Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2013/Spring/Edith Wallick

This page is connected with English 105 at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill - Federal Writers' Project - Life Histories

A bank in the American South during the Great Depression

Overview:

Edith Wallick was born in Guilford County, North Carolina at the beginning of the 20th century. After working in a mill as a child, she finished her education and pursued her career as a bank clerk in the midst of the Great Depression. Wallick’s life history was recorded as a part of the Federal Writers’ Project.

Biography

Edith Wallick was born in Guilford County, North Carolina. Her mother was well educated and taught Wallick reading and writing before she attended school, while her father worked for a sprinkler supply company that required him to travel. As the oldest of three children, Wallick took on responsibilities at a young age. During an influenza outbreak, everyone in her family became ill with the flu, and as a result, Wallick lost her mother.

Shortly after her mother’s death, Wallick’s father remarried a woman who she described as a fat, intolerable, evil woman. Soon after her father’s remarriage, her family moved to Durham. Edith recalled her stepmother carrying around a pistol and beating her younger brother and sister. Because her father traveled often, he was unaware of the beatings that occurred while he was gone. Wallick’s family also disliked her stepmother, because she would spend the money Wallick’s father sent home on food and clothing only for herself. After learning about the abuse, her father quit his job to stay at home with his children. At age 14, Wallick quit school to work in a mill. She was very upset by this, and her parents had her send all of the money she made, except for fifty cents a week, home from the mill.

After living with her abusive stepmother and working in the mill, Wallick chose to permanently leave her family, move out of their home, and quit her job at the mill. Unable to find work elsewhere, she moved to Greensboro and worked in another mill despite her desire to further her education. While at church one day, Wallick confessed her desire to continue her education, and her pastor decided to help her pay for further schooling. While in school, she took on the job of secretary to the cashier at the bank. After many years, she became a bank clerk and refused to date or marry because of her focus on her careeer. Instead of spending money on herself, she saved her money for retirement and seldom indulged in buying clothes or expensive foods.

Social Issues

Public Education During the Great Depression

During the Great Depression, funding for education was scarce and many schools were forced to shut down. Although North Carolina public schools were also affected by the financial crisis, “not a single public school in the state shut its doors because of the Depression." Instead of closing their doors, North Carolina schools reduced costs by offering fewer classes and only paying for basic resources in schools (Davis, para.3). In addition to offering fewer classes, public schools did not operate for much of the year, which affected the amount of education children received during a school year. Although North Carolina kept schools open, many children were unable to complete their education and took jobs at a young age. Edith Wallick was one of the many children who sacrificed their education to work in a mill as a child to support their family.

Women in the Labor Force During the Great Depression

During the Great Depression, few married women were employed in the labor force and relied on their husbands to be the breadwinner. However, at the time, many women were widowed, divorced, or single and had to provide for themselves. Women were heavily discriminated against in hiring practices even in The New Deal. Because of prevailing gender norms, there was an expectation that women would be married and fulfill domestic roles. Women who pursued paid employment “risked public scorn or worse for supposedly taking jobs and money away from more deserving men” (Ware para. 5). Wallick, like many women, was unmarried and held a paid position during the Great Depression to provide for herself.

The Federal Writer’s Project

The Federal Writer’s Project (FWP) was part of President Roosevelt’s New Deal Program during the Great Depression. Approved in 1935, The FWP employed American writers and assigned them projects, including the recording over 10,000 life histories of Americans. The FWP wrote the spoken language of American’s whose lives would have otherwise been excluded from history (Dittman para. 9). The writers heavily influenced the life histories because “The interviewers were for the most part untrained, but they were given general instructions” which resulted in issues of production of the FWP (Dittman para. 18). Henry L. Crowell interviewed Clara Raynor, a white woman and bank clerk, on January 10, 1939.

The life history does not specify why Clara Raynor’s name was changed to Edith Wallick for the purpose of the Federal Writer’s Project, but it could be speculated that such a change could be necessary to protect the identity of a working woman during the Great Depression, since they were viewed as taking jobs from more deserving men (Ware para.5). Moreover, Wallick did not mention her marital status until the very end of the life history, and not much is written. Although interviewers were instructed to be neutral in their recording of history, “the FWP was clearly seeking to establish a hegemony” and interviewers took certain liberties to create this hegemony (Dittman para. 6). Sometimes, to achieve their agenda interviewers would emphasize certain aspects of a life history. An example is the title of Wallick’s life history, “Spinster by Choice,” naming Wallick’s relationship status in a derogatory manner. This emphasis on her choice to be single appears to be the result of the bias of the interviewer, not Wallick’s portrayal of herself.