Blog 1: Featured Oral History Interview

    The interview that I chose to do for my first blog post on was an interview taken in 1941 about the life of a fellow slave. The title of the interview is, "Interview with Isom Moseley, Gee's Bend, Alabama, 1941." This interview was recorded by Robert Sonkin via audio recording, and a transcript of the interview was also provided (10:05). This interview is offered via audio, pdf, and online text. 

    The interview itself was framed around how slavery was for Isom Moseley in Gee's Bend, Alabama. He was 17 years old when he was enslaved and his Master's name was Lyde Molar (I believe it was unclear and abbreviated L.M.). He mentioned some of the things that occurred throughout his years as a slave. For instance, he was kept around the house where he would tote cool water. A tote was a bulk container that they would carry and transport water with especially on farmland because it was efficient and easily accessible. He would tote barrels of water to the soap and leather makers for use in the production of those two items.

    There was one interesting part of his story that stood out to me was that stood out to me the most. Isom Moseley stated, "...I'd go out in the quarter to play with them childr, other children. And if I hurt one and they caught me, they would wear me out. Well the, the white folk told me, when they get at me, make it to the yard." He then proceeds to mention what happens if he made it to the yard if he didn't get caught. "Well sometimes I'd go out there and get to playing, one would hit me, I'd get a brick [unintelligible] it to him and to the yard I made it. Don't nobody say nothing after that." This specific part of the interview caught my attention, mainly because of the barrier that slavery had driven between the white and black population. Slavery has been defined as cruel beating and being treated like nothing but property, however Moseley got to play and experience more than most enslaved kids and adults have gotten to experience. Another thing that spoke out to me about this dialogue is that the white individuals are who gave him a way out of the punishments that he would endure. This made me question whether they truly only saw him as property or if they had included him into society. Of course Moseley didn't have all of the same rights and freedoms, but he was merely just an object either from what it seems. He also mentioned how he had "mighty good white folks" which makes me feel like his life period as an enslaved African American was a lot different of an experience than what other enslaved African Americans had endured.

    I can say that reading the transcript was quite confusing at certain points because Isom Moseley seemed to hop between different topics especially when it came to describing how soap and leather was made. In that paragraph of the transcript he went from talking about how soap was made with no transition to talking about how leather was made which made the process a little confusing to understand. However outside of this specific topic within the interview, everything else was easier to interpret. I also thought that the audio was not the easiest to hear as well, however, I have to remind myself that this interview was taken in 1941, and audio recording where not as advanced as they are now.

    In the year of 1941 when this interview was conducted, Isom Moseley was 85 and was receiving assistance from the Government. I found this interesting simply because I was unaware that the government was offering item to the freedmen and refugees in the United States. Freed African Americans were being supplied with clothes, food, and money from the government.

https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/afc1941018_afs05091a