^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Folklife Center News American Folklife Center The Library of Congress Winter 1999 Volume XXI, Number 1 ISSN 0149-6840 Catalog Card No. 77-649628 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The American Folklife Center was created in 1976 by the U.S. Congress to "preserve and present American folklife" through programs of research, documentation, archival preservation, reference service, live performance, exhibition, publication, and training. The Center incorporates the Archive of Folk Culture, which was established in the Music Division of the Library of Congress in 1928 and is now one of the largest collections of ethnographic material from the United States and around the world. Administration Alan Jabbour, Director Doris Craig, Administrative Assistant Acquisitions Vacant Processing Catherine Hiebert Kerst, Archivist Nora Yeh, Archivist Programs Peter T. Bartis, Folklife Specialist Camila Bryce-Laporte, Program Coordinator Mary Hufford, Folklife Specialist David A. Taylor, Folklife Specialist Publications James Hardin, Editor Public Events Theadocia Austen, Coordinator Reference Jennifer A. Cutting, Folklife Specialist Judith A. Gray, Folklife Specialist, Coordinator Stephanie A. Hall, Automation Ann Hoog, Folklife Specialist Administrative Office Fax: 202 707-2076 Reference Service Tel: 202 707-5510 E-mail: folklife@loc.gov Board of Trustees Congressional Appointees William L. Kinney Jr., Chair, South Carolina James F. Hoy, Vice-chair, Kansas Judith McCulloh, Illinois David Robinson, New Hampshire Charles E. Trimble, Nebraska Librarian Appointees Jane Beck, Vermont Norma CantŁ, Teas Tom Rankin, North Carolina John W. Roberts, Ohio Ex Officio Members James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress I. Michael Heyman, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution Bill Ivey, Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts William Ferris, Chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities Jo Radner, President, American Folklore Society Kay Kaufman Shelemay, President, Society for Ethnomusicology Alan Jabbour, Director, American Folklife Center FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS James Hardin, Editor David A. Taylor, Editorial Advisor John Biggs, Library of Congress Graphics Unit, Designer Folklife Center News publishes articles on the programs and activities of the American Folklife Center, as well as other articles on traditional expressive culture. It is available free of charge from the Library of Congress, American Folklife Center, Washington, D.C. 20540-4610. Folklife Center News does not publish announcements from other institutions or reviews of books from publishers other than the Library of Congress. Readers who would like to comment on Center activities or newsletter articles may address their remarks to the editor. TELEPHONE AND ONLINE INFORMATION RESOURCES American Folklife Center publications (including Folklife Center News), a calendar of events, collection guides, general information, and connections to a selection of other Internet services related to folklife are available on the Internet. LC Web is available through the World Wide Web service (http://lcweb.loc.gov/). The Center's home page can be accessed from the Library's main menu. The direct URL for the Center's home page is: http://lcweb.loc.gov/folklife/ Folkline, an information service providing timely information on the field of folklore and folklife, including training and professional opportunities and news items of national interest, is available through the above Internet server. For telephone service, call the Folklife Reading Room: 202 707-5510. EDITOR'S NOTES New Director Named to Head American Folklife Center Margaret Anne (Peggy) Bulger will become the second director of the American Folklife Center, beginning July 6. Currently senior program officer of the Southern Arts Federation in Atlanta, Georgia, Bulger holds a Ph.D. in folklore and folklife from the University of Pennsylvania. Bulger has been involved in public sector folklore work for over twenty years, and is also president-elect of the American Folklore Society. Ethnographic Documentation in the Thirties One of the ironies of American history is that the thirties, the period of the Great Depression, of immense trial and hardship for so many, should also be a time when programs and projects, such as those sponsored by the Works Projects Administration, stimulated a new understanding of the rich cultural fabric of the American nation. Documentation during the thirties by private citizens and government workers resulted in ethnographic collections from a panoply of racial and ethnic groups, and many of these collections have found a home at the Library of Congress in the Archive of Folk Culture. The new publications described in this issue of Folklife Center News--online presentations of collection material, a new book on the ex-slave narratives, and CDs produced by Rounder Records--make possible a new and wider sharing of this wealth of cultural material. Cover: Fannie Moore, formerly a slave in South Carolina. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Juan Bautista Rael, 1900-1993: Pioneer Hispano Folklorist ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ By Enrique R. Lamadrid Linguist and folklorist Juan Bautista Rael, highly regarded for his pioneering work in collecting and documenting the Hispano folk stories, plays, and religious traditions of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado, was born on August 14, 1900, in Arroyo Hondo, New Mexico. Famous for its spectacular setting north of Taos, the village lies in a deep, narrow valley between Taos Mountain and the gorge of the Rio Grande to the west. His family prospered in sheep and cattle ranching and owned a mercantile business that served surrounding Hispano communities as well as nearby Taos Pueblo. Juan's parents, Jose Ignacio Rael and Soledad Santistevan, raised a family of four sons (Sofio, Melecio, Juan B., and Eli) and a daughter (Carolina). Jose Ignacio had the foresight to recognize the changes that were coming with the increasing Americanization of New Mexico and realized that a fluent knowledge of English and a good education would be necessary for his family to excel. Since local schools were rudimentary at best, the family relied upon its own resources to get the best possible education for the children. Juan was a dedicated student from his earliest years, and his father's ambition was for him to become a lawyer and tend to the family lands and business. His elementary schooling was at Saint Michael's College in Santa Fe, and his high school studies were at the Christian Brothers' College in St. Louis, Missouri. The boy's semester-long absences from his family led him to treasure the simple pleasures of village life. Summers are especially beautiful in Arroyo Hondo, and Christmas and Easter vacations were filled with colorful festivities and solemn ceremony. Rael later reminisced about how much the Pastores, or Shepherds' plays of Christmas, impressed him as a child. Undoubtedly, the instincts and sympathies of Rael the folklorist can be traced to these beginnings--watching rehearsals and performances depicting shepherds, angels, hermits, and devils. What became clear in his post-secondary studies is that he was attracted to literature, philology, and the emerging disciplines of linguistics and folklore. His Bachelor's degree, from St. Mary's College in Oakland in 1923, led to a Master's degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1927. In the meantime in 1923 he married the beautiful Qurina Espinoza of Antonito, Colorado. Rael's first inclination was to become an English teacher, but his bride helped convince him that his opportunities and strengths would be as an Hispanist. After deciding on a university career of teaching and research, Rael relinquished his family inheritance in land, cattle, and sheep to his three brothers and his sister. Rael realized that the wealth in northern New Mexico that interested him was the vast repertory of folk narrative, song, and custom that had scarcely been documented. While teaching at the University of Oregon, he returned to Arroyo Hondo in the summer of 1930 to begin compiling his famous collection of over five hundred Nuevo Mexicano folk tales. By then his work had attracted the attention of pioneer Hispano folklorist and mentor Aurelio Espinosa, who invited Rael to Stanford in 1933. Rael completed his doctoral studies in 1937 with a dissertation on the phonology and morphology of New Mexico Spanish that amplified the dialectological work of Espinosa with the huge corpus of folk tales later published as Cuentos Espanoles de Colorado y Nuevo Mexico: Spanish Folk Tales of Colorado and New Mexico. Well versed in the historic-geographic theory of transmission and diffusion of motifs, tale types, and genres, Dr. Rael set out on the formidable, almost quixotic task of gathering all the possible versions and texts of the tales, hymns, and plays he was studying. The vast majority of tales are of European provenance, with only minimal local references. He meticulously traced the shepherds' plays to several root sources in Mexico; and his study The Sources and Diffusion of the Mexican Shepherds' Plays is a standard reference on the subject. His ground-breaking study of the alabado hymn, The New Mexican Alabado, is also a prime resource. But inevitably the historic-geographic approach led more to collection building than to analysis. Later generations of scholars would develop interests in performance-centered studies, but the collections of Rael continue to be an indispensable landmark in the field. Dr. Rael's academic achievements include a distinguished teaching career in Spanish composition, Spanish American literature, and Mexican culture. In addition, he founded and directed an international program, the University of Guadalajara School. He was also elected to the Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Espanola in 1974 and to the Academia Real de la Lengua Espanola in 1983. Juan and Quirina or "Nina" Rael raised a family of four children, Maximina Rael Traynor, Jose Ignacio Rael, Juan B. Rael Jr., and Maria Soledad Rael Nowell. After sixty-seven years of marriage, Nina died on June 1, 1990. At the time of his own passing at age ninety-three on November 8, 1993, in Menlo Park, California, Rael was survived by his sister Carolina Rael Dominguez, his daughters, one son Jose Ignacio, sixteen grandchildren, and twenty-five great grandchildren. True to family tradition, all of his children and several of his grandchildren have graduated from Stanford University. Enrique R. Lamadrid is associate professor of Spanish at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. Juan B. Rael interviewing Manuela "Mela" Martinez, Taos, New Mexico, about 1930. Photo courtesy of the Rael family. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Juan B. Rael collection: New Online ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hispano Music and Culture of the Northern Rio Grande: The Juan B. Rael Collection is a new online presentation from the Library's National Digital Library Program. The collection includes religious and secular music of Spanish-speaking residents of rural Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado. In 1940, Juan Rael used disc recording equipment supplied by the Archive of American Folk Song to document alabados (hymns), folk drama, wedding songs, and dance tunes. The recordings included in the Folk Archive collection were made in Alamosa, Manassa, and Antonito, Colorado, and in Cerro and Arroyo Hondo, New Mexico. In addition to these recordings, the collection includes manuscript materials and publications authored by Rael that provide insight into the rich musical heritage and cultural traditions of the region. The presentation was made possible through the generous support of the Texaco Foundation. Hispano Music and Culture can be reached through the American Folklife Center Home Page at http://lcweb.loc.gov/folklife/ Click on "collections available online." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Nuevo Mexicanos of the Upper Rio Grande: Culture, History, and Society ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ By Enrique R. Lamadrid In the summer of 1940, Stanford professor and linguist Juan B. Rael returned home to northern New Mexico and southern Colorado to record the musical and religious traditions of his own people, the Spanish-Americans, as they were called in English prior to World War II. The Nuevo Mexicanos or Hispanos, as they call themselves, developed a distinctive regional culture over four centuries, since the establishment of the Spanish colony in 1598. What became in time the Hispano homeland, the Upper Rio Grande, is a vast arid region defined by a life-giving river that descends from the steep southern ranges of the Rocky Mountains through the barren plateaus of the north to the Chihuahuan desert of the south. It is the ancestral homeland of sedentary Tanoan and Keresan Pueblo Indian peoples, who diverted its waters and farmed its valleys, as well as nomadic Athabaskans (Apaches and Navajos) and Shoshoneans (Utes and Comanches), who roamed and hunted its mountains and deserts, alternately raiding and trading with the Pueblos. Since the fabled mineral wealth of the region turned out to be a legend, the principal reason for the Spanish Crown to maintain the impoverished colony was the large population of natives, who represented a substantial harvest of souls for the Church. However, the over-zealous methods of the Franciscan fathers entrusted with the project led in 1680 to the Pueblo Revolt, which totally restored native religion. After the reconquest of 1692 and the resettlement of the province, differences were set aside as the Pueblos and the Spanish Mexican settlers united to defend their communities from the depredations of the nomadic tribes that surrounded the Rio Grande Valley. Better armed and better mounted, these enemies put the future of the colony into question on many occasions. After the devastating Comanche wars ended with the treaty of 1786, the frontiers of the colony became safe enough for settlement. With the presence of the United States Army after 1846, protection from the Utes, Navajos, and Apaches was achieved as well. Within a century, a colony the size of Connecticut expanded in all directions into a homeland the size of Utah. In 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ceded the Southwest, from Texas to California, to the United States. Despite the American government's reluctance to protect Hispano treaty rights and land titles, Hispanos pioneered the settlement of Colorado. By the 1880s, this expansion was checked by competition from Anglo immigrants and a massive loss of land through action in the U.S. court system. During the controversial deliberations of the U.S. Court of Private Land Claims between 1891 and 1904, as many as 33 million acres were lost to the lawyers of the notorious Santa Fe Ring and a federal government still acting under the powerful influence of Manifest Destiny. Many new villages did survive, however, even though they were cut off from their land grants. Since the protective alliance with the Pueblo was no longer necessary to survive, Hispano settlers moved beyond Taos Valley looking for new lands to graze their flocks. By 1815, Juan B. Rael's home village of Arroyo Hondo was founded north of Taos. In the 1850s, the San Luis Valley of Colorado was settled despite initial differences with the Utes. The enterprising villagers were familiar with the rigors of frontier life and had always been responsible for their own welfare, the defense of their communities, and even the sustenance of their religious traditions. Since the few priests that came to New Mexico were assigned to the Pueblo missions, Hispano settlers who moved into outlying areas only rarely enjoyed their services. In the last quarter of the eighteenth century, this institutional void was filled by the appearance of a lay religious organization whose social and cultural influence became the hallmark of the nineteenth century in the region. The Hermandad Piadosa de Nuestro Padre Jesus Nazareno (Pious Brotherhood of Our Father Jesus the Nazarene), commonly known as the Penitentes, fulfilled the same functions that confraternities, sodalities, and lay religious groups did all over Latin America. In frontier areas such as New Mexico, they became central to the very survival of the communities they served. The Penitente brothers led saint's day festivities, Lenten and Holy Week services, rosaries, prayer vigils, wedding ceremonies, and wakes for the dead on a year-round basis in their Moradas or chapels. With the permission of their mothers and wives, boys and young men joined and learned to respect the moral and civic authority of the leadership of the confraternity. The Hermanos or brothers, as they refer to themselves, were involved in the resolution of disputes, the allocation of water, and virtually all group decisions that needed to be made. They also saw to it that families in need or distress were provided for. As the strongest organization at the village level, they became the basis for organized participation in the political process and formed effective voting blocks during elections. The origins of the Brotherhood are still a mystery. Some scholars have emphasized similarities with the Third Order of Saint Francis, especially since New Mexico is a Franciscan province. Others suspect that the organization arrived fully developed from southern Spain, since there are similar confraternities with the same name in the area of Seville. The Hermanos are dedicated to the example and self-sacrifice of Jesus in his Passion, and observe penitential devotions that are widespread in Spain and Spanish America. Feeling culturally and politically threatened by the Hermanos, American newcomers to New Mexico condemned and sensationalized the Brotherhood, which then retreated into semi-secrecy. After generations of ostracism, the American Catholic church finally made its peace with the Hermanos in 1948, and has since formally recognized the contributions and leadership of the Brotherhood. After a decline in membership after World War II and into the 1960s, the Brotherhood has experienced a resurgence in the 1980s and 1990s. Over the centuries the Hermanos have developed an extraordinary cycle of rituals and prayers, culminating in the Holy Week Passion Play and Tenebrae services. Every moment in this ritual process is accompanied by a beautiful repertory of alabados or hymns of praise unique to the region. It is this remarkable repertory of religious music that attracted the interest of Juan B. Rael, not as a musicologist, but as a linguist interested in dialectology. The dialect of Spanish unique to the region is a reflection of the culture, blending seventeenth-century peninsular Spanish elements with vocabulary deriving from contact with indigenous languages, especially Aztecan Nahuatl, and having a contemporary relation with English so intimate the two languages are sometimes used in alternating sequences by speakers. Rael gathered most of his linguistic data by collecting folk stories, but in the summer of 1940, he was drawn home to record the alabados as well as the songs from the cycle of Autos or folk plays, notably "Los Pastores" ("The Shepherds") and "El Ni¤o Perdido" ("The Lost Child"). Summers are brief and exuberant in the high inter-mountain valleys and plateaus of the upper Rˇo Grande and the southern range of the Rockies known as the Sangre de Cristos, the Mountains of the Blood of Christ. Dry-farmed fields of wheat and pinto beans, carefully irrigated apple orchards, and long narrow plots of potatoes, corn, and high-altitude crops like habas or fava beans were especially well-tended. By June, or as soon as the snow pack melted, young men and boys were in the mountains tending large flocks of sheep. After hard times, only a few animals were actually owned by the shepherds, who toiled under strict sharecropping arrangements. Wool was the sole cash crop and local link to the national economy. In Nuevo Mexicano Spanish, lana (wool) is still a common term for money. With the collapse of the regional economy in the 1930s, people turned to what had always sustained them in the past--subsistence agriculture. In 1940, signs of the approaching conflagration of World War II seemed far off. The devastating course of the Depression had been stemmed by the New Deal. The cash income lost from the decline in seasonal work in the mines and sugar beet fields of Colorado was being supplanted in part by relief programs and job opportunities with the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The people joked about "el diablo a pie," the devil walking around on the loose, which is what the initials "WPA" sound like in Spanish. Hispanos were flattered by the respect shown to their cultural and oral literary traditions by the fieldworkers of the folklore projects and the organizers of the folk arts workshops. They were quite willing to share their music with Rael, the young man from Arroyo Hondo who had gone so far with his education. For generations after the American invasion of 1846, education had taken place in the home, where parents used Spanish language newspapers to teach their children to read. In 1880, the year that public education began in New Mexico, there were over forty Spanish newspapers available, and all of them published poetry, local ballads, and literary selections in addition to the news. A humorous song in the Rael collection pokes fun at newspaper subscribers and readers, both male and female, for thinking they knew so much. In two elections prior to 1880, public education had been defeated by the people, who concluded that the Spanish language and local culture would be eliminated from the classroom as soon as possible. World War II put an abrupt end to the Depression, and created a mass exodus, not only of soldiers, but of whole families moving to the cities to work in defense industries. The 1950s saw not only a decline in village population, but strong pressure to assimilate and Americanize. The post-war generation experienced a pronounced trend towards language loss and cultural devaluation. Then, with the social and political movements of the late 1960s and 1970s, a resurgence in regional and ethnic pride led to a cultural, literary, and artistic renaissance. Several waves of Anglo immigration prompted Hispano communities to reevaluate their place in American society, and a shift in educational policy from assimilation to cultural plurality helped create a space in which Hispanos can be themselves and honor their own cultural traditions. Much of the music that Juan B. Rael recorded in the summer of 1940 can still be heard today, not as a relic from the past but as a reflection of a new-found sense of continuity and cultural survival. The religious repertory is intact and regularly performed in the morada chapels of the Penitente Brotherhood. Although the waltzes and polkas Rael found in dance halls have been eclipsed by American country, rock, and Spanish-language popular music from radios and jukeboxes, the classic, old, violin and guitar tunes continue to be played in senior centers and at folk festivals. The culture, language, and music of the Nuevo Mexicanos of the Upper Rio Grande are still flourishing. Enrique R. Lamadrid is associate professor of Spanish at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. Spanish American musicians playing at a fiesta, Taos, New Mexico, July 1940. Photo by Russell Lee, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Remembering Slavery: Ex-Slave Narratives from the WPA Federal Writers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ By James Hardin In Remembering Slavery: African Americans Talk About Their Personal Experiences of Slavery and Emancipation, a book-and-audiotape set published by The New Press, the Library of Congress, and Smithsonian Productions of the Smithsonian Institution, interviewer Hermond Norwood asks former slave Fountain Hughes which he would rather be, slave or free, given the terrible difficulties many slaves faced in trying to make their own way after the Civil War. Without hesitation, Hughes answers: Which I'd rather be? You know what I'd rather do? If I thought, had any idea, that I'd ever be a slave again, I'd take a gun an' jus' end it all right away. Because you're nothing but a dog. You're not a thing but a dog (page 305). Fountain Hughes was one of many ex-slaves interviewed by fieldworkers for the Federal Writers' Project. He was born in Charlottesville, Virginia, and his grandfather, who lived to be 115 years old, belonged to Thomas Jefferson. Hughes was interviewed in Baltimore in 1941, when he was 101. To hear his voice, to listen to his stories, to know his history, is to experience a near palpable connection with a time most of us know only through books and movies. Editors Ira Berlin, Marc Favreau, and Steven F. Miller have organized Remembering Slavery into four chapters: The Faces of Power (on the relationships between slaves and their masters); Work and Slave Life (on the agricultural and domestic work slaves performed); Family Life in Slavery (on their attempts to form and keep together families); Slave Culture (on the distinctive beliefs and practices slaves developed in areas such as art, food, dance, music, and religion); and Slaves No More (on how they fared after the Civil War). Within each section, the editors have selected from the thousands of interviews those that are the most telling. Many of the memories are heartrendingly vivid and immediate, although narrated by elderly people and based on experiences of many years before. From the "Faces of Power": Vinnie Busby, an ex-slave who grew up on a Mississippi plantation, recalled the brutality of her owner (page 15-16). Marse Easterlin wuz sho' a stern master. He believed in whippin' his slaves. I'se seed him put my ma 'cross a barrel an' whip her. She wuz a fiel' hand an' wuked powerfully hard. One ob de cruelest things I ever seen done to a slave wuz done by my Master. He wanted to punish one of de slaves what had done some 'em dat he didn't lak, a kinda subborn one. He took dat darkie an' hitched him to a plow an' plowed him jes' lak a hors. He beat him an' jerked him 'bout 'till he got all bloody an' sore, but ole Marse he kept right on day after day. Finally de buzzards went to flyin' over 'em . . . dem buzzards kept a flyin' an' old Marse kept on a plowin him 'till one day he died. After dat Ole Marse hot to being haunted by dat slave an' buzzards. He could alwas' see 'em an' hear de groans ob dat darkie an' he was hainted dat way de res' ob his life. From "Work and Slave Life": George Fleming, born in 1854, grew up on a large up-country South Carolina estate. He described the work, other than field and domestic, that slaves engaged in for the operation of a great plantation (p. 78). Dar was all kinds of work 'sides de field work dat went on all de time. Everybody had di work dat he could do de best. My daddy worked wid leather. He was de best harness maker on de place, and he could make shoes. Dey had a place whar dey tanned cow-hides. Dat was called de tannos. Dey didn't do much spinning and weaving in de home quarters; most of it was done in one special place Marse had made for dat purpose. Some of de slaves didn't do nothing but spin and weave, and dey sho was good at it, too. Dey was trained up jes' fer dat particular work. From "Family Life in Slavery": Fannie Moore recounts the love and protectiveness expressed by her mother on the South Carolina plantation where they lived and worked (page 133). My mammy she work in de fiel' all day and piece and quilt all night. Den she hab to spin enough thread to make four cuts for de white fo'ks ebber night. . . . I never see how my mammy stan' sech ha'd work. She stan' up fo' her chillum tho'. De ol' overseeah he hate my mammy, case she fight him for beatin' her chillun. Why she get more whuppins for dat den anythin' else. She hab twelve chillun. I member I see de three oldes' stan'in de snow up to dey knees to split rails, while de overseeah stan off an' grin. From "Slave Culture": Fannie Berry describes after-hours dancing in the slave quarters (page 177). Used to go over to de Saunders place fo' dancin'. Musta been hundred slaves over thar, an' they always had de bes' cances. Mos' times fo' de dance dey had Dennis to play de banjer. Dennis had a twisted arm, an' he couldn't do much work, but he sho' could pick dat banjer. Gals would put on dey spare dress ef dey had one, an' men would put a clean shirt on. Gals always tried to fix up fo' partyin', even ef dey ain't got nothin' but a piece of ribbon to tie in dey hair. Mos' times wear yo' shoes make too much noise, an' hurt yo' feet. Couldn't do no steppin' in dem field shoes. The two sixty-minute audiotapes, produced by Smithsonian Productions for broadcast on Public Radio International, and hosted by actress and professor Tonea Stewart, include original, live recordings of interviews and dramatic readings by noted actors James Earl Jones, Melba Moore, the late Esther Rolle, Lou Gossett Jr., and others. In their introduction to Remembering Slavery, the editors note that "the struggle over slavery's memory has been almost as intense as the struggle over slavery itself." Late-nineteenth-century attempts to romanticize slavery led some historians to question the value of oral history interviews as the faulty recollections of the elderly, but scholars at African American colleges and universities and folklorists like John A. Lomax understood the importance of recording the stories of the men and women who had actually experienced and endured the institution of slavery. "The New Deal's Federal Writers' Project," the editors tell us, "gloried in the celebration of everyday Americans." While some of the interviewers engaged in the project edited and arranged their material rather than making verbatum transcripts, the narratives remain "compelling remembrances" of the former time. Taken together with the recordings now housed at the Archive of Folk Culture, a sample of which are offered here, these documents are essential for a full understanding of a period in American history whose implications still reverberate today. Ben Horry, formerly a slave in South Carolina. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Slave Narratives at the Library of Congress ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ By Ann Hoog The recent publication of Remembering Slavery and the subsequent feature on CBS-TV's "Nightline" entitled "Found Voices" (broadcast on January 12, 1999) have created a greater awareness of the slave narratives at the Library of Congress and, in particular, the sound recordings of former slaves housed in the Archive of Folk Culture. Remembering Slavery: African Americans Talk About Their Personal Experiences of Slavery and Emancipation is the name of a book and two-hour cassette recording comprised of former slaves' accounts of their personal experiences in slavery. The cassettes (copies of a radio program from Smithsonian Productions) consist of sound recordings from the Archive as well as dramatic readings of interviews that exist only in manuscript form. The book is comprised mainly of manuscript interviews along with two appendices--a transcript of the entire radio program and a list of all the sound recordings available in the Archive. The majority of the slave narrative materials at the Library were collected by workers for the Federal Writers' Project (FWP), under the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a work-relief program under Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. The FWP, in addition to providing employment to those in the fields of art, music, drama, and writing, sought to prepare an "American Guide" that would document the life experiences of Americans in each state. A major project of the FWP included the interviewing of former slaves, in an attempt to document the history and experiences of African Americans in the South in their own words. The collecting of slave narratives as a federal project began in 1934 in the Ohio River Valley under the aegis of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), the precursor to the WPA. This project was headed by Lawrence D. Reddick, history professor of the Kentucky State Industrial College in Frankfurt, Kentucky. His goal was to document slavery from the perspective of those who were enslaved, at a time when most textbook histories of slavery did not include this point of view. This project was conducted during a six-month period by twelve African American college graduates working in six states of the Ohio River Valley. Federal involvement in collecting slave narratives continued with the FWP, from 1936 to 1940. The first interviews with former slaves done under the FWP were conducted in Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina. This project was expanded to other states including Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Maryland, Minnesota, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington. The FWP officially ceased in 1939, although some slaves were interviewed later as part of other state-level projects. It is difficult to estimate how many total interviews were done, but well over two thousand are known to exist. John A. Lomax (head, folklore program, FWP, 1936 to 1937; head, Archive of Folk Song, 1931 to 1937) worked with Henry Alsberg (head, FWP) to encourage the collecting of slave narratives by the FWP. Lomax assisted collectors with some of the methods of oral documentation. For example, he issued written instructions to fieldworkers in the form of a questionnaire to be used as an interviewing guide. Interviewers were to ask former slaves to state their name, date, place of birth, name of owner, size of plantation, religion, and education, and to discuss holidays, games, songs, food and cooking, medicine, and their attitudes toward slavery. The FWP's documentation of these interviews included not only making written records of the narratives but also photographing the interviewees and their surroundings, thus adding some visual context for the person being interviewed. In 1939 FWP control was passed over to the states and in October of that year its manuscript interviews were deposited in the Library of Congress. The FWP became the Writers' Project and hired Benjamin A. Botkin (folklore editor, FWP, 1938 to 1939; head, Archive of Folk Song, 1941 to 1945) to direct the final editing and indexing of the manuscript and photograph collections of the slave narratives. Botkin arranged the interviews by state, and then alphabetically by informant, and deposited them in the Rare Book Room of the Library of Congress. Additional narratives were received from the state projects after 1939, some of which are stored in the Library and in various state depositories. Publication of the FWP slave narratives began in 1945 with Botkin's edited volume Lay My Burden Down: A Folk History of Slavery (Athens and London: University of Georgia Press, 1945). Numerous publications based on these narratives continued, including Julius Lester's To Be a Slave (London: Longman Group Limited, 1968) and Weevils in the Wheat: Interviews with Virginia Ex-Slaves, edited by Charles L. Perdue, Jr., Thomas E. Barden, and Robert K. Phillips (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1976). Transcriptions of the entire FWP slave-narrative collection were published in 1972 by George Rawick in nineteen volumes entitled The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Company, 1972. Rawick published a second series of twelve volumes of narratives drawn from state archives and Library of Congress. Another ten volumes were published over the next two years, including some that were done at Fisk University in the 1920s. These published volumes are also available in the Library. While much attention has been paid to the manuscripts of the slave narratives at the Library of Congress, the sound recordings have been less well-known. In total there are about six hours of recorded interviews by fifteen former slaves. One reason for the relatively small number of recordings is that making them did not fall under any one major project. While the manuscripts are mostly all from the FWP, the only sound recordings of slave narratives affiliated with the FWP are those that were done by the state of Virginia by Roscoe Lewis of Hampton Institute, Hampton, Virginia. The other recordings of interviews with ex-slaves were made by a number of different fieldworkers working on a variety of projects. The first of these were recorded in June 1935 by Alan Lomax, Zora Neale Hurston, and Mary Elizabeth Barnicle during a recording expedition through Georgia, Florida, and the Bahamas. The intent of the trip was to record and document African American music, stories, and other oral traditions of these regions. While it is likely that on this occasion (and on many other recording trips that took place during that time period), fieldworkers came across former slaves, only one man encountered on this trip, Wallace Quarterman (recorded in Frederica, Georgia), discussed his experiences as a slave. In fact, on these recording trips many former slaves included not only monologues about their slavery experiences but also songs that they had learned throughout their lives. Other fieldworkers who recorded slave narratives were John and Ruby Lomax (who were conducting fieldwork in the South in 1940), Robert Sonkin (who was documenting the African American community of Gee's Bend, Alabama, for the Farm Security Administration), John Henry Faulk, Hermond Norwood (who at the time was a sound engineer at the Library), and Elmer Sparks. The majority of these sound recordings were originally on aluminum or acetate discs. In the 1960s, to ensure their preservation, the Archive of Folk Song transferred the sound recordings from these disks onto ten-inch reel-to-reel tapes. The slave narrative portions from the ten-inch tapes were then transferred to seven-inch reels for use by researchers. The tapes have now been transferred to CDs for reference use. The manuscripts have been used heavily by folklorists, historians, and linguists, but the sound recordings of the slave narratives have, for the most part, only received attention from linguists. The Emergence of Black English: Text and Commentary (Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 1991), edited by linguists Guy Bailey, Natalie Maynor, and Patricia Cukor-Avila, includes transcriptions of many of the sound recordings. This book includes the only published transcriptions of these sound recordings. The recent presentation on "Nightline," which was inspired by the publication of Remembering Slavery, focused on the sound recordings of the former slaves and used them to touch not only on the history and experience of slavery, but on the development of sound recording technology. The sound recordings used in Remembering Slavery were remastered using digital sound technology, making the sounds much clearer and easier to listen to than was previously possible. The collections of the slave-narrative documentation, then, are scattered in many areas of the Library of Congress, stored on various decks and shelves. Remembering Slavery has united a selection of photographs, manuscripts, and sound recordings into one presentation and woven them together into a history of American slavery. Wallace Quarterman. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress John A. Lomax greets "Uncle Rich" Brown, near Sumpterville, Alabama, October 1940. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Federal Writers Project and the Archive of American Folk-Song ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A note by Alan Jabbour The Library's recorded ex-slave narratives are scattered through several collections in the American Folklife Center's Archive of Folk Culture (formerly the Music Division's Archive of American Folk-Song). Joseph C. Hickerson, who retired this past year, brought them all together onto one set of reference tapes (about five or six hours worth) so researchers could listen to them as a body of narrative about the experience of slavery. The earliest recorded ex-slave narrative is from a 1935 field expedition undertaken by the Archive: Alan Lomax, Zora Neale Hurston, and Mary Elizabeth Barnicle recorded the recollections of former slave Wallace Quarterman in Frederica, Georgia. The Federal Writers Project (FWP) was just being invented at the time. Lawrence Reddick of Kentucky State Industrial College is often credited with contributing the idea to the Federal Writers Project of interviewing former slaves, but John A. Lomax, head of the Archive during that era, may also have been a conduit funneling the idea to the FWP. He served on the FWP committee that developed a comprehensive project to document the recollections of former slaves. As that project developed, it was done primarily by taking written notes during oral interviews. But because of the close working relationship between the FWP and the Archive, a few FWP project workers borrowed the Archive's field disc-recorder to record their interviews. These pioneering documentary efforts, by the way, were referred to in Archive correspondence as "oral history"--a pioneering use of both the term and the concept. The manuscripts of Writers Project interviews with former slaves found their way to the Library when the WPA was shut down. A bound, edited set of the narratives resides in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division. The rest of the materials, including the original typescript drafts of the interviews, were rescued from oblivion by the same Archive that had midwifed the original idea. For years the filing cabinets of ex-slave narratives rested in the Archive office, where many researchers used them. In the late 1970s, when the Manuscript Division committed itself to consolidate and process all the Library's WPA manuscripts, the Archive filing cabinets were consolidated with others from other divisions and in remote storage, and they all are now accessible in the Manuscript Division. So the Library is not merely the custodian of these precious recordings and manuscripts. It created or helped create the recordings, and its staff helped shape the project that led to the manuscripts. Thus it helped the nation remember slavery through the voices of those who actually experienced it, while at the same time helping to invent the idea of oral history. Both are among the Library's great contributions to our nation and civilization. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Two New CDs Join List of Rounder Records Reissues ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rounder Records has released two new compact discs in its series of reissues of the Library of Congress series Folk Music of the United States, originally released in the 1940s. African-American Spirituals, Work Songs, and Ballads, recorded by John A. Lomax, Alan Lomax, Ruby T. Lomax, Ruby Pickens Tartt, and Harold Spivacke. Powerful performances, by individuals and groups in churches and prisons in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia, recorded between 1933 and 1939. Includes the famous American ballad "John Henry," sung by Arthur Bell at the Cummins State Farm, Gould, Arkansas, in 1939. Songs and Ballads of American History and of the Assassination of American Presidents, recorded between 1937 and 1949 by John A. Lomax, Alan Lomax, Elizabeth Lomax, Sidney Robertson, Duncan Emrich, George Steele, and Herman Norwood, combines five Civil War songs and one patriotic song about George Washington with five songs about the assassinations of William McKinley, James Garfield, and Abraham Lincoln. Two of the Civil War songs were sung by Judge Learned Hand (1862-1971), who learned it in the oral tradition in the 1880s on a farm near Elizabethtown, New York. The assassination songs were performed by Bascom Lamar Lunsford (1882-1973), of South Turkey Creek, North Carolina, the organizer and director of the Asheville, North Carolina, Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, who spent his life collecting and performing the folksongs and dances of the Southern Appalachians. Rounder Records is located at One Camp Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02140. Telephone (617) 354-0700, or on the World Wide Web at: http://www.rounder.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Buckaroos in Paradise": Cowboys on the Internet ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Buckaroos in Paradise, now an online presentation from the Library of Congress National Digital Library Program, has taken many shapes and forms. Between 1978 and 1982, American Folklife Center staffers Carl Fleischhauer and Howard W. Marshall made seasonal visits to Paradise Valley, Nevada, where they conducted a field documentation project with the help of Richard Ahlborn of the Smithsonian Institution and a number of folklorists from the region. In October 1980, the Smithsonian opened an exhibition at its National Museum of History and Technology entitled "Buckaroos in Paradise: Cowboy Life in Northern Nevada," with an exhibit catalog of the same name. In March 1983, the Library of Congress opened a much larger exhibition entitled "The American Cowboy" that drew upon the Paradise Valley Folklife Project, in addition to a great variety of material from various divisions of the Library and other institutions. At about the same time, the Library was experimenting with laserdisc technology and selected the Paradise Valley documentary material for its pilot project, a decision that resulted in a two-sided laser videodisc and accompanying booklet entitled The Ninety-Six: A Cattle Ranch in Northern Nevada (still available from the Folklife Center for $75). Now an online version of the Nevada cowboy material is available. Buckaroos in Paradise: Ranching Culture in Northern Nevada, 1945-1982 presents documentary material from the Nevada cattle-ranching community of Paradise Valley, with a focus on the family-run Ninety-Six Ranch. The presentation offers 41 motion pictures and 28 sound recordings, including motion picture footage from 1945 to 1965 by Leslie Stewart, owner of the Ninety-Six Ranch. An archive of 2,400 still photographs portrays the people, sites, and traditions of other ranches and the larger community, which is home to persons of Anglo-American, Italian, German, Basque, Swiss, Northern Paiute Indian, and Chinese heritage. Background texts provide historical and cultural context for this window into the occupational and cultural traditions of this Nevada ranching community. You can reach Buckaroos in Paradise through the American Folklife Center Home Page: http://lcweb.loc.gov/folklife/ Click on "collections available online." Henry and Clay Taylor feeding cattle on their ranch in Paradise Valley, Nevada, March 1980. Photo by William Smock from the Paradise Valley Folklife Project ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ At the American Folklife Center ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ During a recent visit, ethnomusicologist Vida Chenoweth of Enid, Oklahoma, professor emerita of Wheaton College, inventoried materials she has donated to the Archive of Folk Culture. Items donated include sound recordings, manuscripts, and photographs documenting musical traditions of East Africa, West Africa, Central Africa, Papua New Guinea, and several South Pacific islands. With her in the Folklife Reading Room is David Taylor, acting head of acquisitions. Photo by James Hardin Carl Lindahl transcribes and annotates British- and Irish-American folktales from audio recordings in the Archive of Folk Culture, January 1999. Lindahl received a 1998 Parsons Fund award to support his work. Plans are underway for a publication by ABC-CLIO entitled "Treasury of American Folktales: From the Collections of the Library of Congress." Photo by James Hardin On September 9, 1998, Anne Dowling, president of the Texaco Foundation, visited the American Folklife Center to present the Library with the foundation's second and final check representing its $300,000 grant to the National Digital Library for placing the Center's collections online. The Texaco grant has helped to fund the presentation of the Juan Rael collection materials described in this issue of Folklife Center News. Christa Maher, digital conversion specialist, and Ms. Dowling. Photo by David Taylor Alan Jabbour, director of the Center; Laurel McIntyre, digital conversion specialist; Library Development Office; and Ms. Dowling examine materials from a publication of Omaha Indian music. Photo by David Taylor Back Cover: Paiute Indian cowboy Myron Smart on the Ninety-Six Ranch in Paradise Valley, Nevada. An online presentation of documentary material from the Folklife Center's Paradise Valley Folklife Project is now available. See page . Photo by Carl Fleischhauer (Note: diacritics have been removed from this version of FCN for ascii presentation)