we know either one of those things is true?
      …did families of these folks say they didn’t really mean what they said? …or something like that?

    3. Cyn Carpenter

      “On the other hand, while Lomax was keenly sensitive to the importance of establishing adequate rapport with the aged informants, it does not appear that he seriously considered the possibility that black interviewers might accomplish this more effectively than white. Earlier evaluations of the Georgia narratives had reported that black interviewers appeared “able to gain better insight” than whites and that the interviews obtained by blacks were “less tinged with glamour.” Nevertheless, no special attempt was made to assign African Americans to this task, as had previously been done in Georgia, Florida, and several other states. Indeed, after the national office of the FWP began directing the project, the writers employed as interviewers were almost exclusively white–and it is probable that in many instances caste etiquette led ex-slaves to tell white interviewers “what they wanted to hear.” Lomax’s personal success in obtaining African-American folklore may have blinded him to the effects of the interviewer’s race on the interview situation.”
      https://www.loc.gov/collections/slave-narratives-from-the-federal-writers-project-1936-to-1938/articles-and-essays/introduction-to-the-wpa-slave-narratives/wpa-and-the-slave-narrative-collection/

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