• 05 Deep in Turpentine

  • May 23 2024
  • Length: 33 mins
  • Podcast

  • Summary

  • Episode Summary:


    While working on the WPA Florida guidebook, the Federal Writers’ Project team – including Zora Neale Hurston and Stetson Kennedy – documented a wide range of life from prison camps to soup kitchens to hair salons, in recordings that reveal a living culture and enduring traditions.


    Hurston and Kennedy traveled the state, recording people’s stories and songs. That included a visit to a remote turpentine work site where they encountered a forced labor camp and the brutal conditions in a form of slavery that continued well into the 20th century.


    Project interviewers in Florida also searched for survivors of pre-Civil War slavery and gathered hundreds of interviews. Nationally, thousands of “ex-slave interviews” are treasures for understanding that lived experience. But the Project’s written interviews should be read with caution. Historians remind us that those manuscripts are complicated and often reinforced racial bias and stereotypes. Historian Tameka Hobbs helps put this work in context and brings it alive.


    Speakers:


    Peggy Bulger, folklorist

    Maryemma Graham, literary historian

    Tameka Hobbs, historian

    Stetson Kennedy, author and Project alum

    James McBride, novelist

    Ernest Toole, folk musician

    Flo Turcotte, historian


    Links and Resources:


    "Turpentine Camp, Cross City" typescript essay by Zora Neale Hurston


    "Viola Muse Digital Edition" Digital Archive of Muse's Writers' Project work


    Zora Neale Hurston Collection at the University of Florida


    Library of Congress webcast: 75th Anniversary of "These Are Our Lives" a collection of Writers' Project life histories


    Drop on Down in Florida


    Ernest Toole Spotify Artist Page


    Further Reading:


    WPA Guide to Florida

    Go Gator and Muddy the Water by Zora Neale Hurston, edited by Pamela Bordelon

    Dust Tracks on a Road by Zora Neale Hurston

    To Walk About in Freedom, by Carole Emberton

    These Are Our Lives, life histories from the Federal Writers’ Project

    Conchtown USA: Bahamian Fisherfolk in Riviera Beach, Florida, by Charles C. Foster


    Credits:


    Host: Chris Haley

    Director: Andrea Kalin

    Producers: Andrea Kalin, David A. Taylor and James Mirabello

    Writer: David A. Taylor

    Editor: Ethan Oser

    Story Editor: Michael May

    Additional Voices: Jared Buggage


    Featuring music and archival material from:


    Joseph Vitarelli

    Bradford Ellis

    Pond5

    Library of Congress


    For additional content, visit peoplesrecorder.info or follow us on social media: @peoplesrecorder


    Produced with support from:


    National Endowment for the Humanities

    Florida Humanities

    Stetson Kennedy Foundation


    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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