Uncle Bob was born during the beginning of the civil war, so his experience with slavery is very different from those older than him. As discussed in previous readings, slaves narratives can be of those who were very young or old during slavery, this is the case of the former.1 He doesn’t really speak about being a slave, as he probably doesn’t remember it, but what we do know is that he later would work on a farm as a worker. This can tell us that those who grew up as a slave, or at the very least had slaves as parents, went for labor close to what they already knew, such as farm work.
The major intersection of the two layers of the timeline is the civil war beginning and ending, with Bob’s birth in between. Frankly, being a slave in the civil war was probably much more different than being a slave before the war, as there was probably a sense of uncertainty about whether you were going to stay that way. This can tell us that being a slave isn’t probably something Bob remembers much about, due to his birth circumstances. Other intersections include the great war and WWI that begin before the interview happens. This shows us that despite being born a slave, Uncle Bob was able to survive some of the worst times in human history.
I was surprised that they never talked about the civil war, as this seems to be a major event, especially for enslaved people. In a way it makes sense why they never asked, as he was probably too young to remember at all. Still, just asking him “Do you remember anything about it” would probably have been a good idea. I’m surprised that they focused more on the little details of his life, such as him joining a church, which seems like an odd thing to talk about.
This interview is useful to figure out how people spoke back then to one another. Now obviously, a former slave speaking to a white man is going to have different speech patterns, as discussed in previous readings. 2 However, even understanding how slaves spoke to white people is important, because now we can better understand the culture between them. This is also the major limitation of the interview, as Uncle Bob seems very nervous or threatened in the interview. This could result in him telling the interviewers what they want to hear, rather than what actually happened. I held the belief that oral history isn’t always a very good source of information, due to human’s limited memory and social bias, and this interview seems to have justified that belief.
As mentioned before, the voice of Uncle Bob seems very nervous or threatened, like an animal backed up against a corner. He doesn’t seem very comfortable sharing his past, and rather tries to entertain the white interviewers rather than give them a definite history of his life. Thus, it becomes harder to transcribe their life and the source because of the social bias created by the relationships here.
This interview, and many slave narratives like it, can tell us of the relationships between white and black people a hundred years ago. Fear was the main characteristic between the two, and that creates a major bias when the two groups interact with one another. This makes it hard to trust a primary source when they’re talking to the other race, as a former slave will embellish the truth to make them seem funnier or more entertaining, rather than tell their white interviewer the truth about being a black person living in slavery.
