The following two interviews with the same person, one conducted by an African American interviewer, one by a white interviewer, present a stark example of the way the narrator's response to the social identity of the interviewer shapes the interview. The narrator is Susan Hamlin or Hamilton, a former slave in South Carolina. These interviews were conducted with her under the auspices of the Federal Writers Project (FWP) in the 1930s. Both interviewers worked from a common set of questions that included personal history, work experiences, education, diet, and the master/slave relationship. With instructions about how to render former slaves' dialects in writing, FWP interviewers transcribed and summarized their interviews. Read the two interviews, paying close attention to the interaction between Hamlin/Hamilton and each interviewer and to the way she recounted her memories of slavery to each of them.

 

Interview One

 

Interview Two
Interview One with Commentary Interview Two with Commentary