Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2013/Spring/James Terrill

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

This photo is of a barbershop in Alabama advertising the circus.

Overview

James Terrill was a white male barber who lived in Carrboro, North Carolina during the Great Depression. He was interviewed to give his personal history as part of a New Deal program called the Federal Writers’ Project.

Biography

Terrill was born in Danville, Virginia. His father was a day laborer and his mother sewed for the neighborhood while also looking after his twelve brothers and sisters. He only attended school for two years before he fell ill for three years. When he was ten, his family moved to a farm on the outskirts of Hillsboro, NC. There, he worked for four years with his father, learning everything there was to know about farming. He was not a fan of farming and did not think it was a quality source of income. By the age of fourteen, he had acquired his first hair clippers. Because he did not have a license to cut hair, he could not charge. He practiced cutting his brothers’ hair and even cut some of the neighbors’ hair. When he turned fifteen, he saw a wanted ad for a barber in Wilmington. To be considered for the job, he had to lie about having a license in cutting hair, and then he had to prove himself by giving, what a long time patron called, the best shave he ever had. Just as soon as he arrived at the shop, he left and headed to Richmond to take a course in chiropody. He received his license and set up a practice where he was very successful. Being a restless individual, he decided to go work for Ringling Brothers Circus as a make-up man. There, someone mentioned that he should try his hand at “Hollywood”, or the movie business. He took their advice and headed to Chicago where he operated a Turkish bath that aided actors going through rehabilitation. He ended up hating the job and grew tired of all the travel. After hoping around careers and travelling all over the country, he decided to settle down in Carrboro, NC to continue with his barber profession and take care of his family. Terrill married when he was twenty years old. He fathered two children, a boy and a girl, and then decided to adopt another boy and girl. He divorced his wife, but did not go into detail on why. After his children had married, they convinced him to remarry their mother because they did not want the family’s honor tarnished. He divorced her again for unknown reasons. He married another woman who went through a stroke, which is the reason he ended up settling down in Carrboro.

Social Issues

Job Insecurity in the Depression

The Great Depression increased the unemployment rate to record breaking amounts throughout the country. The south received the worst of it, with many in North Carolina having to learn to go without even more than they were use to. People had to learn how to adjust to a life of poverty or risk starving their families. Many had to travel and learn multiple trades in order to earn a living. Throughout the United States, “mass migrations reshaped the American mosaic”. As told by Terrill, he had to switch between careers and travel throughout the country to find work. When asked if he was a “jack of all trades,” he said he considered himself to be more of “a man of all work”.

Barbershops in the Depression

Barbershops during the Depression were considered “male sanctuaries” and provided an escape to the hardships faced during the time. They were a place where men could go to relax and be social and talk about politics. Some shops even provided hot showers and baths where most individual’s homes only had cold water due to the trying times. With the severity of unemployment, stable jobs were hard to come by. Usually, “those producing durable goods, such as machinery, clothing, and housing, suffered more severely than those in food processing, utilities, and public service”. Cutting hair was a stable job and is where Terrill wanted to be in the end.

The Federal Writers’ Project

With the severity of the Great Depression, and having “ more than one third of the country’s labor force [being] thrown out of work,” measures had to be taken on a national level to stimulate the economy. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt created the New Deal, which was a way to stimulate the economy with jobs using the Works Progress Administration program. The Federal Writers’ Project was one of the results of the WPA. It gave writers and journalists jobs during the Depression, when many of the jobs were mainly labor intensive. These writers collected an oral account of everyday citizens lives in order to better understand the cultural melting pot of the United States.