The historical question I have is why does the poor quality of audio from the 1930’s create a more authentic feeling for the listener? I believe it’s because when listening to older audio, we can expect certain things. In the context of slave narratives, we talked about and were warned that we could expect racism and that a lot of what was written or asked was from what the white people expected the black slaves had gone through 1. And we accept this because we understand that the 1930’s were a different time. So when we listen to an interview from the slave narratives, like this one with David White, we understand and accept that the quality is poor because the technology was new and wasn’t as refined as we have now 2. In this interview, I especially found it difficult to understand what was being said and even the transcript mentions it. But in a way, this poor audio is part of the experience of listening to older audio. If there was a crystal clear recording from the 1930’s, no one would believe that it’s actually from that time period. Even the songs from the time period have a static quality to them 3. So if the quality is so bad from that time period, then why do modern day people romanticize it? There are new songs today that mimic the static quality, “I Have Friends in Holy Spaces” by Panic! At the Disco comes to mind, and even in places like Instagram there are filters that are supposed to make your pictures look old 4. This all comes down to what I believe is nostalgia and purely aesthetic. Not many people actually want to live in the 1930’s, they want just the good parts. Whether that’s good or bad isn’t up to me, but it’s when we take the history away from that context that things get messy. As technology advances, historians are going to have to continually adapt how they are able to listen or see or interact with data created on outdated pieces of technology 5. So by being able to fake static or pictures to make them look older than they are, digital historians are going to have to reinvent the ways that they date a lot of content they study.
Skill 7, Blog 9: Voices From the Dust Bowl
I chose to look into the the Voices from the Dust Bowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker collection, which was compiled between the years 1940-1941 to document the daily life and culture of Farm Security Administration migrant work camp residents in California
6. While going through the collections audio recordings, it struck me that so many of the migrants they interviewed were from far off. At the end of her rendition of “The Old Apple Tree in the Orchard
7,” Ruth Elliot is asked listen. Others like her came all the way from Oklahoma, Arkansas, and other regions in the southern and midwestern United States in order to flee the Dust Bowl, and they brought elements of their regional culture with them. At the time of this project, there was an increase of interest in American folklife, which drove many of the projects that were created by FDR. In 1935, Roosevelt budgeted over $27 million dollars for the purpose of “rediscovering and defining American culture” through his federal work projects, and that work continues in this initiative8. Furthermore, there was a public desire for the collection of folk culture, such as folk music, as it became a patriotic rallying point for Americans, and being government sanctioned, was able to flourish
9,
Ruth’s song listen is a prime example of the types of folklore sought after by federal archivists at this time. Narrated by a girl reminiscing about an apple tree, which her father planted. When he takes a local girl out for a jamboree
10, and brings her home in the morning, listen. The neighbors found him there and hanged him to death, and so ends the folk song. The light melody of the song is playful, like a nursery rhyme, and it broaches a dark topic in a jaunty manner token to American balladry. Similar themes are seen in the Appalachian ballads collected by folk singer Jean Ritchie only a decade later, with the help of Alan Lomax—particularly “The Hangman Song” or “Hangman”
11 12. These common themes in folk songs grappled with the hardships of daily life in rural America, engaging with the cultural values of the society—such as proper conduct with the opposite sex, in the case of “The Old Apple Tree In The Orchard,” or loyalty to one’s romantic partner, as seen in “Hangman.” It makes sense that these songs were brought with the migrants to the Californian camps, as they provided a sense of home for those who came halfway across the country in search of work, as well as an entertaining escape from the harsh realities faced by poor Americans during the Depression.
The ability to embed audio into this blog offers a seamless way to incorporate the quotation of lyrics and brief quotes, as well as the incorporation of full song-length clips, in a way that does not disrupt the reader’s experience, but rather enriches it. In terms of historical analysis, it is especially useful for providing perspective as to the melody and inflection of the music, which would be lost in a transcription of the song’s lyrics, as well as providing necessary context for the tone of the speakers, and other vocal nuances that rarely make it onto the page. On a sentimental note, I believe that one of the great things about 20th century history is how we are able to engage with audio, video, and photographic resources in a way no historians were ever capable of doing before. Through audio, we can hear history with our own ears, and immerse ourselves in it. This not only humanizes the subjects whom we study, but also brings the era itself to life in a unique and vital way.
Who Can Claim “Folk”?
The 1930s were marked by a multitude of struggles for America and its people, but perhaps one of the most all-encompassing was the question of what it now meant to be an American. It was certainly much harder to sell the former American identity of prosperity and success that marked the industry of the Gilded Age and the 1920s when a grand majority of the country’s working class was now facing unemployment, homelessness, and even starvation. Environmental disasters such as the Dust Bowl, stacked on top of often total financial loss, only exacerbated the desperation of the decade as “farms literally dried up and blew away”[1] with the old promises of the American Dream. The solution of turning to the arts, via government programs such as the Federal Music Project, helped to craft a narrative that still resonates in American society today – taking such hardships and rebranding what came of them as the fruit of American culture.
Take the FMP’s extensive efforts to record the folk music of the decade. The very nature of “folk” music, regardless of the discourse that later arose over what qualified, necessitated looking to the rural populations of America – in particular, to the large groups of migrant workers who were striking out west with their families in hopes of better fortunes. It might have been unintentional, but this undertaking still helped to prove how many different cultures formed together to make “American” folk culture. Many of the songs and instrumentations that were recorded as such, in actuality traced their roots back to listen genres that were brought to America by immigrants. Even the most straightforward “folk” music, thought of today to be the earliest predecessor of the “all-American genre” that is contemporary country music, shared many stylistic similarities with the rhythm-and-blues music that evolved from the work songs listenof enslaved African Americans.
In a sense, this did help to prove the FMP’s ideal that “all of this music belongs to the nation”[2]. But it also raises the issue of appropriation – because of this music’s source diversity, is it truly accurate to lump all of it together under a label as broad as “American”? And who has the right to decide what art belongs to a nation that continues to often reject said art’s human creators?
Sources Cited:
[1] Bindas, Kenneth J. All of This Music Belongs to the Nation: the Federal Music Project of the WPA and American Cultural Nationalism, 1935-1939. UMI, 1989.
[2] “The Migrant Experience : Articles and Essays : Voices from the Dust Bowl: the Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, 1940-1941 : Digital Collections : Library of Congress.” The Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/collections/todd-and-sonkin-migrant-workers-from-1940-to-1941/articles-and-essays/the-migrant-experience/.
[3] “The Dark cloud and a Caucasian folk song”, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2017702005/
[4] “We Hab a Jest Gawd”, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/flwpa000069/
Blog Post 9 (Skill 7):
Lynching is the act of hanging a man or woman for alleged offenses, in most cases without a legal trial. Lynching are typically carried out by a large mob, many of the people present do not even know the crimes the individual was accused off, they are just bystanders. In Virginia this was the main form of justice between 1880 and 1930. There were over 90 men hanged (over 4000 world wide), all but a handful were African American. In 1880, Virginia passed the “Lynch Law,” in hopes to assert dominance over the African American population. It was not until the mid 1930’s till an ‘Anti-lynching’ movement was put into place, but till this day there is still no law against it.
In 1935 in Dunnsville, Virginia three (Hill, Lowman, War) interviewers interviewed Aunt Phoebe Boyd. Ms. Boyd was a former slave and participated in the 1930’s WPA slave narratives. During this interview she walked the interviewers through her childhood and teenage years. She told stories in great detail about these years. One story that stuck out to me was when she witnessed her first lynching. She briefly mentioned seeing multiple throughout her years as a slave, but she went into detail about one in particular. She recalled seeing a man on a stage, struggling and crying with a thick rope around his neck, and two police officers standing on the side near a leaver. The police officers were laughing at the man who was about to lose his life. She mentioned how his mother, father and brother stood in the crowd crying in a way she had never seen before. She recited a short prayer for them. People who lived near and people who are just walking by stopped and stood watching. None of them knew the reason why this man was being hung, and no one was bothered enough to ask. One of the interviewers had asked Aunt Phoebe Boyd if they buried the bodies, but she responded that they burned them instead. Ms. Boyd had explained that her faith had made her stronger, and her faith is the reason why she made it through her years as a slave.
Sites:
“Interview with Aunt Phoebe Boyd, Dunnsville, Virginia, 1935 (Part 7 of 8).” The Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/afc1984011_afs25752a.
“An Introduction to the WPA Slave Narratives : Articles and Essays : Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1938 : Digital Collections : Library of Congress.” The Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/collections/slave-narratives-from-the-federal-writers-project-1936-to-1938/articles-and-essays/introduction-to-the-wpa-slave-narratives/.
Blog Post #9
“Voices Remembering Slavery: Freed People Tell Their Stories” explores the way in which such narratives have impacted modern-day Black History. The individuals documented in these various presentations say much about living life as African Americans between the 1870s to the 1930s.
In connection with the audio collection from “Voices Remembering Slavery: Freed People Tell Their Stories”, “Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project” is a narrative collection that consists of texts derived from the oral interviews. The interviewers were writers that were trained in the phonetic transcription of speech.
An interview with Wallace Quarterman at Fort Frederica, St. Simons Island, Georgia was conducted by Alan Lomax, Zora Neale Hurston, and Mary Elizabeth Barnicle. Quarterman describes Quarterman’s life during enslavement. He discusses the time he heard gunshots and began to sing “I surrender, surrender, surrender” listen for he and his had to “leave their land for the sake of Uncle Sam”. listen
Enslaved African Americans were nothing more than property. They worked as domestic house servants, providing services for their master’s and were overseer’s of families. In the second part of this interview, Quarterman discusses being set free and expresses such with much zeal. He then breaks into song listen. Though a freed man, he was unable to seek opportunities that the white man could have because listen. Without an education, resources were limited and work was scarce.
Embedding the audio of Wallace Quarterman engages the reader as it offers a real-world experience, stimulating the mind and creating a sense of imagery. Giving insight as it can tell us about character, place, and time. It also informs us as well as moves us in ways visuals cannot.
Hearing Quarterman describe his life as a slave in the 1930s has raised concerns. We are aware of the cruel and inhumane treatment endured by slaves though, why must history be a never ending cycle of unfortunate events. Black history has been repressed, rewritten, and condensed in the cataloging of American history. Modern-day history continues to showcase the prejudice against African- Americans through racial discrimination,oppression, and marginalization of people of African descent have all contributed to an under-representation of black voices.
“Interview with Wallace Quarterman, Fort Frederica, St. Simons Island, Georgia, June 1935 (part 1 of 2)”, Voices Remembering Slavery: Freed People Tell Their Stories, Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/afc1935001_afs00342a/ .
“Interview with Wallace Quarterman, Fort Frederica, St. Simons Island, Georgia, June 1935 (part 2 of 2)”, Voices Remembering Slavery: Freed People Tell Their Stories, Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/afc1935001_afs00342b/ .
Dust Bowl Stories
During the 1930s, the Midwest had experience severe storms in the form of sleet, hail, or dust. Through an interview, one notes the sheer power of these dust storms during these times and what damage they caused to the locals. The source came from an interview conducted by Charles Todd and Robert Sonkin who worked for the Farm Security Administration who interviewed a man by the name Charlie Spurlock. Charlie had gone into detail about how they survive out in the Midwest with these storms going on. He recalls the type of storm 13 it was that tore through his town and ravaged on for 14 hours; he also talks about the damage 14 it caused to the buildings and surrounding objects as well. The FSA fits into the bigger picture by recording and taking photographic evidence of the conditions of how people were living in rural areas. Everyone was affected by the Great Depression and the FSA went around to see how people were living by taking photographs and conducting interviews with some of the people. These interviews not only give us an insight on these conditions, but they also allow us to hear about the struggles they have to deal during those times.
The great thing about audio clips is that they add another level of analysis to what a person is reading. A good reason for adding audio clips by embedding or by adding the audio file to the page is that it gives clarity to what a writer is saying. Audio clips allows a reader to get a glimpse into what was really going on during that time period; not only that, but it also becomes a sort of immersive experience as you listen to the words of the interview in this case or the audio of a song in another case while reading the writers words. You can practically imagine the writer’s words come to life as you listen to the audio thus giving you a more memorable experience. In this scenario, listening to an audio clip rather than reading about the damage caused by dust storms is that if you listen closely, it is as if you can see the interviewee describing what these storms did to the town with hand motions.
The Core of the Hispanic Community through Music
The Hispanic community makes up the second largest demographic in the United States
14. The community makes up significant cultural and economic influence not only on society but on politics as well. The US is often described using the “Melting Pot” analogy which shows the large number of different cultures. So, the fact that there is a large Hispanic community is not at all surprising. However, this was not always the case in the US. At some point this vast amount of people needed to leave somewhere and immigrate into the US. Most of this happened during the 19th century but the base for the cultural fusion we have today can be traced back to the 1930’s. Many of the “classic” Hispanic signs, art, and music was first documented in the 1930’s. Using this documentation of music one can see why much of what is considered Hispanic today exists.
When talking about the effect and power of music Alan Lomax describes it perfectly as something that “honors the traditions of all people and enriches us as individuals”
15. Alan Lomax was talking about The Global Jukebox, a website that preserves music in order to enrich later generations. The Hispanic music of the 1930’s can do exactly what the Global Jukebox sets out to do. In the Hispanic community, Religion is a very well-known staple with Catholicism being its biggest. This is represented in its music today and in the 1930’s. Jesus and religion being such a central figure in songs listen 16 shows its impact on the Hispanic Community. Like many other Hispanic songs from the 1930’s they have a religious aspect as their center point. This goes back to the core idea of the Hispanic culture in the US starting in the 1930’s. The music that is preserved helps show in what ways the developing Hispanic community expressed itself. The songs were made in order to bring together people from vastly different countries with two of the things they had in common: language and religion.
Often time the Hispanic people migrating moved through very distant lands in order to get to the US or even places of work. As mentioned before the Hispanic people were from vastly different places only really connected by their language. An Argentine could have incredibly different beliefs than a Venezuelan. The songs of this era also needed to bring people together in the US. The American Ballad being a primary example of this. Many parts of the Us were highly disconnected and a song that united all the places under one sound is incredible 17. In many ways for Hispanics the places they have gone through to get to the US unites them. Crossing rivers, hills, and mountains listen 18 in order to find jobs is common ground among many of its Hispanic listeners.
The Hispanic community being such a large part of the US can be traced all the way back to the 19th century. But, it was not until the 1930’s that its true culture began to take shape. Today we can analyze much of it using preserved songs in the Library of Congress. They show some of the common ground that was found during the time of migration and job search in the 1930’s. Also with religion being a such a staple in the community, the songs reflect this idea. In the future, as more songs are analyzed and songs from today are easily preserved the future generations will be able to see our culture through music.
Soundcite – Christina O’Farrell
The question I was aiming to investigate through sound clips was, “What was it like being an immigrant in the 1930s?”. I focused on immigration a lot this semester in different skill assignments we did because I felt like it was a very important topic to discover more on. Today, immigration is a very important topic and there’s a lot of unjust issues surrounding it, so I felt that trying to learn more about it in the ’30s was a good idea. Before investigation this issue, I had a guess in the back of my mind that being an immigrant to the United States during the ’30s wasn’t the best due to the Great Depression and all the other changes the country was going through.
One of the audio clips I discovered by Dominic Gallagher 19 was a lament of what it was like being a Irish immigrant. I had to google what “lament” meant and I discovered it meant sorrow and grief. Upon learning this, the song that Gallagher sang made much more sense. He sings of loneliness and the tone of his voice doesn’t have a happy sound to it. It almost sounds as if he’s in a bit of pain. This really made me think that his experience of immigrating from Ireland to the United States in the ’30s was not a pleasant one. This only proved the idea that I had in my mind before investigating.
Another audio clip that I discovered was one from an Italian immigrant, Victor and John Marinetti. The song is in Italian, so the lyrics aren’t quite clear, but the name of the song is “Italian immigration song” 20 The tone of the song isn’t very upbeat, it just sounds a little weary and just by that I assumed that the two singers were singing of struggles they encountered. Due to the song being called “Italian Immigration Song”, I figured it was a song about the issues Italians went through went immigrating to the United States.
None of the clips that I found seemed to have any uplifting songs or spoken word about positive experiences with immigration. It only proved the idea I had in my mind before. I also found it very interesting that two different groups of people, the Irish and Italians, both wrote songs of immigration to the United States. It reminded me a bit of the Federal Music Project 21 and I tried to find any similarities there. I remember learning in class about different songs that people wrote during the ’30s about traveling West and the folk songs 22 that came about there and that definitely reminded me of these songs.
I think by having the opportunity to add audio clips into this post, it provides more evidence of the point I’m trying to get across, which is that immigration in the ’30s was a struggle for people. Instead of having me go into thorough detail, the clip helps explain quite a bit.
Slave Narratives of the 1930s
Understanding slave narratives from first hand accounts is an important step in beginning to understand the atrocities that came with slavery. The 1930s provided a time where the slaves from the nineteenth century had not passed away yet therefore their stories of listen23 were able to be used in understanding the narratives that former slaves had to offer. Understanding slave narratives during the 1930s may not have been as important to the people of the time as it is today. This shows the important work that John and Ruby Lomax were doing during the 1930s and how it impacts the current discourse around the issues of slavery in the twentieth century. Perhaps John Lomax would have released an article regarding the creation of content for the future similar to Ian Milligan’s article where he discusses the creation of content for the “record of tomorrow.”24
The collection of Voices Remembering Slavery: Freed People Tell Their Stories is a unique moment in history where the former American slaves were given the opportunity to share their experiences. It could be argued that the former slaves were activists of their time however it was in a very passive manner. The Civil Rights movement had not began yet but having the ability to share their stories in an attempt to shed light on the realities of slavery is a form of activism because the ultimate goal is to promote equality. The personal story that uncle Billy McCrea shared with John and Ruby Lomax, listen25, provide the listeners with a snippet of a personal experience regarding the transactions of human people during the nineteenth century. This is an important interview to listen to for the modern day understanding of how slavery impacted the lives of those who were fortunate enough to outlive the atrocities of slavery. The Library of Congress describes the slave narrative archives far better than my abilities allow me, “The WPA narratives thus constitute an illuminating and invaluable source of data about antebellum and post-Emancipation Southern life, the institution of slavery, and, most important, the reactions and perspectives of those who had been enslaved.”26
Blog Post #9: Mexican American Folk Music Representation in Northern California
I chose to focus on the Library of Congress collection, California Gold: Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties. I was shocked to see how many folks songs were available in the collection from so many different countries including Russia, Hungary, Finland, and Italy. I decided to hone in on Mexican American folk music because I wanted to create an expanded discussion on Mexican immigration to the United States, this time relating to the music. My historical question morphed into considering how Mexican American folk music in Mexican cultural settings on American soil is represented in the 1930s and 40s.
Sidney Robertson Cowell, a folk music collector in Northern California, partnered with the University of California, Berkeley and what is now the Library of Congress’ American Folklife Center, to comprise “35 hours worth of folk music recorded in 12 languages representing numerous ethnic groups and 185 musicians” from Northern California. 27 This collection of recordings is a continuation of the themes we’ve talked about in class, such as the recording of narratives from those who were once enslaved, accounts from migrant workers, and southern music being documented by the Lomax family. In creating these recordings, ethnographers of the 30s and 40s have made history readily available to future generations, while also using technology that was new for their time to further spread traditions to those unfamiliar.
As a part of music collected at the wedding of Ben and Rosa Figueroa on February 18, 1939 in Carmel, California, Cowell recorded a song performed by Mr. Figueroa, “Yo ando passando trabajo.” Cowell wrote in the dust jacket that Mr. Figueroa “didn’t want to sing this, but the Irish contractor for whom he works for was drunkenly insistent.” 28 In the recording, it seems like he’s is bothered by the fact that he’s performing a song at his own wedding that when translated from yo ando posando trabajo to English means, “I’m going to work.” You can hear his discomfort in what seems to be Mr. Figueroa’s choppy chords and unenthused singing.29. I think this situation is interesting to think about in terms of the BackStory podcast we listened to, “Border Controls: Policing Immigration in America.” Francisco Balderrama says that Mexicans and those of Mexican descent were expelled from America because of “the argument there’s not enough jobs, that jobs were for real Americans.” Additionally, with the hit of the Great Depression, Mexicans were seen as “foreign” and “unwanted” (Balderrama, 2018). 30 The fact that Mr. Figueroa is still in America celebrating his wedding means that some Mexican Americans were still able to make a living throughout the era of Mexican repatriation. However, it doesn’t seem as if he had much agency within his situation, especially if his employer was intoxicated and encouraging him to sing a song about work. It shows that despite being in America, some Mexican Americans still were beneath Americans of European descent.
Throughout this time, it also seems as if Mexican American musicians adopted European musical styles and performed them at Mexican celebrations. With the close proximity of various ethnic groups living together in Northern California, this mixing of cultures and traditions would’ve been easy. At the Figueroa wedding, the Anna Magdalena Waltz 31 was performed, which is named after Johann Sebastian Bach’s second wife. This, at the very least, shows German influences on Mexican folk music. Cowell wrote in the dust jacket that the orchestra was pleased with their performance because they were used to Mexican waltzes, which went “faster” than European ones 32. This diversity in music is referenced in Benjamin Filene’s Romancing the Folk: Public Memory and American Roots Music. In the chapter “Searching for Folk Music’s Institutional Niche,” Filene says that folk music became the “embodiments of America’s strength through diversity” (Filene, 2000, p. 133) 33. Thanks to new recording technology, Mexican Americans and those of Mexican descent were able to expose themselves to new genres of music while also having their own music shared within the United States, and beyond. Yet, it only seemed like their music was of concern, oppose to their actual livelihoods.
