Although it is by no means a past time of mine, I have always enjoyed listening to interviews. When I first discovered the YouTube channel Blank on Blank during my sophomore year of high school, I distinctly remember listening to each interview available on the channel without pause. It’s difficult to describe, but hearing authors, politicians, and other well-known figures discuss their works and experiences using their own voices was strangely fascinating to me. So, when this assignment was announced, I was elated.

The subject of my interview was the cowboy, bounty hunter, and former slave, Charlie Smith. In his interview with Elmer E. Sparks, Smith describes his passage from Liberia, Africa to the United States as well as his upbringing. He states that his family was tricked by slave traders who had landed in his country and brought by these men to New Orleans, Louisiana. Upon arriving in the United States, Smith was purchased by a wealthy cattle rancher named Charlie Smith, who Smith describes as raising him as though he were his own child (even going so far as to give Smith his own name). On his owner’s ranch, Smith was the sole black cowboy and, following his owner’s death, Smith was granted his freedom.

Throughout his interview with Sparks, Smith does not spend a great deal of time focusing on his enslavement. Instead, he chooses to focus on his many achievements within the United States, including his involvement in the killing of the notorious Billy the Kid and the capture of Charles J. Guiteau. Although this interview is categorized as an interview by a former slave, one would find it difficult to note this had he or she only listened to two thirds of the interview. In Smith’s case, his previous enslavement did not impede his capacity to achieve. However, Smith does note among his numerous accomplishments that he was truly proud of lending his aid in the tearing down of a sign in Oxford, Mississippi that prevented blacks from entering onto a piece of property.

As stated previously, Smith does not seem to have let his former enslavement withhold him achieving; however, the prideful tone with which he notes his achievements indicates that they were not only small feats, but ones which seemed almost impossible for a black man to have accomplished during his day and age.

The power that interviews hold is not the content of their speech, but the subtle intonations that characterize them and their meanings for the speaker. In the case of Smith, he is certainly proud of what he has managed to achieve in this country, but this interview allows audiences to understand the source of that pride – that an uneducated, former slave made an impact in this nation’s history. A history that is scarred by its history of enslaving men and women just like Smith.