Comparison and Contrast: Interviews of Irene Williams and Aunt Harriet Smith

Comparison and Contrast: Interviews of Irene Williams and Aunt Harriet Smith

Introduction

This paper is formulated to compare and contrast two of the famous interviews conducted in the history of America. The interviews, which I have selected includes the 1940's interview of Irene Williams, at Rome Mississippi; whereas, the other interview, which I have selected is 1941's interview of Aunt Harriet Smith, at Hempstead, Texas. Aunt Harriet Smith got born during slavery in 1851, in her interview; she talked about her remembrance of the events and happenings that occurred during the Civil War era. Similar to Mrs. Smith, Irene Williams also talked about her experience during slavery (Bond, 2012). Both these interviews are considered as the voices from the days of slavery. Further in this paper, I will compare and contrast their discourse, which they have presented in their interviews about their experience during the tough slavery of late 19th and early 20th century, during Civil War era (Eversole, 2012).

Discussion

The discussion of Aunt Harriet Smith is principally about the life that she had lived during the time of slavery. Mrs. Smith was too young at that time, as per her estimation, she was thirteen years old. She used to live with her ma, pa and grandma, and a younger sister and brother. They were unaware of any concept regarding freedom. There was no education, but the only mean of information is the white church, which merely teaches about how to behave with white people and masters and mistresses. Though, white folks were quite kind, they never whip any of their colored fellows; despite of some of the rare cases that happened (Bond, 2012). Moreover, colored people were supposed to perform different tasks, for instance, she herself worked in a cotton and corn farm, ...