Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2020/Fall/105/Section068/John Peebles
Purpose
John Peebles was interviewed by Bernice K. Harris on May 26, 1939 as a part of the Federal Writers Project.
Biography
Early Life
John Peebles, son of Harry Peebles, was a formerly enslaved African-American man residing in Creeksville, NC. He is known by the name of Uncle John Peebles. Peebles has no knowledge of his age, but it is estimated he was born around 1848. He did not attend any sort of schooling.
Later Life
Peebles was married to Lucy, a white woman, for over 20 years, who was also enslaved. During slavery, they received harsh treatment, small amounts of food, and were whipped and beaten. John and Lucy raised 9 children together on land Lucy was given, but two of those children did not survive. They moved onto that land once they gained their freedom at the end of the American Civil War. Peebles taught himself a small amount about reading and writing. He would go on to teach his wife the little education he gained over his lifetime. Peebles and Lucy were members of Allen Chapel Methodist Church. Peebles used to be an entertainer, singing a variety of songs and also being a mentor to others who desired to sing as well. Towards the end of his lifetime, he lived at his son’s house with the company of his grandchildren. He rented 10 acres of the land to pay off taxes. Peebles didn’t become blind until the later portion of his life. He repeatedly mentions Harvey Long’s store, his wife, and the children they raised together. Peebles appeared to have some sort of dementia or memory loss.
Death
His wife, Lucy, died at least 20 years prior to his passing. His date of death is unknown as well.
Social Issues
Social Issue 1 : Mental Health in the Black Community
Mental health among the black community is something that has dated back for centuries. The Civil War freed nearly four million enslaved people across the South. It did not, however, lead to more enlightened attitudes about the treatment of African Americans with mental illnesses. (5) Most pre-Civil War mental health facilities in the South usually barred the enslaved for treatment. (5) Apparently mental health experts believed that housing blacks and whites in the same facilities would detrimentally affect the healing of the whites. Physicians failed to recognize the connection between the emotional states of the enslaved and the treatment they recommended for their condition. (5) To this day, mental health is a topic that has a negative stigma attached to it, especially among black households. It is a work in progress, as it is slowly being talked about more often so generations are aware of common mental battles and diseases prevalent within their families.
Social Issue 2 : Sharecropping
Slavery in the U.S was abolished as a result of the Union’s victory over the Confederacy in the Civil War. (4) After the American Civil War, former slaves sought jobs, and planters sought laborers. The absence of cash or an independent credit system led to the creation of sharecropping. With sharecropping, many black families rented from whites, growing various crops such as tobacco, cotton, and rice. (1) When deciding how much was owed to who, sharecroppers would end up in debt to their landlord. High interest rates, unpredictable harvests, and unscrupulous landlords and merchants often kept tenant farm families severely indebted, requiring the debt to be carried over until the next year or the next. (1) Overall, sharecropping was used as a form of slavery. A system that once you were in it, it was hard to get out of, especially while living among laws that were tailored to the landlords.
Social Issue 3 : Interracial Marriage
Anti-miscegenation laws are laws that enforce racial segregation at the level of marriage and intimate relationships by criminalizing interracial marriage and sometimes sex between members of different races. The statutory language prohibited individuals from performing interracial marriage ceremonies. Conducting such acts would lead to a misdemeanor, which was punishable by fines in increments of 1,000 dollars. (2) The first anti-miscegenation statue was passed by Maryland in 1661, which was followed by North Carolina in 1715. These laws were used among the colonies to ensure the sexual separation of white women and black men. During this time, interracial sex was viewed as a “disgrace” and reinforced the colonial mindset that blacks demonstrated “beastly” sexual behaviors. Also, with these laws in place, it ensured the protection and ongoing practice of slavery. Blacks and whites having sexual relations were viewed as a threat, since their mixed offspring didn’t have a clear and specific position in the slavery system. Anti-miscegenation laws heavily affected white women, since the status of their mixed child was up to them. White women were punished for being pregnant by a black man and viewed as low class, but white men were not chastised for impregnating black women as long as they didn’t marry them. There was only concern of the white race darkening, not the black race lightening. (3)
References
1. n.d. “Sharecropping.” Slavery By Another Name. PBS. Accessed October 1, 2020. https://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/themes/sharecropping/.
2. Emily F. Van Tassel, Only the Law Would Rule Between Us: Antimiscegenation, The Moral Economy of Dependency, and the Debate over Rights after the Civil War - Freedom: Personal Liberty and Private Law, 70 Chi.-Kent L. Rev. 873 (1995).
3. Lay, K. J. (1993). Sexual Racism: A Legacy of Slavery. National Black Law Journal, 13(1). Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3qd7s83r
4. Ray, James Lee. "The Abolition of Slavery and the End of International War." International Organization 43, no. 3 (1989): 405-39. Accessed October 1, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2706653.
5. Umeh, U. (2019, March 11) Mental Illness in Black Community, 1700-2019: A Short History. Retrieved from https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/mental-illness-in-black-community-1700-2019-a-short-history/