SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

Opinions
*I can't say much along these lines* The chance to make a living
looks so dark I can 9 t see much of a future* dings seem to be getting
worse* Nearly everybody I talk with, white or colored, seems to think the
same* It is like Senator Glass said, f If Congress would close up and go
home at once, times would get better* 9 People don f t know what kind of fool
law Congress is going to xaake and they are not going to spend much money*
I don f t think Mr* Roosevelt's pump priming will do ouch good because you
must keep adding to it or it will go away*
* I don f t think much of the young people* These nineteenth or
twentieth century Negroes is something fierce I f m telling you*
Vocational Experiences
"I am a carpenter* I wish I wasn 9 t* The depression has made it so
that the Negroes get very little to do# What they have they give to their
own people* They don f t have much for nobody* Even if the nigger gets
something, he gets very little out of it* But the main trouble is there
isn 9 t anything to do*
"I have been a carpenter for fifty-four years* I have been here fifty-
one years* I have never had no trouble earning a living till now* I can f t
do it now* The biggest obstacle of the success of the Negro carpenter is
that Negroes don f t have the money to build with* They must get the money
from the white man* The white man, on the other hand, if he lets out the
money for the building, has the say-so on who will do it, and he naturally
picks out another white man* That keeps the majority of Negroes out of
work as far as carpentry is concerned* It does in a time like this* then
times is better, the white man does not need to be so tight, and he can
divide up.*
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