This assignment was incredibly interesting. I listened to an interview by a former enslaved man who’s original name was Mitchel Watkins. He was bought by a man named Jake and moved to Galveston Texas and where he states he was “treated me just like he treated his children“. I found this interesting because he had nothing bad to say about the man who raised him. He talked about how he was a cowboys and they would all shoot guns and wear boots and cowboy shirts. He seemed to fit in.
I was confused though, because Charlie also talked of the fight between the north and south which I assumed was the civil war. And that the African Americans bought Louisiana. Some of the things Charlie was stating did not make a lot of sense. He claimed to have received a letter from the Social Security at age 133. I was curious about Charlie because of these statements I heard in the interview and it says Charlie died at age 105 according to medics. He also claims to have helped Billy the Kid capture and kill the man who assassinated President Garfield and was paid by the United states $500.00. The timing of these would fit into his life span though. I did not look further into this but it is hard for me to believe. I also found that he never mentioned kids, a wife, his birthday or some of the basic information I feel like a person would state in an interview.
In the interview I could hear the interviewer doubt Charlies answers and also sometimes Charlie did not answer the questions fully or he would talk about something completely different. The interviewer also sometimes sounded rude in my opinion and this could be due to the fact Charlie did not speak as intelligent as the interviewer.
Given the claims Charlie made It was hard to believe anything he said. I know there is some truth to it all but I figure when he was interviewed he was starting to become senile.
