Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2013/Spring/Estelle Stancill

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

Female Worker in a WPA Lunchroom, Great Depression Era

Overview:

Estelle Stancill was a poor white woman who was interviewed as a part of the Federal Writer’s Project. She lived in North Carolina where she raised her six children by working for the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression. She was a very spiritual woman who never let her circumstances define her.

Biography:

Estelle Stancill was born in Anderson, North Carolina around 1900 in to a poor white family. Stancill married very early because she thought her husband, a carpenter, would be able to provide her with a better life. After they had six children together, her husband began to drink and eventually left her. She moved to Charlotte and began to work in a mill. When the Great Depression occurred, she was laid off and the mill closed. She had started attending a church service run out of a tent by Dr. A. G. Garr while she was working. The church donated food to her and helped her to find a job caring for a woman who was ill. When the woman recovered Stancill had to go to the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in order to find work. Stancill started in a lunchroom making 28 cent per hour. Even while she made such a small amount of money, with presumably several children to feed, she gave ten percent of her earnings to the church. On July 19th 1931, after several years of attending the church with Dr. Garr, she became a Christian. A few years later, she was transferred to the health department within the WPA where she eventually received a raise, all of which she gave to the church. When the project she was working on closed, she returned to working in a lunchroom. Stancill also assisted in the formation of a new church on McDowell Street by helping to find a pastor for the church. On Sundays, along with pastor Garr, the church members, who now had a fine stone auditorium of their own, would go and preach to the black prisoners. Stancill had witnessed many miracles performed by Dr. Garr at the new auditorium including a woman cured of pellagra, a man cured of a knot in his head, and a boy cured of lameness (Stancill, NC 29-36).

Social Issues

Women in the Work Force During the Great Depression

Estelle Stancill had to take on the responsibility of caring and providing for their children by working several different jobs after her husband left her. It was fairly rare for women to work outside of the home during the Great Depression and difficult for them to find employment. Elaine Abelson stated, “They [women] lost jobs at a higher rate than did men in the early years of the collapse and were often unable to find other sources of income, and were routinely discriminated against in public employment." Many women were forced to go to the government or friends for financial aid if they did not have a husband who could provide for them and their children. Even with government work through the Works Progress Administration (WPA), women were discriminated against and given lower paying positions within the WPA. After the Great Depression caused thousands of individuals in the United States, including Stancill, to lose their jobs, the New Deal started the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to help find employment for people and to attempt to stimulate the economy. Most of the jobs were similar to those Stancill filled in a lunchroom, but they included many other types of work. Women were also treated differently from men by the WPA as, “They [women] were consigned to lower-paying activities of sewing, bookbinding, caring for the elderly, school lunch programs, nursery school, and recreational work." However, for most of these individuals, the work was life saving. The director of the WPA Harry Hopkins said, “Give him a job and you save both body and spirit." Stancill was an example of one of the few women who were able to move up to a higher paying position while working with the WPA.

Spirituality and Religion of Poor in the South

Religion was a large part of Stancill’s life. She attended the same church for many years and even helped to plant a new church in her community. Religion was a major part of many people’s lives during the Great Depression, especially the poor. Wayne Flint argues, “Religion afforded the poor a sense of dignity, self-worth, and promise of future vindication." Many of the urban poor were suffering with depression, and the rates of suicide were high during the depression and religion offered many a way to escape from the difficulties of their lives and allowed them to believe that one day their suffering would be rewarded. Stancill, like many others attended one of the many small local churches which the members donated some of what little money they made to support.

Issues of Historical Production

Reliability of Sources and Authors of the Federal Writer's Project

The Federal Writer’s Project was a WPA program designed to give work to unemployed writers during the Great Depression. They wrote down the life stories of everyday individuals such as Stancill whose lives would have otherwise been forgotten and left out of the historical record, however, their methods were not flawless. They relied on in person interviews which the writers would record by hand and then type up at a later date. Thomas Soapes stated, “The interviewer and editor did not always quote the interviewee verbatim, but summarized the answer or the entire interview in a more entertaining style than the question-and-answer format allows." In the case of Stancill the interview had very few details about her life, provided a broad view of her life, and only cited a few of the important events which shaped her life as a whole. The author seemed more focused on telling a story than accurately depicting her life events and as a result, some important information may have been lost or altered. Soapes also quoted Blassingame who maintained the interviews were often not consistent with the typed version which was eventually saved. This means there may have been some errors in the history itself as the author could have incorrectly remembered what the interviewee said or even changed something in the final draft for story telling sake.