{"id":1143,"date":"2019-10-25T19:14:28","date_gmt":"2019-10-25T19:14:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/?p=1143"},"modified":"2019-11-12T19:28:52","modified_gmt":"2019-11-12T19:28:52","slug":"blog-4-fountain-hughes-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/timeline\/blog-4-fountain-hughes-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog #4: Fountain Hughes Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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The interview with Fountain Hughes revealed a lot concerning the experience of slaves post-abolition. Often, the historical narrative is approached with the oversimplified attitude that once slavery was abolished, the freed former slaves and their families were just that: free. Hughes discusses how the early days of his freedom were almost as confining and difficult as his youth in captivity. The freed slaves had nowhere to go, and work was difficult to find. Younger people were not allowed to be financially independent, as people would accuse them of stealing rather than acknowledge that they worked hard to earn their money. He describes hiding out in hidden places like barns or old cars, alongside his brother, because after they were freed (in his words: \u201cturned out, like a lot of cattle\u201d) they had no homes. These details add a new perspective on slavery and freedom. Legally, they might have been free, but socially and economically they were still kept down. This would only continue with the addition of Jim Crow Laws during reconstruction. One thing that was half-mentioned towards the end of the interview, but not actually explained on tape, was a mention of Hughes rejection of church-going. He makes some declarations about how he doesn\u2019t go to church, and doesn\u2019t believe in it, but fails to extrapolate. The interviewer offers to turn off the recorder for him, in case its a sensitive topic, but Hughes replies that it\u2019s nothing offensive. Nevertheless, the recording stops there, and I feel like he might have had something really interesting to say on the matter, especially since throughout the different interviews I looked at, many of the interviewees expressed a stout devotion to Christian spirituality and worship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This interview has the incredible perspective of a man who was 101 years old at the time of his interview. However, because of this, there were many things he could no longer remember, simply due to his age. One of the flaws of oral history as a primary source is that human memory is fallible\u2014a fact supported by social psychologists and studies on the usefulness of witness testimony. However, that being said, one can learn a great deal about the cultural context of a memory based on how it is recounted. While there might be limitation to objectivity, due to innate human bias and imperfect recollection, the manner in which one remembers an event can relate a great deal about the events being described, the social climate and the speaker\u2019s place in it at the time of the memory, and the way in which the speaker\u2019s opinions have changed in the time since. From an anthropological perspective, oral history is an invaluable primary source because of this\u2014the focus is less on objective truth, and more on the \u201ctruth\u201d of the individual. I think that it stands as an similarly important tool for historical research as well, but the difficulties regarding specific facts and objectivity might come into play a bit more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think it is incredibly interesting that these interviews were conducted in the 1930\u2019s and early 1940\u2019s, especially because segregation was still in full swing at the time. I wonder whether the devastating socioeconomic impact of the Great Depression may have influenced people to feel increased sympathy for those who had always been at a disadvantage, now that they had experienced incredible poverty as well. But, then again, that might be a bit too idealistic of a concept given the social prejudices of the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norwood, Hermond, and Fountain Hughes.\u00a0Interview with Fountain Hughes, Baltimore, Maryland. Baltimore, Maryland, November , 6, 1949. Pdf. https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/item\/afc1950037_afs09990a\/.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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https:\/\/cdn.knightlab.com\/libs\/timeline3\/latest\/embed\/index.html?source=1yuymGrfqyXu8LRDXBN9WrnB4dsk4Ayr4UzD_taeYAsw&font=Default&lang=en&initial_zoom=2&height=650(note: Embed function was not working for this link) The interview with Fountain Hughes revealed a lot concerning the experience of slaves post-abolition. Often, the historical narrative is approached with the oversimplified attitude that once slavery was abolished, the freed former slaves and their families were just that: free. Hughes discusses how the early days … Continue reading “Blog #4: Fountain Hughes Interview”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-timeline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1143"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1144,"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143\/revisions\/1144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}