3/14/2004

The Federal Writers’ Project, enacted under the New Deal to relieve the pressure of the Great Depression, offered a glimpse not only into the lives of former slaves, but also a look at the relationship between races and how much the context of the time affected this relationship. Minnie Branham Stonestreet was employed to work on the project, interviewing former slaves about their past experiences. In addition to the interviews she conducted on her subjects, she also took part in a lengthy autobiographical work for the project. Her accounts of the difficult and trying times that led to the New Deal are particularly interesting in that one can see how it shaped her outlook of the times and people that surrounded her. Much like the former slaves that she interviewed, her life story was written down in her own words. Her story, when compared to the story of a slave she interviewed, shows a number of similarities in the difficulties that each faced, but more importantly it shows the effect that the financial stress of that period had on the average person, regardless of color.1

Minnie’s childhood, as well as that of her father’s, is well-known because she was able to write it down in its entirety during the Federal Writers’ Project. She was born prior to mandatory birth certificates, but her date of birth was told to her by her mother to be at midnight on July 15, 1890. Unlike her father, she was raised around a great deal of her family. Her father’s parents had both suffered from tuberculosis and passed away when he was very young. He and his siblings were placed in the care of a good family friend. Their caretaker managed the family assets, which were more than sufficient for their education. When they came of age to use their inheritance for schooling, the money had been squandered away. Minnie suggests that her habit of misplacing trust in others was passed on from her father.2

Minnie’s early childhood was a comfortable one, surrounded by a closely-knit family unit and a financial security in the form of land and a house, passed on through her family. Shortly after her mother’s father died, the family moved to Wilkes County, Georgia, into the old family home. The home was large and very old. Her grandfather had belonged to a wealthy family and the house had been in the family even as far back as when he was born. Minnie was surrounded by many close family members, including her parents, her grandmother, two uncles, and an aunt. She learned a great deal about the South from her grandmother. Her grandmother often told Minnie a great deal about how life was before and after the Civil War. Her grandmother’s stories fostered an interest and affection for her area and especially for the South as a whole. It was her love for the South that undoubtedly led her to involve herself in several projects relating to the history of the surrounding area and county.3

Minnie’s education suffered some drawbacks, restricting her from starting school on time and graduating high school, but she was aware of the importance of education and continued learning on her own. Minnie’s father, William Alexander Stonestreet, was a school teacher by the time she was old enough to begin her schooling. He taught at her school when she first began. Not long after she started school, her father took a position as a bookkeeper in Washington, Georgia, and the family moved there. Soon after they moved, however, her father became very ill and died. The ordeal took up the family’s entire savings.4

Despite the fact that Minnie was a female without a complete high school education and a financially dangerous time was in the near future, Minnie was able to find work fairly regularly to support her mother and herself. Minnie and her mother, Mary Rebecca Branham-Stonestreet, remained in Washington after her father’s death so that she could continue school. She contracted German measles and was forced to leave school for three years. During this time she continued her education by herself, and without having graduated high school she began to take a business class. She finished the class and went on to find a job of her own as an attorney’s secretary. Minnie’s job security finally came to an end when her employer saw that it was too expensive to keep her employed. She remained jobless for some time, living off of her savings account until she could find more work. She took up an old friend’s offer in which she learned to conduct research. She gained a great deal of experience and an appreciation for the history of the town and its records. This experience would lead her to work in the courthouse in the Clerk’s office in 1917 to record deeds. Working for the Clerk’s office provided valuable experience where she met many members of the community, both white and black. She stayed at the Clerk’s office until 1923. Her job in the Clerk’s office, coupled with the stories told to her by her grandmother, were excellent opportunities in which Minnie gained knowledge she could use for the Federal Writers’ Project.5

Minnie was obviously capable of obtaining and maintaining a job despite her limited education and the fact that she was a female, but she still lived in a time of substantial inequalities. Women had not yet received the right to vote when Minnie first started working. It is no coincidence that her first jobs were not completely secure, at least for her part, and consisted mainly of secretarial tasks. Women finally gained the right to vote with the passing of the 19th Amendment in 1920, a step that opened the door for equality between men and women in more facets than just governing decisions. Minnie took a position with an insurance agent upon leaving the clerk’s office. She was given a raise in salary for easier work. Minnie’s occupations just before and after 1920 are more along the lines of what she enjoyed doing, but a more difficult time was not far away.6

Financial security, something that was becoming more of a rarity among people as the Great Depression loomed closer, afforded Minnie several opportunities that would soon not be available to her for some time. Minnie and her mother had built up a sizeable savings account. She was tempted to purchase an automobile, realizing that most citizens of Washington were buying them on credit. Her mother talked her out of the decision. Minnie and her mother had become quite knowledgeable in regards to financial matters. They stayed away from the sudden rise in the use of credit and wisely, or so they thought, added to their bank accounts. Many people were purchasing land at the time, and through her work at the clerk’s office Minnie was closer than most to see the mistakes that people often made in the purchase of land. She saw first-hand that such investments could cause financial burden, the same that would eventually lead to the Depression.7

Watching so many people in her town attempt to make their lives easier and invest by purchasing land, regardless of the prices, and eventually fail and lose everything influenced Minnie and her mother to simply place their money in savings accounts rather than spend it. In retrospect, she would have been better off by investing in something more tangible, such as a car or land, had she the money to pay for it immediately. When her uncle moved in with Minnie and her mother, more difficulties struck when he became sick. Not long after his illness, Rebecca contracted pneumonia. It was clear to the doctors that neither would survive for much longer, but Minnie used every opportunity that was financially available to her to cure them. Minnie’s mother survived, but not without having emptied their savings in the process. Minnie’s uncle, however, did not live, and she and her mother inherited his 190 acre farm.8

The time of the Dixie South had long past, but Minnie’s fascination with that era and location of the country, fostered by her grandmother’s stories of growing up, had a significant effect on her next occupation. Minnie’s hardships had seemingly resurfaced and she was faced with mounting medical bills for her mother and uncle. The land that she had inherited gave her the opportunity to begin a new career. She hired Lee Slakey and his wife, an African-American couple, to work her farm, growing cotton and some vegetables. Minnie had once again succeeded through a series of hardships, but her farming venture soon went under. She decided to keep her workers on the farm and continue paying them, but Lee took ill and passed away. Minnie disregarded the truth of the matter that she still owned an amount of livestock on the farm and allowed Lee’s wife to take it all. Not long after the farm went under, the house on the property burned down. Both Minnie’s and her mother’s newly inherited wealth slowly dwindled away after a succession of failures and difficulties.9

The Depression was finally beginning to affect the majority, including Minnie and her mother, as bank failures began to spread to Washington. The Exchange Bank was the first Washington bank to suffer from failure and Minnie and her mother lost nearly all of the money they had saved in their accounts there. Her insurance agency was unable to pay her salary and Minnie went into debt. A family friend was able to sell her land and keep her out of too much debt for some time, but eventually it caught up with her.10

Minnie documented her struggles during that time in the Federal Writers’ Project, offering a unique look at the particular hardships she endured as a single female, but also showing the hope and appreciation she had for what little help she received. It was during the most difficult times for her during the Depression that she received employment with the Federal Writers’ Project. She was unable to buy all the groceries that she and her mother needed, and her new job offered the financial help that she was looking for. In addition to her financial needs, Minnie was fully capable to work on the project, having learned the necessary typing, interviewing, and documenting skills through her jobs as a researcher, secretary, and recorder in the clerk’s office. Meeting the necessary requirements to work on such a project coupled with her interest for the town and area history made her a wise choice.11

A particularly interesting interview she completed was with Henry Rogers, an ex-slave that resided in Washington, Georgia, and one that Minnie seems to have been familiar with to some degree. Henry had lived in Washington for 41 years at the time of the interview, but had originally lived in Hancock County, Georgia, during and after his enslavement. He was born in Mount Zion, Georgia, as a slave. He remembers the names of his owners, though he was very young during the years in which he was enslaved. It is likely that many of the former slaves’ recollections of their life during slavery are skewed due to their ages during their enslavement or their age at the time of the interview. Though it is possible that Henry’s information regarding his life on the plantation would be faulty due to his young age during the time he was there, it is notable that he did remain on the plantation after the Civil War, during which time his family worked the plantation, perhaps with no other alternative.12

Minnie’s style of interview and recounting of Henry’s story indicate that she was not in objection to his opinions about slavery, but he did not give her any reason to be. Minnie makes a special effort to go into detail about Henry’s current condition and his mannerisms, often quoting in his exact speech about many of his hobbies and recollections. She almost proudly states that Henry is a local weatherman of sorts, telling of his forms of medicine and his use of signs to foresee upcoming events. Though her use of exact quotations does distance her from Henry in the way an adult might distance himself from a child in regards to intellect, it still shows that she was interested in recounting his story as he wanted it to be told. His reasons behind his story and why he told it the way he did are completely different subjects.13

The interview sheds some light on how Henry grew up during the end of slavery, providing information as to what he and his parents were responsible for and the kinds of relationships that were developed on the plantation between the masters and the slaves. Henry was 73 during the time of the interview, which would allow that he was around the age of 6 when slavery was abolished. At such a young age, he was neither expected nor capable of carrying out the heavy manual labor associated with slave life on a plantation. His view of slavery is due partially to his age and capabilities at the time of slavery, but more notably to the occupations of his parents on the plantation. His mother was a house-slave, working as a seamstress. She was not forced to undergo the same amount of strain as her field-hand peers, and Henry was able to enjoy the same benefits that came with working in the master’s home. His father, he claims, was the overseer of the plantation and was never forced to do any difficult tasks himself either. During the time of enslavement that Henry lived under, it seems that he had it relatively easy compared to the difficulties that most slaves had to endure.14

The very essence of the Federal Writers’ Project was based around the government, a fact that did not escape either the interviewers or the interviewed when they spoke to one another. Henry’s answers about slavery were affected by a number of things, including his age during the time of slavery and his parents’ duties on the plantation. Henry was a house slave for his masters, and in this particular area he was expected to entertain and play with his masters’ children. He recollects that he was punished only by his mistress, and in the same fashion that she punished her own children. It is significant to note that he was obviously not aware of the full magnitude that slavery had across the full slave population. He was not a slave hand in the sense of a field worker, nor was he a pampered house slave. The only tasks he recounts in the narrative deal with caring for the cattle and shining his master’s shoes, something that he suggests he enjoyed doing. Whether he knew it at the time or not, his entertaining the masters’ children was also part of his slave tasks.15

The memory of the Civil War escapes Henry, but the events that followed the war are quite interesting in their own right, showing that the idea that slavery was abolished did not spread completely until well after the war ended, at least not in the former slaves’ minds. Henry and his family moved to their former masters’ relatives’ adjoining plantation. They lived there, as the narrative says, still in a form of slavery, or that is at least how Henry believed it at the time. They had become accustomed to a certain way of life, and whether or not their slavery was as difficult and burdensome as other instances of slavery, they were again being forced into a new way of life. This shifting of lifestyles did not occur as quickly as one might think. Henry’s family did not leave the plantation and go out on their own until 1895, when Henry was in his adulthood and able to care for himself in that respect.16

Slavery had ended and Henry and his family had more freedom than they had ever experienced in their lives, but their new way of life was not easy and they were clearly in need of some kind of help, a reason that they might have given up some of their newfound freedom for. Slavery had ended and been outlawed, but Henry’s family did not leave for many years after the war. A possible dependence had been developed, if not a mental dependence, then surely a physical dependence. Freed slaves would not soon find work and homes, especially around the area from which they worked as slaves. Henry’s family remained on the plantation out of necessity. They depended on their former masters as much as their former masters had depended on them. Henry recalls an instance where he was unable to tend his crops when he was growing them on his own. An overseer from a nearby plantation came and helped him without want for compensation. The most interesting aspect about the story is not that someone was willing to help him out for no money, but that the man that came to his rescue was an overseer from another plantation, most likely over a decade after the war had ended. Slaves remained on plantations by their own free will, but not because it was their choice.17

Minnie’s form of recounting Henry’s tale is a possible indication that she had an unbiased opinion of her subject and was not in disagreement with what he had to say about his former white masters, although she did have a great deal of interest in the days when slavery was legal. Neither Henry nor Minnie could account for the atrocities that affected slaves in either of their interviews. Minnie was not even nearly born yet. Her grandmother, obviously a married white Southerner, was Minnie’s main source of information about the Antebellum South. The hardships that faced the slaves were not part of the white side of the story. Henry, on the other hand, was born into slavery and experienced it, however leniently, for a number of years in his early childhood. Henry’s side of the story is barren of the turmoil that one would expect from a slave’s account of slavery. Like Minnie, he was probably not subjected to the kind of treatment that was common among slaves, but he was also likely taking into account that this was a government-funded project and that there was possibly an amount of compensation at hand as long as he did not upset those in such important positions.18

A striking feature of the interview is the final message, definitely taken out of the context and order of which it was said, that could sum up the flawed view in which Henry saw his white masters. In his concluding statement, Henry remarked on how much he loved white people and how fortunate he was to have been raised around them. The reasons for taking the statement out of context obviously served the intended reader and those that enslaved Henry’s family, but it was a statement that did fit the overall tone and message that Henry used during the interview.19

The backgrounds of Minnie and Henry are not nearly as similar as how they were living during the time of the interview, both having depended on others at some point in time and both having taken a great deal of jobs. Henry, after finally setting out on his own in Washington, had occupied a number of jobs, mostly menial tasks. Minnie went through a number of jobs, dealing mostly with secretarial services, until falling upon difficult times and taking up the Federal Writers’ Project. They both belonged to the lower level of the working class in regards to their jobs. Due to the Great Depression, there was a lack of job security and salary security, especially in Minnie’s case. Minnie and Henry had their occupational similarities which pointed to similar financial circumstances for both of them, but there were several major factors in which they differed.20

The interview does not provide evidence for the contrast in race, religion, or class, but details of how each aspect would have been handled by Minnie and Henry can be found outside of the interview itself. Henry, as shown by the way he described his former masters in the interview, held whites in a very high regard, whether honestly or because he felt it was necessary to his well-being. Minnie had worked with and actually hired blacks during her several jobs, suggesting that she was not in opposition to being around blacks. The line of work that was provided by the Federal Writers’ Project did not allow for such an openly racist person, otherwise they would not have taken the job in the first place. Although Minnie was not especially subjected to racial discrimination in Wilkes County, she did have to endure sexual discrimination, though not on the same level that Henry would experience his racial differences. Whereas Henry was more likely to be hired on into some form of manual labor, Minnie was more likely to get a job that required more scholarly talents. Both Minnie and Henry were limited in some form by their race, class, and sex in their social context.21

Despite the stark contrast in the backgrounds of both Minnie and Henry and the historical contexts into which each is placed, the overwhelming fact of their situation is that they both have very similar troubles that stem from the same source. The Great Depression had such an immediate effect on everyone in the United States. We are very fortunate that there is such an abundance of material and writings that deal with the subject. Both Minnie and Henry were able to record in their own words, at least in some way, their backgrounds leading up to the Great Depression. A reader is then able to draw out and understand the similarities and financial difficulties that they faced. Minnie and Henry were both from the same area of the country, but they were raised at completely different eras in American history. It is interesting to point out how similar their lives would eventually become as the Great Depression began. Though they might have differed in frequency and effect, illnesses, financial instabilities, occupational changes, and discriminations were all parts of Minnie and Henry’s experiences throughout their lives. The Great Depression served to concentrate these hardships and increase the effect that each one had. Because their stories were written down, we are able to compare their lives and outlooks at a specific moment during that trying time. It becomes clear that, although their lives were extremely difficult, they were very thankful for all of the support and help they received, from whatever source it came from. Their religious views and family bonds were strong, regardless of their financial situations, and both Minnie and Henry were contented with the way they had survived and were living up to that point.

1. Minnie Stonestreet, “In Lieu of Something Better,” American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1940, In American Memory 1-3 [database online] http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?wpa:1:./temp/~ammem_QSkt; accessed February 10, 2004. Minnie Stonestreet, “Through Many Dangers,” PH@School: Primary Sources (1939) [database online] http://www.phschool.com/atschool/primary_sources/through_many_dangers.html; Accessed February 10, 2004.

2. F.M & Nell H. Newsome, Wilkes County Cemeteries, (Washington: Wilkes Publishing Company, Inc., 1970), 193. Daniel Nathan Crumpton, Cemeteries & Genealogy: Warren County, Georgia and Immediate Vicinity 1792-1987, (WH Wolfe Associates, 1987), 12. Stonestreet, “In Lieu of Something Better,” 1-3.

3. Robert M. Willingham, Jr., The History of Wilkes County, Georgia, (Wilkes Publishing Company, 2002), 386-387. Stonestreet, “In Lieu of Something Better,” 4.

4. Stonestreet, “In Lieu of Something Better,” 6. Crumpton, Cemeteries & Genealogy, 12.

5. Stonestreet, “In Lieu of Something Better,” 7-11.

6. Mary M. Huth, “US Suffrage Movement Timeline,”; available from http://www.rochester.edu/SBA/timeline1.html; Internet; accessed 14 February 2004. Stonestreet, “In Lieu of Something Better,” 11.

7. Frank G. Steindl, Understanding Economic Recovery In the 1930s: Endogenous Propagation in the Great Depression, (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2004) 96-97. Stonestreet, “In Lieu of Something Better,” 11-13.

8. Stonestreet, “In Lieu of Something Better,” 14-15.

9. Stonestreet, “In Lieu of Something Better,” 15-18.

10. “American Voices – Program 2 – Boom and Bust”; available from http://pmi.itmonline.com/netnotes/American%20Voices/Outlines/Program%202.html; Internet; accessed 10 February 2004. Stonestreet, “In Lieu of Something Better,” 19-24.

11. Stonestreet, “Through Many Dangers” Stonestreet, “In Lieu of Something Better,” 22-24.

12. Henry Rogers, interview by Minnie Stonestreet, in WPA Slave Narrative Project, Georgia Narratives Vol. 4, Part 3 (May 8, 1937), 1-3. Stephanie J. Shaw, “Using the WPA Ex-Slave Narratives to Study the Impact of the Great Depression,” Journal of Southern History, Vol. 69, No. 3 (August 2003), 625-626.

13. Rogers, interview by Minnie Stonestreet, 1-2.

14. Rogers, interview by Minnie Stonestreet, 1-3.

15. Norman R. Yetman, “Ex-Slave Interviews and the Historiography of Slavery,” American Quarterly, Vol. 36, No. 2 (Summer 1984), 187-189. Peter Kolchin, American Slavery: 1619-1877, (New York: Hill and Wang, 2003), 117-119. Rogers, interview by Minnie Stonestreet, 3-4.

16. Rogers, interview by Minnie Stonestreet, 6.

17. Rogers, interview by Minnie Stonestreet, 6-8.

18. Yetman, “Ex-Slave Interviews,” 187. Rogers, interview by Minnie Stonestreet, 2-3. Stonestreet, “In Lieu of Something Better,” 3-4.

19. Rogers, interview by Minnie Stonestreet, 11.

20. The Editors of the Economist, The New Deal: An Analysis and Appraisal, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1937), 10-12. Stonestreet, “In Lieu of Something Better,” 8-20.

21. Laura Hapke, Daughters of the Great Depression: Women, Work, and Fiction in the American 1930s, (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1995), 3-9. The Editors of the Economist, The New Deal, 12-13.