Representations of Speech in the WPA Slave Narratives of Florida and the Writings of Zora Neale Hurston

Abstract

BACKGROUND, RESOURCES, AND COMPARATIVE APPROACHES The vast collection of slave narratives, housed in Library of Congress, was compiled from interviews conducted between 1936-1938 by Federal Writers' Project field workers. The typescript consists of over 10,000 pages from more than 2,000 interviews with former slaves throughout United States. Nearly three percent of these interviews were conducted in Florida (Mormino 1988:405). George P. Rawick has published entire collection in an initial series of eighteen volumes and two supplement series. Seventy-two interviews are published in Florida's volume (1972a). Donald M. Jacobs has indexed entire collection to make it possible for scholars to conduct research on particular issues or geographic regions (1981), and Howard Potts has published a comprehensive name index (1997). Further audio-visual and online resources have made narratives still more accessible in recent years for classroom and scholarly use. Ira Berlin, Steven F. Miller, and Marc Favreau have published an anthology of narratives together with an audio-cassette that allows students to hear excerpts of original recordings (1998). An online version of Rawick's compilation can be searched by key word functions. In addition, site offers discussion forums and other resources, including private classrooms with discussion boards and posBible lesson plans that help teachers and students navigate collection more effectively (http://www.slavenarratives.com). Sites maintained by Library of Congress (http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/african/intro.html) and University of Virginia (http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/wpa/ wpahome.html) also offer background information, photographs taken at time of interviews, as well as text and sound files of selected narratives. Though narratives potentially have tremendous value in teaching and research, they also pose a number of challenges that must be taken into account before collections may be effectively used. For example, Rawick explains that certain systematic biases exist in narratives, which in many cases may give a slanted view of treatment of slaves. On matters concerning ... sexual exploitation of women, whipping and punishment, surviving versions of interviews may be heavily biased in direction of grossly exaggerating humaneness of institution (1997:xxxii-xxxiii). The slave narratives were often censored at state level before they were sent to Washington, and controversial topics may have been avoided during interviews or omitted in transcription.' The former slaves may also have felt inhibited discussing race relations because majority of interviewers were white while former slaves were blacks, almost invariably very poor and totally destitute, and often dependent upon public charity and assistance from white-dominated charities and public officials (Rawick 1997:xxxii). Jacobs explains further that economic climate of 1930s when interviews were conducted contributed to an almost nostalgic attitude towards slavery on part of many former slaves who could look back on their youth under slavery as a time when they at least managed to have something to eat (quoted in Rawick 1997:xxxii). All of these complications are compounded by discrepancies among interviewers in transcriptions of dialect, which interviewers were encouraged to preserve in their notes despite most field-workers' lack of linguistic training and, in many cases, lack of tape recorders. In introduction to supplementary volumes of his collection, Rawick cautions that the slave narratives do not generally provide a reliable source for those seeking to study black speech patterns and black English (1975:xxix). The vastly different methods interviewers employed in recording direct speech can be misleading because instructions to interviewers regarding dialect left much room for individual interpretation. …