What opinions are related in this source?

As you read

Since primary sources are first-hand accounts that often convey only a single person’s point of view, they will likely contain a fair bit of opinion. Identify sections of the source that seem to be opinion and ask yourself why the creator of the source might hold that opinion. Who else might share that opinion? Is it an opinion that you find compelling? Why or why not?

Reading the hints

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Abner Jordan, interviewed by Daisy Whaley at his home in Durham County, North Carolina, WPA Slave Narrative Project, North Carolina Narratives, Volume 11 Part 2, Federal Writers’ Project, United States Work Projects Administration (USWPA); Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. Accessed via Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936–1938, American Memory, Library of Congress.

Abner Jordan
Ex-slave, 95 years.

“I wus bawn about 1832 an’ I wus bawn at Staggsville, Marse paul Cameron’s place. I belonged to Marse Paul. My pappy’s name wus Obed an’ my mammy wus Ella Jordan an’ dey wus thirteen chillun on our family.

I wus de same age of Young Marse Benehan, I played wid him an’ wus his body guard. Yes, suh, Where ever young Marse Benehan went I went too. I waited on him. Young Mrse Benny run away an’ ‘listed in de war, but Marse Paul done went an’ brung him back kaze he wus too young to go and fight de Yankees.

Marse Paul had heap if niggahs; he had five thousan’. When he meet dem in de road he wouldn’ know dem an’ when he ased dem who dey wus an’ who dey belonged to, dey’ tell him dey belonged to Marse Paul Cameron an’ den he would say dat wus all right for dem to go right on.

My pappy wus de blacksmith an’ foreman for Marse Paul, an’ he blew de horn for de other niggahs to come in from de fiel’ at night. Dey couldn’ leave de plantation without Marse say dey could.

When de war come de Yankees come to de house an’ axed my mammy whare de folks done hid de silver an’ gol’, an’ dey say dey gwine to kill mammy if she didn’ tell dem. But mammy say she didn’ know whare dey put it, an’ dey would jus’ have to kill her for she didn’ know an’ wouldn’ lie to keep dem from hurting her.

De sojers stole seven or eight of de ho’ses an’ foun’ de meat an’ stole dat, but dey didn’ burn none off de buildin’s nor hurt any of us slaves.

My pappy an’ his family stayed wid Marse Paul five years after de surrender den we moved to Hillsboro an’ I’s always lived ‘roun’ dese parts. I ain’ never been out of North Carolina eighteen months in my life. North Carolina is good enough for me.”

Comments

North Carolina is good enough for me."

This is the only opinion that seems to be related in this source — everything else is presented in a very matter-of-fact way. Interestingly, we get no insight into how Mr. Jordan felt about Paul Cameron, his status as a slave, or the arrival of Union troops. We get no strong sense of his views or his emotions in this interview. This could be because the narrator asked primarily factual questions. It could also be that Mr. Jordan was not the sort of person to share his inner thoughts and personal opinions with a relative stranger.

But perhaps there is more at work here — living in the Jim Crow South his whole life, Mr. Jordan would have realized that speaking frankly and perhaps negatively about white people could have serious consequences for an African American in the 1930s. Mr. Jordan might have assumed that making comments that could be perceived as negative about the Camerons or even about the institution of slavery, particularly to a white person he didn’t know well who was writing everything down, could result in a backlash from local whites, some of whom may even have been related to or otherwise loyal to the family that once owned Mr. Jordan. Such a backlash, in the 1930s South, could have meant anything from taunting to losing his job to physical violence or reprisals against his family. Given the realities of race relations in the region at the time of the interview, it should perhaps not be surprising that Mr. Jordan was less than forthcoming with his personal opinions.

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