By Courtney Humphreys

Name of interviewee: Sam and Louisa Everett

Age at emancipation: 15 and 19

Year of interview: 1936

Place of interview: Mulberry

State of interview: Florida

Place of enslavement: Greenville/Norfolk, Virginia

Address of interviewee: Boston Road, Thomasville, Thomas, Georgia

Address of interviewer: 1205 W Beaver St, Baldwin, FL 32234, USA

‘Occupation’: Field

‘Occupation’ of mother: Field hand

‘Occupation’ of father: Field hand

Size of slaveholding unit: Large, estimated over 100

Name of enslaver: JD Maclin, referred to in interview as “Big Jim” McClain

Name of plantation/farm: Unknown

Crop produced on slaveholding unit: Cotton

Name of interviewer: Pearl Randolph

Race of interviewer: Black

Is there evidence of editing: Yes

Sam and Louisa Everett were born in 1850 and 1846, making them fifteen and nineteen years of age at the time of emancipation in 1865. Both were born near Norfolk, Virginia and repeatedly sold within the local area. Louisa remembers very little about her parents and could not recall their names; this may be because she was sold to a different plantation as it was common for parents and offspring to be separated. She believes her name was Norfolk Virginia as she recalls everyone called her “Nor”. This lack of a real or family name can be linked to attempts by enslavers to strip away the identities of enslaved people, however after emancipation Louisa changed her name and asserted control over her identity.

Sam had a closer relationship with his parents, Betsy and Peter Everett, who were both field hands. He remembers they had a small allotment that they would tend to after returning from picking cotton, but the vegetables they harvested were frequently stolen by their enslaver. This would have created anxiety amongst his family over whether they would have enough food to sustain themselves.

The interview of Sam and Louisa Everett is frequently used by academics and historians as evidence for the sexual violence and forced breeding that took place under slavery. The couple recount the harrowing experience of living with a ‘sadistic’ enslaver, “Big Jim” McClain, who frequently forced enslaved people to perform sex acts in front of him and even held parties where enslaved people were forced to have orgies to entertain his friends. Sam and Louisa themselves were a result of an arranged marriage orchestrated by their enslaver, which he forced them to consummate in his presence. Marriage, however, did not protect enslaved women from further sexual violence as McClain and his friends would often rape these women in front of their husbands. Louisa herself expressed her relief at not having any other men forced on her because she and Sam produced “fine, big babies”. Sam and Louisa stayed together after emancipation despite being forced into their relationship without either of their consent. This was not always the case as seen in other WPA interview, such as that of Rose Williams who chooses to leave her spouse, Rufus, after the abolition of slavery.

After emancipation Sam and Louisa moved to Boston, Georgia to sharecrop. Sharecropping is a system whereby labourers would work for a half share of the crop they cultivated, and landlords would provide housing, seeds and implements for the labourers and receive the other half. This became the adopted system in the South after emancipation and despite still favouring white landlords, it offered the opportunity for formerly enslaved people to accumulate limited wealth. The Everetts made enough money from sharecropping to buy a small farm, though they do not state how long it took for them to save this money. A 1910 census shows that Sam and Louisa Everett owned a farm in Thomasville, Georgia, with their two children. Interestingly this census shows that the couple had been married for thirty-five years, meaning they were officially married in 1875, ten years after emancipation. I was unable to find a marriage certificate, perhaps because Louisa had not yet changed her name.

It is hard to find information on the ‘Big Jim’ McClain mentioned in the interview, however there are a number of records of a JD Maclin in Greensville, Virginia, who in the 1830 census was listed as owning sixty-nine enslaved people, and an 1860 slave schedule lists a William Maclin from Greenville as owning “upward of 100” enslaved people. This fits with the Everetts narrative and would have meant the Maclin’s were an incredibly wealthy family as these numbers of enslaved people constitute a very large plantation. This interview has a particularly interesting dynamic as the Everetts were interviewed by Pearl Randolph, one of the sixteen members of Florida’s black writers unit (hereafter BWU, known in the 1930s as the ‘Negro Writers’ Unit’) which operated between 1936 -1938. Florida had a comparatively high number of women employed since nationwide women constituted less than 20 percent of WPA employees, and black women made up only 3 percent of all workers. Half of the people within Randolph’s unit, however, were women. Randolph was born on 5th August 1906 in South Carolina but at the time of the interview she was living in Baldwin, Florida. In a 1940 census she stated she had only completed two years of high school and was currently practicing as a nurse.

The interview is highly detailed and emotive, though Randolph’s sympathetic tone is clear. Randolph describes the Everetts as living in ‘constant fear’ and having to do ‘back-breaking’ work. She also ends the interview by noting how difficult the Everetts found recounting the ‘gruesome details’ of their lives under enslavement. Unlike many other WPA interviewers Randolph chose to present the interviews in third-person and created a narrative account rather than recounting what was said verbatim. This decision may have been made so the piece was more accessible and easier to read or in an attempt to remove the dialectic language that was associated with the negative stereotypes about black Americans and furthered racist ideas. Unlike the other interviews with Pearl Randolph (eight in total), this one included the name of an editor, John A. Simms, which indicates that some information was removed, perhaps because of the sensitive or graphic nature. 

The Everett’s experience under ‘Big Jim’ offers a harrowing insight into life under slavery and are in clear opposition to the idea that slavery was a paternalist institution. The fact that none of the formerly enslaved people wished to stay and help McClain harvest the crop after emancipation shows they felt no kinship or familial loyalty to him and the feeling was obviously mutual as McClain shot into the crowd of formerly enslaved people.