Back in the
1930’s the WPA sponsored the Federal Writer’s Project. Over 2,200 former slaves were interviewed for
posterity’s sake about what life under slavery had been like. Lynette Tanner showcases 42 of these
interviews in her book, Chained To The
Land.
This is hard
reading. Many times I’ve had to set the
book down because I could not emotionally process the stories it held. These are first person accounts of perseverance,
pride, and even triumph, but with the background of abuse, loss, and hardships.
What chills
the bones is the matter of fact way these survivors tell their stories. Human beings, yes, you and I get used to the
way things are. At some level, we accept
things as normal that should not be normal.
In this case, the storytellers had an even greater challenge. They had to transition to a different normal,
sometimes a different kind of bondage, after the war.
It makes me
wonder what story is behind each of our residents. Part of the enjoyment I get from working with
seniors is the fact that they each do have a story, one with lots of
chapters. They are books that just
haven’t been written. We collect some
notes we call their “activity history” and put it in their file. But we will never know the whole story. ‘So and so’ never learned to write. His neighbor was famous in his field. This one over here has family who avoid her. That one over there never married. Some have led charmed lives, others struggled
with each step. Maybe the one who now curses
his caregivers used to be soft-spoken and the former athlete just sits and
watches. Most of these folks have
suffered many, many losses. Yet, they
still survived. You just
don’t know.
©Donna
Stuart, ADPC February 7, 2015
Tanner, Lynette Ater, ed. Chained To The Land.
Winston-Salem: John F. Blair, Publisher, 2014.
