Voices from the Days of Slavery: An Interview with Fountain Hughes due 5/18/17 (2024)

Maddie Miniutti

5/16/2017 06:36:11 pm

1. It was hard to hear him most of the time because he was so old he mumbled a lot. Also it seemed like he spoke in a very low tone. You could hear some kind of traffic in the background and at one point you could hear a train whistle.

2. Fountain Hughes didn't like talking about when he was a slave, but the interesting part was that he didn't want people to feel bad for him. It must have been a terrible time when he was a slave and so he didn't want people to treat him differently just because he was a slave. I think that this interview was more personal then historical because it was him talking about his time as a slave and when he was free. Hughes was talking about when he was going through this and his experiences and I think because he was talking about it, it made the stories more personal then historical.

3. I would like to know more about when he was a slave; how it was growing up as a slave and a black man; what happened when he was free?

4. This is relevant to To Kill A Mockingbird because it can give you an understanding about how hard it was growing up in Virginia. It could give you more of a connection with Tom Robinson because even though it was Virginia, Fountain said it was much worse in the deep south where the book takes place.

Annie

5/17/2017 09:10:47 am

1. He was born in Virginia.
His grandfather worked for Thomas Jefferson.
He don’t buy things that he doesn't have the money for.
He is happy because he doesn’t have to give anyone money.
He didn’t wear shoes until he was 12 or 13 years old.
When he was slave he slept on the floor.
When they found out that they were free they just ran away because we didn’t own anything they only had what clothes they had on them.
He couldn’t spend money he made until he was 21.
When he was free he didn’t know where to go or where to sleep.

2. I think that the purpose of this oral store is to teach people what it was like to be a slave and to learn that from a person who has experienced slavery from day one, you could learn a lot.

3. I think that this story is relevant to the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” because it shows that even though back then the way colored people were treated was horrible they still have come a long way from when slaves weren’t free.

Finn

5/17/2017 11:32:43 am

:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)) :) :) :) :)
AT first this dude named Fountain Hughes was very hard to understand then I thought he was crying? ( did anyone else notice that) a word that was unfamiliar to me was Nigetrader. ( Jen explained afterwards) He also had a southern accent that was hard to understand. The window was also open so you could hear the cars passing below.
The purpose of oral history is for people to tell their stories of rough times and how they go over it. When this was recorded there was still people being segregated and being mistreated.The oral significance, it is used to refer to formal, rehearsed accounts of the past presented by culturally sanctioned tradition-bearers. Oral history us personal. This oral history made me feel bad.
Who invented slavery.
What did it entail
where did it start
why did it start
when did it start
how did it start
This is connected to To Kill a Mockingbird because it relates to how slaves were treated badly even after they were free form the civil war.

Colin Calvetti

5/17/2017 11:38:16 am

1) The first thing I notice is how hard it is to make out what Fountain Hughes is saying, you have to focus very hard to know what he is saying. It seems more like a conversation then a interview it is as if Fountain is telling a story rather then getting interviewed. You can hear cars honking in the background in various parts of the interview, this leads me to believe they were in a building on a main street with their windows opened.

2) The purpose of this interview was to see how slaves were treated and the views of slaves on how they were treated. This shows great significance and the stories he tells are more personal rather then trying to just say: we were beaten, we weren't fed, and we did have rights. Instead of doing this he tells stories of times with his brother or his mother.

3) I still am wondering many things about the days of being a slave. One thing I would like to know is did you ever have a owner who would beat you or do other horrible things or did you have a nice and caring owner who treated their slaves right even though slaves aren't treated right in the first place considering they are slaves? Also you say "You wasn't no more than a dog to some of them in them days. You wasn't treated as good as they treat dogs now. But still, I didn't like to talk about it. Because it makes, makes people feel bad you know." If you were or people you know were treated like "dogs" then why don't you speak out against those people who did horrible things, you said it makes people feel bad but how?

4) This relates to To Kill a Mockingbird because there is a lot of racism in To Kill a Mockingbird and Fountain Hughes explains to us what it was really like to be someones slave and it doesn't seem fun at all. Tom Robinson and Fountain Hughes have both faced racism but Fountain experiences it at a whole new level.

Jared

5/17/2017 11:50:16 am

Lauren

5/17/2017 11:54:16 am

1. I first noticed the sound quality of the interview, and I immediately checked the date that it was recorded on. Sure enough, it was recorded in 1949. I didn't notice any words that I didn't know the meaning of. Fountain has a southern accent and talks in a soft, almost unintelligable tone (I think that's because of his old age). It seems more like a conversation to me. There was no evident hostility between them. I did notice background noise. There was cars honking and it seems like they had a window open.

2. I think the purpose of this oral history is to have a primary source and really feel what it was like to be in that time period. I imagine them sitting in a recording studio with a window opened, conducting the interview. Fountain Hughes was a slave, so he would naturally have a slave's view on slavery: sheer loathing towards it. At the end of the interview he said he would kill himself before being a slave again. This history is significant because it shows a terrible part of American history from the perspective of a man who got the raw end of it. There seems to be a personal aspect to it, but this interview does preserve history at that time. Interviews and primary sources are more impactful than just reading from a textbook because primary sources show in painstaking detail that these events happened to real people. People can learn how it felt to be a slave at that time, and how it affects people.

3. What was he about to say before the interview ends? Was his master unusually kind, unusually strict, or average?

4. This connects to To Kill a Mockingbird because it really shows how life was like for black people and how much it has changed. It has gotten miles and miles better for black people, from the 1800s to 1930 to 2017. These pieces of history are how people can put together what life was like in those times, and how we can learn from it. Although TKaM was fiction, it had a lot of truth to it when it came to what life was like.

Eric

5/17/2017 11:56:24 am

What I noticed first, was that his voice was kind of hard to understand. He had an accent and since he was old, his voice was different. There weren't any words that were unfamiliar to me. I knew all of the words. It did seem like an interview, because there was someone asking questions. It noticed some background noises, for example at the beginning. It sounded like cars passing by.

The purpose of oral history is when you hear about what they talk about, you can get an idea of what life was like in that part of history. The person telling the story's point of view was about life being a slave. This interview was significant, because he talked about life being a slave and after they were freed. From oral history, you can learn about what life was like in that part of history.

From this interview, I wonder how he lived after he was freed. He had no education of nowhere to go. I also wonder what happened to his siblings after they were freed.

This connects with To Kill a Mockingbird, because of the time period. At this time, the blacks were not treated well. The blacks were freed, but they were treated badly, just like they were in To Kill a Mockingbird.

AUDREY

5/17/2017 01:50:17 pm

James O'Sullivan

5/17/2017 03:00:47 pm

1. I first noticed that the man sounded very old and tired. His voice was very hard to understand. His speech was hard to understand because his accent and word choice. His accent was deep southern. The interview they were having was more like a conversation. There was the sound of traffic in the background.

2.The purpose of this story is to explain what a slave's life was like. I think that rush hour is occurring during the interview. The person telling the story is depressed and he is very much against slavery. He even said that if he was told to be a slave again he would much rather kill himself. The significance of this story is to understand what a slaves life was like back in the day. It is more personal because this is his own account of slavery. Encountering the story firsthand changes its emotional impact because it feels more depressing and is harder on the
mind. You can learn many things like what it feels like to be a slave and how much slaves suffered.

3. Who could ever enslave someone for labor purposes? What were the living conditions? When did he ever feel happy as a slave or did he never feel happy as a slave? Where did he work? Why did he decide to share his story with the world? How did his master or masters treat him?

4. It is relevant to "To Kill a Mockingbird" in many ways. Fountain Hughes in my opinion is just like Tom Robinson. Fountain Hughes lifestyle is very similar to Tom Robinson.

Jeremiah

5/17/2017 03:01:22 pm

1. Honestly the first thing i picked up on was how loud he was speaking and based on this I inferred he was older and later realized he was 101. As he went on it was clear that as he spoke he would remember things that he left out and circle back to the same topic, sometimes multiple times. The words themselves were not unfamiliar to me but his heavy southern accent made them hard to understand at times. He would also use obscure analogies that are obviously not used today. The interview is hardly a conversation, Fountain Hughs being the one talking 90% of the time, and i believe that is a good thing. It enabled him to really get his story across. I did not notice any background noise.

2. I think the purpose of this oral history is to remember and address the horrible and harsh reality that the slaves had to face. During this time the popular idea of "segregated but equal" was in place, and though we know now that this method was not equality, I believe the interviewer was trying to prove how far we have come. This oral history is important because it gives a first hand account of the terrible treatment of slaves in america but particularly the south. This is personal and that is why it is better than reading the details in a text book because he puts feeling into it and you can feel those feelings and than it becomes more impactful.

3. I would like to know more about his life following his freedom as well as his life now in 1949?

4. This relates to To Kill a Mocking Bird because this would be exactly how the slaves would be treated during the time period the book takes place. It illustrates the amount of prejudice that whites in the south had against blacks.

Douglas

5/17/2017 03:28:57 pm

Lily

5/17/2017 06:02:35 pm

Sebastian

5/17/2017 06:15:07 pm

Jenna

5/17/2017 06:47:48 pm

At first i noticed how hard it is to understand him. I think it is a little accent but it is really just that for so long he did not know how to speak so he doesn't talk very well. Fountain also sounds so casual that it makes it seem like a conversation. I also hear some horns from cars and someone talking a third person in the background.

The purpose of this recording is to educate people and to show what his life was like through his eyes because we have no idea and we do not have to go through the same things he went through. I can also tell the person telling this stories understood it was important for us to know what it was like for them. Again the best way to learn about something and to understand what they were going through is to see it through their eyes and this is a significant time in history so this is important. I would consider it personal because this is all about how he felt about the things going on and historical because these things are what made history. Encountering it first hand makes it more personal and intimate which makes you feel even worse for that person. You can learn from this how being a slave changed the way people thought of themselves.

I am wondering how he can say thank the Lord when he has suffered through so much of his life. He has grown up thinking that it is normal for colored people to be in chains and he was treated like an animal i honestly don't see how he could be that forgiving to still thank God for letting him live this long. I also wonder how he moved on from all of this i would definitely be severely mentally scarred and he is having a sit down interview acting all chill about it.

This is relevant to To Kill A Mockingbird because they talked a lot about how Tom Robinson was never treated fairly all because of the color of his skin. And that was exactly Fountain's problem.

Andrew

5/17/2017 10:43:38 pm

1) The first thing I noticed when listening to this article was how impressive and incredible it was that an 101-year-old man was able to remain attentive and focused and able to speak relatively clearly. At times he was somewhat difficult to understand but that is understandable considering his age and southern accent. To me this seemed to go back and forth between an interview and a conversation. When Fountain Hughes was speaking it seemed to be more of a conversation and him informing a younger pupil of what life was like for slaves and telling him to count his blessings, but the interviewer seemed to go back forth between responding to Mr. Hughes and just reading scripted questions he had prepared for the interview.

2) The purpose of this oral story is to show the people of 1949 what it was like to live as a slave many years before. I think that while this was happening, many blacks, although free, were still being discriminated against and looked down on. From this interview, you can tell that Fountain Hughes is a strong, tough man with much perseverance and you can tell that he seen been in and seen many bad things over the course of his life. The significance of oral history is that yo can learn about people and the way of life in different time periods from a person who has experienced it and hear their point of view. I think that oral history is more personal than historical because it shows history from a person's point of view and they talk about the way they felt while all this was happening. They might also not know the whole story about what was happening so it is important to know everything that was going on during that time period. Another thing that oral history can do is push your point of view to a certain direction based on what you're hearing from the speaker.

3) I wonder "who" Fountain Hughes had spent most of his time with and if he had many friends whom he worked with. I wonder "what" he would've done differently if he could go back to when he was a just a boy as a slave. I wonder "when" he realized that he was going to be free and what he thought when he found out. I wonder "where" Fountain Hughes went after becoming free and if he started a family and had children of his own. I wonder "why" no one helped Fountain Hughes as a slave and if someone did, why he didn't mention them in the interview. I wonder "how" he managed to stay strong and determined even when it looked like there was no hope of freedom for himself.

4) This interview is relevant to "To Kill a Mockingbird" because it mentions how a slave couldn't do anything or purchase anything without an assumption being made about them stealing the money or them committing a crime just because of their race. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Robinson, despite having all evidence in his favor, is arrested for a crime a he clearly could't have committed. The reason he is convicted, he is a black man, and no one could possibly trust a black man over the word of a white woman. Both show the racism and discrimination against blacks during these times.

Justin.V

5/18/2017 08:06:41 am

1.I noticed in the tone of his voice that he was sad to talk about this and that it had hurt him many times in the past. I noticed that he doesn’t speak well which means he was never taught to read and write. His accent was too strong for me to figure it out what it was. Maybe it was southern. This seems like a conversation. I noticed the occasional honks of cars and people outside.

2.The purpose of this oral history is to hear the tone of feeling that this man is experiencing. It is supposed to allow you to see his emotions and feeling towards through his voice. I think at the time of the recording, Fountain Hughes wanted to tell his story before he was gone. I think he didn’t know how much longer he would live passed 101 years old (if he even made it passed that year) and wanted to let the people and the future know what it was like to be a slave. I can tell there have been mental scars from slavery that has forever affected his life. Overall this is historical but the way it is recorded, it is more of a personal account. I can learn from this oral history the truth and emotion that this guy felt and experienced during his days in slavery. It taught me the true horrors of slavery for those who experienced it firsthand.

3.How long he was in slavery, why many slaves don’t like to retell their experiences, where does his family originate from (Country wise).

4.This is connected to To Kill a Mockingbird with Tom Robison when he was a slave as a child. Both hated being stuck in slavery and were injured during slavery.

Sam

5/21/2017 09:15:24 pm

1.At the very start of the interview, I notice Fountain’s strong southern accent. He says how old he is and where he’s from, and then he begins to talk about his grandfather. There weren’t any unfamiliar words, and I think that was because he mainly spoke in basic English, using the same words that we do today. To me, it seems more like a conversation than an interview because Hermond Norwood was going back and forth with him as opposed to just asking questions and getting a response. It wasn’t like a normal interview where one person asked questions and the interviewee answered. In the background, I noticed sounds like a car honk and a bus, and I thought that it might be coming from a city street. It almost sounded like New York City.

2.I think the purpose of this oral history is to directly listen to someone about their life as opposed to reading it in a textbook. It gives the listener a chance to connect with them on a more personal level. By listening to oral history, you can understand not only understand the context, but you get to hear how the speaker feels about a certain subject. For example, if a holocaust survivor is talking about the war and they begin to cry, it makes you feel what they’re feeling and you can’t get that by reading it in a history textbook. Overall, being able to have oral history helps the listener connect personally to the speaker, and it gives them the opportunity to feel what the speaker might’ve been feeling as well.

3. I would like to know more about what Fountain did once he wasn’t a slave anymore, and also how slavery impacted him and his life.

4.This relates to To Kill a Mockingbird because it puts the reader in perspective of Tom Robinson. In the book, you don’t get much of a chance to hear what Tom’s opinion and thoughts are, and with this oral history, it helped me understand what life was like a slave, and how Tom must’ve felt throughout not only the trial but his whole life. By hearing Fountain’s life story, I was able to get a real feel of what slavery was like and how bad blacks were treated back then, one of them being Tom Robinson.

James Salazar

5/21/2017 11:18:04 pm

It was difficult to understand what he was saying and he had a heavy accent. To me he sounded depressed and old. They were cars honking in the background. I felt like I understood all the words I could hear. One word that was unfamiliar to me which was “bound,” but I could figure out what the word meant from the rest of the sentence and what he was saying. I thought the recording was an interview, because of the types of questions that were asked.

I believe the purpose of the oral history was to let people know what the slaves went through and to remember what happened and how it happened and not to forget it happened.

I think that they might have been a lot of racism going on at the time of the interview.

Mr. Fountain Hughes sounds old and depressed and he doesn’t seem as if he wants to talk about the past because they are horrible memories. You also realized that he would have preferred to die than live as a slave or even a free slave.

The significance of the story is to tell the public what happened to the slaves and what happened to them after they were freed. I feel the story is personal and historical.

Listening to Mr. Hughes tell his story makes me sad and angry. You learn how bad the slaves’ lives were and how there was nothing for them even when they became free.

I prefer not to wonder about it because its so sad and horrible. I have thought how the human race can be so cruel and unjust. How black people were treated so bad for the most stupid reasons that white people made up at that time.

When Mr. Hughes talked about needing a pass to go where you were told to go by your master. That you couldn’t go through nobody’s house without a pass. I thought about how Mr. Robinson was on the Ewell’s porch and knew he shouldn’t have been there without permission from the Mr. Ewell. He would help Mayella because she asked him to but it was wrong for that time. It also connects by the unfairness of how black people were treated.

Ehan

5/26/2017 11:36:37 am

1) At first I noticed his Southern accent, which mad him hard to understand. The conversation was more like an interview because the younger guy was asking questions to Fountain Hughes while he was answering the questions and giving advice t the younger guy. There was background noise such as the train.

2) The purpose of this oral history lesson was to tell how bad slavery was and how the white slave owners treated colored men. In the lecture, I could tell that Fountain Hughes was a slave and he wanted to tell younger generations his story but not make them feel bad for him. The oral report is historic and personal combined because he told stories about what he has been through and he told stories about what happened in the time period. Encountering this story right-hand makes the story more emotional because you actually think what the person next to you has encountered and that you are lucky this hasn't happened to you. I learned from this oral presentation that slavery is cruel and it affects everyone around you.

3) I wonder about how people came to know his story. Why didn’t he attempt to run away when he was in slavery? Where is Fountain Hughes from? When was Fountain born? What did Fountain do after slavery?

4) Fountain Hughes and Tom Robinson are both black people getting discriminated on. Tom ended up trying to run away when he was getting put in another court while Fountain worked his way out of slavery. We ended up feeling what Robinson felt and how Fountain felt in the stories.

Ella

6/2/2017 02:47:30 pm

It was very hard to understand what he was saying at first. because he is over 100 years old the way he pronounces word scan be hard to understand at times.

The purpose of this oral history is to show what certain people had to go through during that time. like Fountain Hughes said, his grandfather worked for Thomas Jefferson which meant he was a slave. the purpose of this interview can also be directed towards students in helping them to understand how certain people have to go through unfair things just because of their race.

After listening to this interview i wondered what happened to him after he was free, and if he had run away with anyone other than himself.

this can be related to "To kill a mockingbird" because Fountain Hughes describes the inequality during the time and how unfair everything was, and in "To kill a mockingbird" the trial with Tom Robinson had a lot of bias and inequality.