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Nicholas Hannah Blog Post 1

For this reflection, I decided to listen to the oral history interview of Fountain Hughes, interviewed by Hermond Norwood. This 29 minute long interview was recorded on June 11th, 1949, and is digitally preserved by the Library of Congress. Hughes was born into slavery before the American Civil War and recounts his experiences working for a slaver in Charlottesville, Virginia. At the time of this interview, he was an astounding 101 years old. He was emancipated from slavery during the Civil War and recounted the lack of resources given to newly freed people during reconstruction. “After we got freed and they turned us out like cattle, we could, we didn't have nowhere to go. And we didn't have nobody to boss us, and, uh, we didn't know nothing. There wasn't, wasn't no schools.”, says Hughes. He also remembers how the cost of labor changed with the abolition of slavery. It is extremely interesting to me what he chooses to talk about. A decent portion of the interview is Hughes advising listeners not to get into debt by only using money that they have. He spends more time speaking of the prices of goods and services before the interviewer guides the conversation towards Hughes’s time as a slave. 


This didn’t feel like much of an interview to me, but rather someone who wanted to speak being given a platform. I say this because Hughes had a train of thought that was difficult to follow, frequently going on tangents. Although I found his story interesting, I had to repeat some parts a few times and follow along with the transcript to understand much of anything. 


This is oral history at its best, platforming those who otherwise would not have been heard from. Previously, I have read accounts of field working slaves on large plantations who had dealt with unbelievable hardships. Reading an account like this provided a unique perspective of someone who did not let their enslavement define their life for longer than it needed to. Hearing the voice and advice of someone who was born in the 1850s is an incredible technological feat. The digitization of this interview will ensure its preservation and reuse. 


Link:

https://www.loc.gov/item/afc1950037_afs09990a/

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