The audio recordings that I listened to were of Mrs. Laura Smalley, a former slave, being interviewed by a Mr. John Henry Faulk. These interviews are part of a collection called, “Voices Remembering Slavery: Freed People Tell Their Stories.”1 These interviews of freed people took place in 1941. Because of this, the recordings were good for the time, however, the spinning of the record makes it hard to hear the talking. Also, the difference in dialects between the interviewer and the interviewee made it difficult to understand. Since Mrs. Smalley never had a proper education, trying to understand her sentences on top of her heavy accent was quite tedious. I never really considered oral histories a reliable primary source for the exact reason of language. I may interpret what she said in a completely different way from which it was intended. This could skew the information and distort the true history. Even with a transcript available, the transcriber could interpret the words differently from the interviewee and from me.
I did, however, learn quite a bit about Mrs. Smalley’s life. She lived in slavery for the first 12 years of her life, so her memory from those times is very vague. She does not remember to many significant events besides June 19th, when the remaining slaves in America were freed including her. She remembers a few whippings, mainly the really bad ones. She also told a story of watching soldiers walk by her home all the time during the Civil War. She noted that most of the soldiers were colored. After Freedom Day she never went into specifics except when talking about her family. She married twice. The first was when she was only sixteen years old. That marriage lasted ten years until her husband died. Four years later she remarried. She said she has about fifty grandchildren and great-grandchildren combined. 2 I was very surprised when she said that one of her great grandchildren was fifty years old. She also talked about the places she lived. She lived in an oil field for thirty years and then moved to Hempstead, TX, where she spent the rest of her life.
“Interview with Laura Smalley, Hempstead, Texas, 1941 (Part 1 of 5).” The Library of Congress, 1941, www.loc.gov/item/afc1941016_afs05496a/.
“Interview with Laura Smalley, Hempstead, Texas, 1941 (Part 2 of 5).” The Library of Congress, 1941, www.loc.gov/item/afc1941016_afs05496b/.
“Interview with Laura Smalley, Hempstead, Texas, 1941 (Part 3 of 5).” The Library of Congress, 1941, www.loc.gov/item/afc1941016_afs05497a/.
“Interview with Laura Smalley, Hempstead, Texas, 1941 (Part 4 of 5).” The Library of Congress, 1941, www.loc.gov/item/afc1941016_afs05497b/.
“Interview with Laura Smalley, Hempstead, Texas, 1941 (Part 5 of 5).” The Library of Congress, 1941, www.loc.gov/item/afc1941016_afs05498b/.
