Two Unreconciled Strivings
Work
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African-Americans reminisce about work
These excerpts are taken from the manuscripts
of life histories recorded by the Federal
Writers' Project between 1936 and 1940. The memories presented here
seem straightforward in how they are told, but care should be taken to
consider the relationship between the interviewer and the subject.
- How, for example,
was the person being interviewed addressed or described by the
interviewer?
- How was the life
history recorded? Is it a summarization in the interviewer's
words, or a transcription of the subject's words?
- Does the interviewer
attempt to record dialect, and, if so, can we be sure the dialect
represents what was actually heard or how the interviewer imagined
impoverished African-Americans talked?
In short, here is
a rich historical source that, like all documentary sources, must
be used with care and sensitivity.
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Full text (Library
of Congress/Federal Writers Project)
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