Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2021/Fall/Section018/William Franklin

Overview

William Franklin, also known as John Benton, was interviewed by Cora L. Bennett June 5th, 1939. Franklin was raised in Alliance County, North Carolina, and explains his experience as a laborer in the south throughout the early twentieth century.

Biography

John Benton, also known as William Franklin, grew up in Alliance County, North Carolina in the early twentieth century. Raised in a relatively large household, six kids in total, William Franklin was accustomed to a family based lifestyle. By the age of fifteen Franklin's mother died, leaving him and his five siblings in the hands of his father. William’s father supported the entire family, working tirelessly on a plantation. William lived a simple life, narrated by his lack of money and his family's consistent corn crop, as it was their means of survival along with other various forms of harvest. Along with his siblings, William didn’t have access to consistent education. He attended only five sessions of schooling in all his years of childhood. Eventually, William grew into adulthood, found love and got married. Franklin and his wife continued to live off of the farm with Franklin's father until they could afford to purchase one of their own. Once again discouraged by the lack of financial progression found in the rural lifestyle of this era, the Franklin's decided it was no longer suitable for them. Franklin pursued job opportunities in metropolitan areas. Soon after, William got a job in Riverton, North Carolina at an Express Company. It was here that he made a substantial income, one consistent enough to support himself, wife, and four kids at the time. Living out of a three room household, William took a liking to the more expensive, but well paying, lifestyle of the city. Despite what his wife missed about the farm, William was stubbornly committed to creating a fulfilled life in the city. William, along with his wife, was able to send their children to school. Their two daughters and one son completed eight grade, and despite Franklin's wishes for them to pursue higher education, they were satisfied with their schooling. Franklin had little interest in joining a christian congregation the majority of his life. Although his distance from christianity lasted up until the arrival of Daddy Judah, a Baptist preacher who dominated the Black southern christian community in the early twentieth century. The Franklin's attended the church congregation under the leadership of Bishop Judah often, Franklin was eventually baptized. Franklin's life ended in the aftermath of a stroke he suffered from years before his death. He settled in a five bedroom house living with his wife, daughter, and son-in-law. In suffering from the severe stroke, Franklin spent his final days dependent on his family and loved ones, no longer making a living but appreciating the life he cultivated for his family through hard work in the city.

Early Life

By the age of fifteen years old, William was motherless. His father rented a one-hose farm from a plantation owner in rural North Carolina and cared for the entire family independently. In total, William had five siblings. The entire family worked tirelessly planting and harvesting their corn crop as a means of their survival. Throughout his childhood he attended school very sporadically. Attending five sessions in total, school was held in two month periods in both the winter and in the summer. He was raised on the harvest of his families corn crop, in a constant cycle of growing, selling, and then buying more seed and fertilizer to produce the next harvest. Life was simplistic for William as a child, although it was abundant with financial insecurity, inevitable debt, and continuous hard work.

Historical Context

The Great Depression

William Franklin's life included some of the more brutal aspects of American history as he lived through the Great Depression. A time marked by deep financial loss and heightened population of unemployment, this economic depression affected the mass majority of laborers in the United States on many different levels. In addition to the massive weight the Great Depression posed on Franklin's life, he experienced a continuous search for financial dependability to support his family and create an upgraded lifestyle for his children. While Franklin managed to avoid the first hand consequences of the Great Depression, as his career path ended in the earlier 1930's, this historical tragedy shaped the outcome of both his children and his community's future.

Racial Discrimination

Life as a Black person in this time period was far from easy. Hard work was often not rewarded. The sense of financial limitation that narrates much of Franklin's life remains deeply interwoven with the fact that Frankin was a Black man in a time of extreme racial discrimination in the South. It was a rarity throughout the beginning of the twenty first century for a Black family to progress past a farm-based lifestyle, which ultimately dominated the labor landscape of the South. Therefore, Franklin seldom discusses the extent to which these racial issues affected him, as it was socially accepted for Black families to live an unrewarding life, never receiving consistent education or proper opportunity. While Franklin does not explicitly recognized the racial weight his childhood holds, the socio-economic injustice is clear in his narrative of never reaching an optimal point of success. Franklin and his family’s life was deeply affected by the intersection of racial suppression and Southern culture.

Southern Christianity

Franklin's experiences are representative of not only the traditionally racist south, but also the Bible Belt, a term first coined by social commentator H. L. Mencken. The Bible Belt is a region in the south in which evangelical christianity plays a significant role in the outcome of social and political issues. In Franklin's life specifically there is a deep divergence between the socioeconomic status of those who are within the church, viewed as a top tier of “holiness”, such as the pastor Judah, and those who follow this religiously elite group. Franklin became encapsulated by the power and religious light that Bishop Judah held, so much so that he expected to be a member until the day he died. Franklin's experience and fascination with this community serves as an evident connection to the religious refuge he found in the christian South. It is understood that his membership in the congregation was obsessive and incredibly important to him. The security William seeked in traditional southern christianity exemplifies yet another cultural context in his life: the dominance of religious authority within economically and racially divided groups in the South.

Bibliography

Gay, Edwin F. “The Great Depression.” Foreign Affairs 10, no. 4 (1932): 529–40.

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Helmbold, Lois Rita. “Beyond the Family Economy: Black and White Working-Class

Women during the Great Depression.” Feminist Studies 13, no. 3 (1987): 629–55. https://doi.org/10.2307/3177885.

Moran, Jeffrey P. “The Scopes Trial and Southern Fundamentalism in Black and White: Race,

Region, and Religion.” The Journal of Southern History 70, no. 1 (2004): 95–120. https://doi.org/10.2307/27648313.

Watt, Mary Ann, and Christopher Zinkowicz. “African American Occupations in the 1900s.”

Berks History Center 15 (Apr. 2014) https://www.berkshistory.org/multimedia/articles/african-american-occupations-in-the-1900s

Fenn, Elizabeth. 2019. “Rural Community: North Carolina 1820-1870.” North Carolina:

North Carolina Office of Research and History in association with the University of North Carolina Press. (2019) https://www.ncpedia.org/waywelived/rural-community-north-carolina-1820-1870.