Creating this timeline of Fountain Hughes life has shown me an insight to the life of a slave both before and after the civil war. This interview allows Fountain to present in is own words his own experience. From this interview we learned about the day to day activities and hardships in the life of a slave, specifically the monetary struggles. Fountain recanted about how a slave couldn’t spend money if they were under 21 because it was assumes that it was stolen money. Most of Fountain’s memories were from after the Civil War ended. He also recanted about how his hardships getting good work after the war as many freed slaves were unable to support themselves or their families. 1
The two timeline layers show how Fountain’s life interacted or was affected by the historical milestones of the time. We can tell that they line up from the death of Fountain’s father as he died during the civil war which was noted in the timeline. We can also see that Fountain moves to Baltimore for work and this had to have happened after the civil war as he was not free until after then. Both the end of the war and Fountain’s move are documented in the timeline.
I was surprised that more questions weren’t asked about Fountain’s father’s death. It was briefly mentioned and then was glossed over. I thought that this would an impactful point in his life and definitely be something he made a large note of in his life story.
This interview provides a first person look into the life of a former slave that any other account cant provide. Historical documentation lack the first hand accounts that the se interview provide. Lauren Tillton described these interviews as ‘a portrait of America’. She also stated that these life histories are vital to the cultural and historical knowledge of America.2 Obviously, these interviews do come with limitations. The interviewees are quite old and don’t have the best of memories. This could allow for some information to either be lost or remembered incorrectly. These interviews only confirmed and added on to my ideas of how slave and ex-slave life was like.
Listening to the voices proved to be a little difficult as the audio wasn’t the best and the accents and dialect made it challenging to understand all the time. The transcribed version was much easier to understand and was my main reference when making the timeline. This interview tells us how even after the civil war, the recently freed slaves felt anything but free. Thrust into the world with no guidance or help they struggled to stay afloat as the world was against them. The hardships and struggles of their life is exemplified in Fountain’s testimony.
- Interview with Fountain Hughes, Baltimore, Maryland, June 11, 1949. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.loc.gov/item/afc1950037_afs09990a/.
- Tilton, L. (1970, January 1). Race and Place: Dialect and the Construction of Southern Identity in the Ex-Slave Narratives. Retrieved from http://crdh.rrchnm.org/essays/v02-14-race-and-place/.
