The interviews of former slaves featured in Hear the Voices Ring are directly linked to the events that occurred in the United States during the first half of the twentieth century.  A decade prior to the 1930s, the United States experienced a period known as the Roaring Twenties which was characterized by a time of prosperity and change and included:

1. new technological improvements
2. homes updated with electricity 
3. radios, refrigerators, electric appliances and telephones becoming a part of the American way of life.
4. cars becoming affordable for the middle class, thanks to Henry Ford; and, 
5. many influential people believing that the good times were here to stay. 

During the 1930s and into the early 1940s, a major shift occurred.  The world was plummeted into the worse and longest economic downturn in history, a period which was known as the Great Depression.  Historians report that the depression originated in the United States with the crash of the stock market, Tuesday, October 29, 1929.  That infamous day, referred to as Black Tuesday, rapidly spread across the globe with virtually every major city in the world effected.

"After the initial crash, there was a wave of suicides in the New York’s financial district. It’s said that the clerks of one hotel even started asking new guests if they needed a room for sleeping or jumping."  Randon Facts

Facts and Figures

In the United States, the effects of the depression were quite severe:

• Homebuilding dropped by 80% between the years 1929 and 1932.
• By 1933, 11,000 of the US' 25,000 banks had failed.
• In Clevland, OH the unemployment rate was 60%; in Toledo, Ohio, 80%. 
• Industrial production fell by nearly 45% between the years 1929 and 1932.
• 13 million people became unemployed. In 1932, 34 million people belonged to families with no regular full-time wage earner.
• By 1933, 11,000 of the US' 25,000 banks had failed.
• Over one million families lost their farms between 1930 and 1934.
• Corporate profits had dropped from $10 billion in 1929 to $1 billion in 1932.
• Nine million savings accounts had been wiped out between 1930 and 1933.
• 273,000 families had been evicted from their homes in 1932.
• There were two million homeless people migrating around the country.
• One Arkansas man walked 900 miles looking for work.
• Over 60% of Americans were categorized as poor by the federal government in 1933.
• In the early 1930s, more people emigrated from the United States than immigrated to it.
• New York social workers reported that 25% of all schoolchildren were malnourshed In the mining counties of West Virginia, Illinois, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania, the proportion of malnourished children was perhaps as high as 90%.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA)

In 1935 when as many as one out of four Americans could not find jobs, the federal government stepped in to become the employer of last resort.  Never before in the history of the country has the government played such a role in the lives of its citizens. The Works Progress Administration (WPA), an ambitious New Deal program established as part of the newly elected President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s domestic policy, put 8,500,000 jobless to work on 1,410,000 individual projects.  During its 8 year history, the WPA built 651,087 miles of highways, roads, and streets; and constructed, repaired, or improved 124,031 bridges, 125,110 public buildings, 8,192 parks, and 853 airport landing fields.  The WPA not only created manual labor jobs in construction and other industries, it also created jobs for white-collar workers and helped those in the performing and fine arts. 

The Federal Writers’ Project (FWP) 

Between 1936 and 1938, one of the projects operating under the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was charged with employing writers, editors, historians, researchers, art critics, archaeologists, geologists and cartographers.  Some 6,600 individuals were employed under this project referred to as the Federal Writers’ Project (FWP).  For $20 - $25 per week, out-of-work writers and journalists in 17 states were hired to interview former slaves who were children or teenagers during slavery, and between 80 and 100 plus years old when the interviews were given.

Racism in the United States was at its height when the former slaves were interviewed.  Only a token representation of blacks were hired to conduct the interviews with some southern states refusing applications from blacks altogether in order not to spend money for “separate facilities.”  Criticism levied against former slaves’ testimony centered around the notion that interviews written by a white person will always be vastly different from interviews written by blacks. Some scholars even suggest that the level of familiarity and the depth of the questions, as well as the honesty with which the interviews were written, were influenced by race.  The lack of randomness associated with the selection of subjects, and the lack of training and experience of many of the interviewers were also issues for scholars.

 

Although the FWP ended before any of the interviews could be published, historians showed little interest in this material before the 1960s.  The interviews were virtually ignored.  Many historians valued, instead, written documents which were considered objective and reliable over oral and folklore materials, which were regarded as subjective and untrustworthy.  For others, the combination of folklore and oral history made the former slave narratives a contribution to American literature, as well as to American history.   

 

The work of the FWP culminated in over 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery, representing only two percent of the former slave population in the United States, and over 500 black-and-white photographs. While there are still those who question the reliability of the slave narratives, they remain one of our most valuable resources.  

Without these narratives, the only records of slavery that would exist would be those produced by white slaveholders — and they would tell a very different story than we learn from the slaves themselves.  David Walbert

Glossary of Terms

Abolitionist

Refers to a person who wanted to do away with slavery.  

Auctioneer

In the context of slavery, auctioneer refers to a white man engaged in the business of taking bids and the selling of slaves.
Black Tuesday    

Refers to Tuesday, October 29, 1929, which signals the day that the stock market crashed and the beginning of the Great Depression.

Federal Writers’ Project (FWP)

A federally funded project established from 1936-1938 under the WPA to fund written work (i.e. collecting slave narratives) and support writers during the Great Depression.

Ku Klux Klan

Often abbreviated KKK, a group widely considered a hate organization with a commitment to extreme violence to achieve its goals of racial segregation and white supremacy.

Patterollers

The name given to a group of three to six white men who policed slaves on the plantations and hunted down fugitive slaves.  The usual methods of discipline employed by these slave patrols were maiming and killing.

Mulatto

An offspring of mixed parentage who was often sold in slavery.

New Deal

A series of economic programs which were passed by Congress to stimulate the economy during President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first term in office. 

Pass

A written statement from a slave owner giving permission to a slave to leave the plantation for a specific time period.  Without a pass, a slave was considered a fugitive.

Roosevelt, Franklin D.

The 32nd President of the United States who was elected under the backdrop of the Great Depression.  He is the only U.S. President to be elected to serve four consecutive terms.

Shoat

A young weaned pig.

Sorghum

Refers to one of the five top cereal crops in the world, along with wheat, oats, corn, and barley. It originated in Africa. Sweet Sorghum is a syrup made from the juice of Sorghum Cane.  Sorghum syrup and biscuits was a traditional breakfast of slaves.

Tuskayahiniha

A Native American leader of the Creek Nation and slaveholder.

Wench

A young girl or woman sold in slavery.

Juba Dance

Dance of African-American slaves in response to a rhythmic call and to the clapping of the other dancers.

Works Progress Administration (WPA)
Was a 1935 federally funded program, established under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, to offer work to the unemployed. 

Headlines and Events

1929

• October:  Stock Market Crashes
• November:  The President of Rochester Gas & Electric Company kills himself after he loses over a million dollars in the stock market.
• December:  US President Herbert Hoover announces to U.S. Congress that the worst effects of the recent stock market crash are behind the nation and the American people have regained faith in the economy. 

1930

• President Hoover says the worst effects of the Depression will be over within 90 days: "Prosperity is just around the corner.
• New York scientist predicts man will reach moon by 2050. 
• Scientists report discovery of ninth planet (Pluto) at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ. U.S.
• Labor leaders move to ban all Soviet products.
• Census shows that U.S. population reaches 122.7 million.U.S.
• U.S.Bank goes under; 60 branches in New York and more than 1300 close nationwide.

1931

• The President's Emergency Committee reports nearly five million unemployed.  
• The first Scottsboro Trial begins.  
• Farmers are getting the lowest price for their wheat crop since 1895.
• Because of the financial crisis, Britain's Labour government resigns.
• The Japanese military stages an incident in the Manchurian town of Mukden, creating a pretext for the Japanese invasion of the region.
• By year’s end, 2293 banks have suspended operation.  

1932

• US railway unions accept 10% wage reduction.
• Immigrant Adolf Hitler receives German citizenship.
• President Hoover cuts own salary 15%.
• 200,000 English textile workers strike.
• Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected President in a landslide.
• Revenue Act of 1932 passes, the largest peacetime tax increase in the nation's history.

1933

• German president von Hindenburg appoints Adolf Hitler chancellor who promises parliamentary democracy.
• Two days after becoming chancellor, Adolf Hitler dissolves Parliament.
• Nazi Germany begins persecuting Jews and staging public book burnings.
• US Employment Service created.
• Congress passes 1st minimum wage law (33 cents per hour).
• Albert Einstein emigrates to the United States.

1934 

• The Apollo Theater opens in Harlem.
• Gold Reserve Act passed, which allows the U. S. Treasury to seize all gold held by Federal Reserve banks; and private possession of gold is made illegal except for "legitimate" purposes (jewelry, artwork, and industrial and scientific use.
• Arthur L Mitchell, becomes 1st black Democratic congressman (IL).
• Bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were shot to death in a police ambush in Bienville Parish, Louisiana.
• Zora Neale Hurstons first novel, Jonahs Gourd Vine, is published.
• Hitler elected Fuhrer (95.7% of German voters).

1935

• The Dust Bowl
• Hitler orders German rearmament, violating Versailles Treaty.
• Jesse Owens equals or breaks 6 world records in one hour.
• Social Security Act becomes law.
• Gershwin's "Porgy & Bess" premieres in Boston.
• Under FDR’s New Deal, Congress authorizes creation of the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

1936

• Jesse Owens becomes first American to win four Olympic gold medals in track and field.
• New Jersey mother Mabel Eaton loses custody of her children due to her affiliation with the Communist Party.
• Margaret Mitchell publishes her only book, Gone With the Wind.
• Benny Goodman becomes first bandleader to integrate his band racially by hiring pianist Teddy Wilson and vibraphonist Lionel Hampton.
• The US presidential election the most lopsided election in the history of the nation.  (Electoral Vote, Roosevelt 523, Landon 8; Popular Vote,  Roosevelt 27,752,648, Landon 16,681,862)
• Top tax rate raised to 79 percent.

1937

• Soap Opera "Guiding Light" premieres on radio.
• US Steel raises workers' wages to $5 a day.
• FDR signs act of neutrality.
• Alabama drops charges against 5 blacks accused of rape in Scottsboro.
• Hitler informs his military leader of his intentions of going to war.
• Japanese aircraft shell & sink US gunboat Panay on Yangtze River in China. (Japan apologized & eventually paid US $2.2M in reparations).

1938

• The Church of England accepts the theory of evolution.
• German troops entered Austria
• House on un-American Activities forms.
• Mussolini publishes anti-Jewish/African manifest.
• NY Yanks suspend Jake Powell, after he said on Chicago radio he'd "hit every colored person in Chicago over head with a club."
• Jewish lawyers forbidden to practice in Germany.

Hitler brought back century-old church law, ordering all Jews to wear a yellow Star of David as identification. A few hundred thousand Jews are allowed to leave Germany after they give all of their assets to the government.

1939

• Hitler calls for extermination of European Jews.
• Marian Anderson sings before 75,000 at Lincoln Memorial.
• John Steinbeck’s novel "The Grapes of Wrath" published.
• Hitler orders extermination of mentally ill.
• WW II begins.
• Albert Einstein informs FDR of  the possibilities of atomic bomb.

On December 7, 1941, Japan pushed the United States into the war by attacking the American naval base a Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Four days later Hitler declared war on the United States. The day after the attack, on December 8, the U.S. declared war on Japan and Germany. 

 

World War II killed more people, cost more money, damaged more property, affected more people, and caused more far-reaching changes in nearly every country than any other war in history. The number of people killed, wounded, or missing between September 1939 and September 1945 is estimated to be more than 55 million.

 

The exact date of the war's end is not universally agreed upon. It has been suggested that the war ended at the armistice of August 14, 1945 rather than the formal surrender of Japan September 2, 1945; in some European histories, it ended on May 8, 1945. The Treaty of Peace with Japan, signed by 49 nations, was not signed until September 8, 1951.

The End of the Great Depression

Although many Americans were poverty stricken, by 1934 the Great Depression had weakened.  Most historians agree that President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal helped alleviate some of the problems.  For example, under the New Deal, wages and prices were regulated, which helped most families buy things they needed, like food and clothing. People found employment as conservation workers, artists, writers, and laborers; and, Social Security helped the elderly who could no longer work and whose savings were gone.

The American economy was given a boost when the fighting countries needed supplies and looked to America to make them.  After Pearl Harbor was bombed, the U.S. enlisted more than 10 million men and women into the military. The able-bodied citizens remaining at home worked in the factories to make supplies for the war effort, which contributed significantly to the economy and brought an end to the Great Depression.  By the beginning of the 1940s, the United States had gone from an economy that oversaw its own conduct to an economy regulated by the federal government. The debate over which is the best course of action still rages today.