The Great Depression was the worst economic downfall in the history of the industrialized world. This economic downfall has a large impact on the United States populations, more specifically those in the southern regions. President Roosevelt saw these conditions and according to Paul Sparrow, director of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum “He had never seen poverty like that. He saw a family of eight living in a tar paper shack, farming on depleted soil” (Kaufman, 2019). Roosevelt had seen that the sorrows in the South specifically had become pervasive after the Great Depression set in.
From my perspective, I perceive that the South turned to religion in this dire time. I feel that because of this, religion was greatly influenced by the Great Depression as it was seen as an escape and not only that, but a sign of hope as well. From my understanding, the South turned to religion mainly in the form of song.
For this assignment, I chose two different audio sources and chose one clip from each. I did this because I felt it served a vast perspective on my research question, “how did the Great Depression shape religion in the south?”. I feel that those in the South felt that there was a sort of “light” at the end of this depression. and when they felt that light was reached or they had been given a sign that the “light” was near, they were overcome with a sense of joy as their hope grew due to their religious beliefs. It can be concluded that because of the Great Depression, religion was greatly influenced as it served as an escape from the sadness and despair. While religion provided an escape, I believe it also had the potential to create a community, in turn creating the music that is seen used in this assignment.
I feel that embedding audio in text analysis adds a sense of interaction with the text. I feel that by incorporating more than one of your senses, it brings the reader a better understanding of the text because they are appealed in more than one aspect, one through sight and another through sound. I also feel that embedding audio is a very unique way to provide analysis on an argument in the sense that it is more dimensional than the two-dimensional visual an image or text provides.
Green New Deal: Historians on the immense scale required to succeed. (n.d.). Retrieved December 4, 2019, from https://mashable.com/article/green-new-deal-historians/
“Daniel Saw The Stone”, Now What a Time: Blues, Gospel, and the Fort Valley Music Festivals, 1938 to 1943, Library of Congress, https://stream-media.loc.gov/afc/fortvalley/afc1941035_afs05148a1.mp3
“Jesus Touched Me”, Now What a Time: Blues, Gospel, and the Fort Valley Music Festivals, 1938 to 1943, Library of Congress, https://stream-media.loc.gov/afc/fortvalley/afc1944003_afs07039a1.mp3
