“I was born in Spartanburg County, S.C., near Glenn Springs. I can’t ‘member slavery or de war, but my ma and pa who was Green Foster and his wife, Mary Posey Foster, always said I was a big gal when the war stopped, when freedom come. 

We belonged to Seth Posey who had a big farm there. He was a good man, but sure made us work. I worked in the fields when I was small, hoed and picked cotton, hoed corn. They didn’t give us no money for it. All we got was a place to sleep and a little to eat. The big man had a good garden and give us something from it. He raised loads of hogs, to eat and to sell. He sold lots of them. The young fellows hunted rabbits, possums, squirrels, wild turkeys, partridges, doves and went fishing. The Master’s wife, Miss Nancy, was good to us. She had one son, William. 

Yes, I ‘member my ma telling us ‘bout the paddler-rollers. They would ride around, whipping n----. 

My ma said her step-mother sold her. Sometimes they would take crowds of slaves to Mississippi, taking away mothers from their infant babies, leaving the babies on the floor. 

We always shuck corn and shell it at night, on moon-light nights we pick cotton. On Saturday afternoons we had frolics, sometimes frolics ‘till Sunday daylight, then sleep all day Sunday.”

“Sono nata nella provincia di Spartanburg nel Sud Carolina, vicino a Glenn Spring. Non posso ricordare la schiavitù o la guerra, ma mia mamma e mio papà, i coniugi Green Foster e Mary Posey Foster, dicevano sempre che quando la guerra si è finita, quando la libertà si è arrivata, io ero cresciuta  

Eravamo la proprietà di Seth Posey che aveva una grande fattoria lì. Lui era un uomo simpatico, ma ci faceva sgobbare molto. Io sgobbavo nella campagna quando ero piccola, zappavo e raccoglievo il cotone, zappavo il grano. Non ci dava soldi per questo sgobbare. Tutto ciò che ci dava era un posto in cui dormire e un po’ di cibo. Il padrone aveva un bell’orto e ci dava qualcosa da lì. Lui allevava molti maiali da mangiare o vendere. Lui ne vendeva molti. Ai giovanotti piaceva cacciare conigli, opossum, scoiattoli, tacchini selvatici, pernici, colombe. Anche, gli piaceva pescare. La moglie del padrone, Signorina Nancy, era gentile. Aveva un figlio che si chiamava William. 

Sì, io ricordo quando mia mamma raccontava delle pattuglie degli schiavi. Cavalcavano attraverso la provincia, sbattendo i n---. 

Mia mamma ha detto che la sua padrona l’ha venduta. A volte, portavano le folle di schiavi nel Mississippi, distaccavano le madri dai loro bambini, abbandonando i bambini sul terreno. 

Durante la notte, sbucciavamo e mondavamo il grano. Raccoglievamo il cotone sotto la luce della luna. Ogni sabato pomeriggio, ce la spassavamo e, qualche volta, ce la facevamo fino all’alba. Poi, riposavamo tutta la domenica.”

 The object which I chose is called Study for The Joy of Living, probably created in the late 1930s, by Joseph Stella. It is a sketch made with crayons. Although I have only seen the sketch in person one time, I will do my best to recreate the content. Firstly, the sketch is of a young girl in profile with an unidentified red object on her head. The red object is the only section of the sketch in color; indeed, the rest of the sketch is rendered with black crayon and white spaces. This sketch is a study based on a series of paintings Stella made from 1938 to 1940 called The Joy of Living. The painting is created with oil paint. The painting’s content is of a young girl of color who has a vase with flowers on her head. The series of paintings all use dynamic, sharp lines and vibrant colors. Further, the young girl stands against the background of a hazy countryside. 

The FWP’s (Federal Writers Program) Slave Narratives Project relates to Stella’s sketch and painting The Joy of Living because both fit into a broader historical continuum in which White America gerrymandered certain aspects of blackness for their own political and social benefit during the New Deal Era. However, I wish to also complicate this by discussing Stella’s identity as an immigrant. As such, I believe that a comparison of a FWP interview and Stella’s sketch offers an essential window into the intersection between race and gender. I chose a FWP interview about a woman named Anne Rice by the white American folklorist named Mr. G. Leland Summer. Rice was from South Carolina and was 75 at the time of the interview (Summer 1937). I translated the passage into Italian. I hope that the translation and gaps in the language between English and Italian can offer further discussion on the ideas and emotions embedded in Rice’s interview. Moreover, the questions which I hope this comparison will shed some light on are: Do you think that the FWP’s slave narrative and Stella’s The Joy of Living depict women of color in similar ways? Why or why not? How does the subject of Stella’s work speak to his double identity as both Italian and American? Although I have my own opinion, I hope that my excerpt serves as an entry point for which people can reach their own conclusions.