Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2020/Fall/105i/Section 50/Selina W.

Selina W.

Overview

Selina W., although born into wealth, soon felt the effects of poverty during the early 1900s. This caused tension between her and her husband as they had to move around a fair amount, looking for jobs for him.

Early Life

Selina W. was a white female born in 1885 into an aristocratic family, as her grandparents owned lots of land and many slaves before the Civil War. She was the seventh child born in her family, and almost died at birth. Her father was injured in the Civil War, and after the war was over, they moved to Rocky Ford, Georgia where her four brothers got on a farm.  This is also where her mother died in 1891. When her family’s money was running out they moved around from farm to farm, looking for work in various places in Georgia. During this time, Selina’s father did not let her get a job, as he did not believe it was a woman’s place to work.

Young Adulthood

Selina W. got married when she was 17 years old to her first love, who had no job at the time. She moved into his house with his parents, and they soon began to fight and have various quarrels and yelling matches with each other. Soon after this Selina W. got into an accident and dislocated her left knee, hip, and collar bone. This caused her to have to stay in bed for a long time to recover, where she was not able to do much.

Adulthood

One year after her injury, she gave birth to a boy who she and her parents loved dearly. However, soon after she got attached to her son, he got sick and he died. She then had a baby girl, and two years later another boy. They then moved to Savannah, Georgia, where her husband found good work, before moving to Louisiana when his job fell through. After her husband, Bill, lost his job again there, they moved back to Savannah in February of 1914. Sometime later, Selina W.’s daughter got married and Bill died. Selina W. also won various prizes for her writings, specifically poems, throughout her life and was an old woman when interviewed for the Federal Writer’s Project.

Social Issues

Infant Mortality

During the Great Depression, the average life mortality for people living in the US decreased. This was partially due to the fact that there were a vast number of people who had illnesses and could not afford to see a doctor or get the appropriate medical attention they needed. This was most certainly the case for infants as well. The infant mortality rate in 1900 was already high, at 165 deaths per 1,000 infants. The majority of these deaths were due to illnesses that doctors did not know how to treat at that time, including diphtheria, measles, and pertussis. However, in 1912 this took a turn as the United States started to put more resources into child health and welfare. During this year, the US Child’s Bureau was created and soon the nutrition and public health for children and infants was improved. This improvement can also be seen as there was a decrease in the infant mortality rate around this time period.

Women in the Workforce

During the early 1900s there was a strong mindset in the United States that women did not belong in the workforce and should instead stay home to take care of the kids and do household chores like cooking and cleaning. Even during times when the economy was low and money was scarce in families, it was common for the father and brothers of the household to not allow the women in the family to go out and search for jobs. This also caused a stigma against women making their own form of income, as it was commonly believed at the time that money should only belong to men. Even amidst the women’s suffrage movement, these beliefs continued to persist.

References

Brosco, Jeffrey P. “The Early History of the Infant Mortality Rate in America: ‘A Reflection Upon the Past and a Prophecy of the Future‘1,” February 1, 1999. https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/103/2/478?download=true.

DeVault, Ileen A. "“Everybody Works but Father”: Why the Census Misdirected Historians of Women’s Employment." Social Science History 40, no. 3 (2016): 369-83. Accessed October 9, 2020. doi:10.2307/90017512.

“The First Measured Century: Timeline: Data - Mortality.” Accessed October 1, 2020. https://www.pbs.org/fmc/timeline/dmortality.htm.

“Folder 264: Vining, Mary (Interviewer): The Story of Selina W.” Federal Writers Project Papers. Accessed October 1, 2020. https://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/03709/id/770.

“Gender Discrimination - History.” Accessed October 1, 2020. https://law.jrank.org/pages/22615/Gender-Discrimination-History.html.

Gregory, Ian N. "Comparisons between Geographies of Mortality and Deprivation from the 1900s and 2001: Spatial Analysis of Census and Mortality Statistics." BMJ: British Medical Journal 339, no. 7722 (2009): 676-79. Accessed October 8, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25672700.

McDevitt, Catherine L., James R. Irwin, and Kris Inwood. "Gender Pay Gap, Productivity Gap and Discrimination in Canadian Clothing Manufacturing in 1870." Eastern Economic Journal 35, no. 1 (2009): 24-36. Accessed October 9, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20642461.

Mercer, Alexander. Infections, Chronic Disease, and the Epidemiological Transition: A New Perspective. Woodbridge, Suffolk; Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer, 2014. Accessed October 9, 2020. doi:10.7722/j.ctt6wp924.

MILKMAN, RUTH. On Gender, Labor, and Inequality. University of Illinois Press, 2016. Accessed October 9, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/j.ctt18j8wg9.