Mr. Ernie E. Sparks interviewed former slave, Ms. Celia Black, in the presence of her daughters, in October of 1974. Born in September of 1859, Celia was 115 years old at the time of the interview- an astonishing fact itself. The way that Ms. Celia Black narrates her experience growing up in an enslaved family seems surprisingly less harsh that I expected at first. She begins her narration with describing how wonderful her birthday was, and recounts the family she was raised with- Mr. and Mrs. Clay, assumed to be white slave owners. Celia describes being “raised in the fields” picking cotton, but doesn’t elaborate much further on the experience itself, other than noting it’s importance in her early life.
My first timeline layer identifies some of the events from her childhood that Ms. Black noted, and while no specific dates other than her birthday were given, it wasn’t too difficult to estimate the rest. Ms. Black’s recollection of her childhood was astonishing, and being able to pull some of these events onto a digital timeline made her experiences feel all the more real. Adding the second layer of other significant events that occurred during Ms. Black’s lifetime was surreal to look at- having known she lived from the time of Lincoln’s presidency, to the resignation of Richard Nixon, and realizing she lived through almost off of the significant conflicts in American history- from the beginning of the Civil War to the end of the Vietnam War. Bringing the two timeline layers together into one seamless product made me realize how valuable personal accounts can be. History so often looks primarily at the larger picture, but having personal accounts, oral or written brings back the personal, real aspect of history- it helps us reaffirm that everything’s that’s happened in history had a real impact on someone’s life.
The most constricting part of the interview was simply the lack of specific dates, but given the age Ms. Black was when the interview took place, the fact that she was able to recall events from her childhood over a century prior makes the interview an invaluable resource. Perhaps it was the recording, or perhaps it was Ms. Black’s age which made a transcript read-along necessary to clarify everything that she was recounting. Even though the transcript was incredibly helpful in accurate understanding, having the audio to listen to brought together two histories would rarely intersect. Listening to the speech patterns of Ms. Black as opposed to those of her daughters was a beautiful comparison in the way that the American dialect has changed over the centuries, regardless of race or geographic location.
Even though the Slave Narratives Project and these series of interviews was begun and completed for the most part in the 1930s and early 1940s, the fact that some interviews were still taking place much later in 1974 is again a testament to the importance of the root of the project- bringing light to a previously untold part of history, and allowing voices that had once been trampled and silences the ability to speak their truths.
Bibliography
“About This Collection : Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1938 : Digital Collections : Library of Congress.” The Library of Congress. Accessed October 25, 2019. https://www.loc.gov/collections/slave-narratives-from-the-federal-writers-project-1936-to-1938/about-this-collection/.
“Interview with Celia Black, Tyler, Texas, October 11, 1974.” The Library of Congress, 1974. https://www.loc.gov/item/afc1975009_afs17476/.
