The Georgia Slave Narratives provide
a powerful insight into the lives of slaves in the South and that simple fact
cannot be denied. All to often historians ignore the authors of these inspired
narratives. This factor can be explored even more so through the peculiar
interaction between ex-slaves and their white interviewers. The Slave Narratives
were written by a select few. These people were given the great task of
uncovering insight in a time that consisted of slavery, fear, hate, and harsh
realities about their environment and their society at a time when race
relations in the South were not good. The interviewers were forced to take
themselves out of their comfort zones in white American and forced them to
interact with the other side. This would prove to be a trying task at best but
nonetheless a paycheck at a time when jobs were hard to come by. These
narratives would focus on the former slaves and the “extremely important window”
into the attitudes, ideologies, value system, and identification of their
difficult experiences. The interviewer’s job would be a challenging endeavor for
a white person to go out into a black community and interview an ex-slave when
race relations were so delicate and fragile and fewer places are more evident
than that than Muscogee County in western Georgia. 1
Several individuals were given the
opportunity to contribute to this amazing collection. In total, seventeen states
participated in this project and the administrators collected over two thousand
slave narratives from the beginning of the project in 1936 until its culmination
in 1938. The Slave Narrative authors received their jobs by the Works Progress
Administration under President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a means of employing
people to alleviate some of the financial pressures of the growing economic
depression. These authors would interview ex-slaves and then write a relatively
brief article about their encounters both during the interview and the content
given about slavery practices. 2
These Slave Narratives would surely
prove to be one of the “most enduring achievements of the Writers’ Project.” For
many of these writers, these project would be a culture shock: a white person
going into the black community and interviewing these people about their
experiences as slaves just some fifty or sixty years ago. Most of the
participants would have been very young at the time of their enslavement and
thus would have different memories of their encounters that that of someone who
was more mature. Due to the age of those interviewed, historians debate some of
the accounts that were given. The time period between the interview and the
event were so great that the validity of these narratives is sometimes in
question. How can someone remember exactly how an event happened or how the
parties involved responded when it was so long ago? It would be very difficult.
The narratives were of great importance in documenting the times prior and
during the Civil War and so the authors of these stories had an important task
in front of them. One of the men selected to conduct these interviews in
Muscogee County was John Ralph (J.R.) Jones. 3
John Ralph Jones was a multi-skilled
individual. He has been documented to have lived in a number of places and his
interviews range from localities in East Alabama and West Georgia most notably
in Columbus, Georgia (Muscogee County). While in Georgia, he moved around at
least twice. In addition to conducting interviews, he also has conducted
interviews in Harris and Troup Counties. Very few of these slave narrative
authors were accorded the opportunity to interview over such a widespread
geographic region. His projects in West Alabama, Columbus, and Harris County
were primarily focused on the slave narratives and on biographical stories.
Jones’ work in Troup County and Muscogee County to a lesser extent, were focused
on transportation, a very important topic for the time during the Great
Depression. 4
John Jones worked as an editor for
the Works Progress Administration in 1937. Though not an editor of the Slave
Narratives, Jones did some work on the Biographical Sketches that were fairly
prevalent at the time as well. These sketches were typically about some of the
most powerful or prominent people in the geographical area. The editors were
even more powerful than their writers to some extent. They were a group of
people most noted for their integrity and honesty. These editors made a number
of changes to the original typescripts in order to best suit that they wanted
the public to know. The administrators of the program who made the hires
believed that due to their experiences, would be good at “separating truth from
fiction” and make sense of the manuscripts. Some editors made changes to
disguise the reality of the histories and make them more reader friendly. The
government of this time would be in favor of censorship in regards to race
relations. This was a volatile time and perhaps a heated argument or story would
have enraged a race reaction. A poor ill-timed response would have been even
more detrimental to the state of the country and their economic struggles in the
Depression and the years preceding. 5
J.R. Jones was more than just a
writer for the Works Progress Admnistration (WPA); he was a productive member of
society who worked as an accountant and auditor for a number of years. He worked
for both a private firm in Columbus and then again publicly for the government.
The WPA allowed local and state branches to make their own decision about hiring
practices. This may have been to limit the involvement of blacks in the project.
This allows the authors and editors to control the information that was
collected that might have been something that they did not want getting out at a
time of racial sensitivity or a lack thereof. This was very common practice by
many municipalities and Columbus was probably no different. These jobs were also
typically given to white-collared individuals both figuratively and literally.
Being an author for the WPA was work but by no means was it admired as an
honorable position to hold. Perhaps these jobs were viewed as given to the
individuals when maybe they should have gone to people who needed or deserved
them. Regardless of the hiring practice, it was a difficult job. “In many
states, introducing oneself as a ‘WPA writer’ could raise heckles and end an
interview on the spot.” John Jones had to face the harsh realities of the times
and make do with the jobs that could get to supplement his income. 6
7
The hiring practices used by many of
the governments on the local level were very restricted. It was by no means easy
to find a job with the Works Progress Administration. Luckily for Jones, he fit
the mold in both regards: he was white and he already was working for the
government. This was very typical of many of the workers of the WPA. Their
rational was that they could control taxable income more readily by offering
many of their jobs to their current employees rather than to other people who
perhaps needed the income more. Hiring practices such as these would prove
beneficial to the government as a way to raise tax revenue and make money during
the depression of the late 1930s and early 1940s. The administration believed
that the more labor that you could have in-house, the less their aggregate taxes
would be. In other words, if the government can hire more workers and put forth
more total economic gain, than the taxes would be less for each of its
subsequent individuals. According to The Realities of Unemployment, the average
worker earned fifty or so dollars per week in addition to their income from
other jobs if they had them. This sum of money would have been a fairly generous
amount during a time of economic hardship. It would appear that these types of
hiring practices would have raised animosity amongst the public but perhaps it
was just not common knowledge in the communities where this was in affect. This
type of benevolent action would prove to help the United States and its people
through the Depression. 8
John Ralph Jones was a white middle
class man. He was a registered voter and was probably active in the government
and its activities. He was a registered voter in Muscogee County from 1936 until
1938 and then again from 1939 until his death in the 1960s. He was a homeowner
in what would have been geographically amidst the downtown area of Columbus,
Georgia. This would indicate that J.R. Jones had accumulated some amount of
money and was more than likely an educated man. The fact that he owns his owns
house would have meant that he owned his house prior the Depression when the
price of real estate would have been affordable. J.R. worked as an accountant
for Department of Welfare while he was writing his slave narratives. Jones’
involvement in working with the government was probably a contributing factor to
his position with the Works Progress Administration. The Jones family would have
been receiving two paychecks instead of one during his time working under the
WPA. Jones moved out of the Columbus according to registration records following
1937. He may have moved to the Lagrange area of Troup County to complete his
work in that area but nothing truly supports that claim. The Jones family lived
at 1391 3rd Avenue during his first stead in the Columbus area and then later
moved to 1429 2nd Avenue when he returned in 1939. His home address would have
been important in accessing some of his interviewees. His address in downtown
Columbus was not remarkably close to that of Rias Body, ex-slave. By 1950, John
Jones was working as an independent auditor still living in the Columbus area.
9
In addition to being a middle class
man, J.R. was a married man. John married Ruby sometime before 1936. He was one
year her elder. She was listed as a housewife in the Voter Registration
documents of Columbus, Georgia. The Joneses would have been doing fairly well
financially in part because of John’s two jobs. Though the prospect of children
is still undetermined, the family owned their own house and had a telephone. The
telephone is important in understanding the way that people lived in the 1930s.
This was a decent determinant of how a family lived. If they were a poor family,
than there would not have been a phone in their home. In a way, the telephone
served as a status symbol. Their home ownership, as was discussed earlier, is
very important as well. Many people of the day rented their houses instead of
buying them. With limited financial resources, renting property mad more sense
than owning it. There was a great deal of uncertainty about the future and how
families would respond to the poor economy. Their futures remained in the
balance so the majority of all financial liquidity was primarily reserved for
necessities such as food, shelter, and clothing. Disposable income was
relatively non-existent. 10
As is consistent with many of the
other writers of this time, Jones conducted a number of interviews. Several of
these interviews made it to the collection and eventually to the public. Some of
the interviewees include Columbusites such as Rias Body (as mentioned earlier),
Frances Kimbrough, Mary Gladdy, Reverend W.B. Allen in 1937 and Fannie Gibson in
1936 in Roanoke, Alabama. There may be several others that were conducted by
Jones during 1936 and 1937 that failed to be published under this project. Jones
would have been approximately forty-seven years of age at the time of his Slave
Narrative writings. His interviewees, as mentioned earlier, would have been in
their late eighties at the youngest end of the spectrum and over a hundred at
the latest. There is quite a difference in age between a white middle class mean
and his black elderly ex-slave interviewees. Jones was probably a little older
than most of the other interviewers. This could be taken in one of two ways.
Either Jones was very open minded because of more wisdom and knowledge which
would make the interview a little less difficult or Jones was very much stuck in
his ways. This would make the interviews very difficult and awkward. The
ex-slaves would not feel comfortable telling their stories if this was the case.
More than like he was open-minded about the interviews as is fairly evident in
his interview manuscripts. Regardless, this project would be undoubtedly a very
challenging proposition for John Ralph Jones to get an accurate account of what
slave life would have been like during Rias Body’s life. 11
John Jones interviewed Rias Body on
July 24th, 1936 at Body’s home on 24th Street in Columbus, Georgia. Jones lived
on 3rd Avenue at the time and so the two lived a relatively long distance away.
The interviewee would have been living in a primarily black neighborhood with a
high concentration of family members in the area. Body probably lived with his
family in this residence because of his elderly status. He would have been
unable to support himself financially and would have become dependent upon his
offspring. This type of lifestyle was common among many of the ex-slaves. Due to
their age and ability to work, most of the slaves were destitute and forced to
rely on their families, churches, communities, and sometimes the government. The
ex-slaves lacked the skills to make a living for themselves. There are some
exceptions to the rule but usually not. 12
John Jones would have left his home
or office to interview his one of his earliest interviewees. Rias Body would be
this slave. Rias Body worked as a slave on a plantation in Harris County. Body,
who was ninety years old at the time of the interview, lived at 1419 24th Street
in Columbus. Jones conducted his interview with Mr. Body on July 24th, 1936.
Jones would have been in his forties when a majority of his work for the
government was completed. One can only imagine the difficulty that Jones would
have faced when asking Rias questions about his experiences as a slave. Jones
was probably told stories about how slavery worked while he was growing up and
here he was interviewing an ex-slave and trying to get all of the information
that he heard about when he was a child. Jones was given a very difficult task
of trying to interpret and make sense of the interview. John Jones was able to
find a wealth of information from Body. 13
Jones was fortunate in that he
interviewed a man who was very willing to tell his story. Rias was eager to tell
his “personal expression of self and world.” He would go into great detail about
his relationship with his master and their daily interactions. He gave very
detailed descriptions about the “pass system” and the slave communities across
plantation lines. He spoke about confrontational slave encounters with white
people and the overall nature of slavery. These narratives allow its readers to
see that master could be on opposite ends of the spectrum in regards to the
treatment of their slaves. The stories range from being terrifying horrific
encounters with their master to indulgent and intimate experiences such as
Christmas gifts and generous gift-giving behavior. This too is proof that many
ex-slaves viewed things in different ways whether it be because many were
children at the time of their enslavement or because they were fortunate enough
to has a caring master. Body wanted to tell someone his story and Jones was in
the right place at the right time. 14
15
The Slave Narratives provide a wealth
of insight into American Slavery and the practices that were prevalent at the
time. But there is so much more, the Slave Narratives forced white America to
interact with the same people they so despised previously. This was a method to
get the races to interact while at the same time trying to solve a problem of
economic. These interviews were invaluable to the knowledge of the general
public and went to educate both races.
Whites were given the opportunity to
meet with blacks in their black communities and see the close ties that many of
these people had. They got to also see the pain and agony of their interviewees
as they recalled events some fifty years earlier that had greatly impacted their
lives. This could have been a monumental event such as the sale of a parent or a
beating that left a sibling or friend dead. Whatever the event, there would be
painful memories. Many people would suspect that most whites of that time in the
1930s would not be well aware of the brutality of slavery. They had always heard
stories but they were secondhand. This would be an opportunity to hear it first
hand from someone who witnessed it. The interviews would be a sense of closure
for many of the ex-slaves.
Blacks benefited from the interviews
as well. They were given the opportunity to see white people in a new light.
They were not all the brutal people that perhaps they remembered. There was a
sense of compassion on the hearts of many of the interviewees. Many of these
interviewers were also women, which would lead one to believe that there was
more compassion evident than that of men. It is also ironic that the two least
powerful groups in America were given a chance to converse. Women and blacks who
were both oppressed were given the chance to talk to each other. Both groups
were making strides toward equality so perhaps that is why so many women were
chosen to write the slave narratives. Whatever the perspective, both were able
to gain knowledge from these interviews.
The Slave Narratives were significant
in the history of the United States. The narratives themselves provide insight
into a world that we cannot fully comprehend. We are so far removed from
enslavement though not so far from racial conflict. The stories that can be read
as accurate accounts illustrate the nature of people and their ability to
overcome hardships but this does not just hold true for the times of slavery. I
believe that these works are instrumental in understanding the history of our
relatively young nation. The writers were given an extraordinary task and though
much of it has been altered, we can still gain such knowledge into our past. The
writers were able to achieve their goals though many would probably disagree.
They set forth on a journey of discovery for a period of just two years but came
back with centuries of understanding and appreciation. John Ralph Jones was one
of the few given the opportunity to uncover so much about the Columbus area but
did so much more. Because of his work, so many people can read his work and gain
a perspective about Muscogee County that few can imagine. These narratives ask
more questions than provide answers but perhaps more can be found and we can
gain a better understanding of the area and the times.
1.
Peter Kolchin, American Slavery: 1619-1877 (New York: Hill and
Wang, 2003), 137.
2.
Norman R. Yetman, “The Background of the Slave Narrative
Collection”, American Quarterly 19 No. 3 (Autumn 1967): 534.
3.
Stephanie Shaw, “Using the WPA Ex-Slave Narratives to Study the
Impact of the Great Depression”, Journal of Southern History 69 Issue 3 (August
2003): 623.
4.
John S. Lupold, Chattahoochee Valley Source and Resources: An
Annotated Bibliography, Volume II: The Georgia Counties (Eufaula: Historic
Chattahoochee Commission, 1993), 214-215.
5.
John W. Blasingame, “Using the Testimony of Ex-Slaves: Approaches
and Problems”, Journal of Southern History 41 No. 4 (November 1975):474.
6.
Sharon Ann Musher, “Contesting ‘The Way the Almighty Wants It’:
Crafting Memories of Ex-Slaves in the Slave…” American Quarterly 53 Issue 1
(March 2001): 7.
7.
David A. Taylor, “A Noble and Absurd Undertaking”, Smithsonian 30
Issue 12 (March 2000): 100-109.
8.
Harry L. Hopkins, The Realities of Unemployment (Washington D.C.:
Works Progress Admistration, 1936): 11-14.
9.
Columbus City Directory, (New York: Polks’ Bankers Encylcopedia Co.
1936-1938, 1940, 1945, 1945), 272.
10.
Alphabetical List of the Registered Voters of Muscogee County,
Georgia, (New York: Polks’ Bankers Encyclopedia Co. 1936-1950),42.
11.
WPA Writer’s Project, Georgia Narratives Volume 4, Part 1
(Washington: Works Progress Administration), 86-90.
12.
Shaw, 626.
13.
Georgia Narratives, 86-90.
14.
Georgia Narratives, 87-90.
15.
John Secora, “Black Message/White Envelope: Genre, Authenticity,
and Authority in the Antebellum Slave Narrative”, Callaloo 32 (Summer 1987):
485.