Literature
1. This is a typed up documentation of the lyrics to a song. A WPA worker was assigned the task of collecting song lyrics, rythmes and poems to write down so that they would be preserved. However, in this case, two writers seem to have paired up to record this together. This was recorded at sea on July 02, 1940 as Florida Folklife from the WPA Collections of 1937-1942 in the American Library of Congress under American Memory. This song was sung by black crewman on a fishing boat of Mayport, Florida.
2. The WPAs goal was to create jobs, no matter what they were, although Roosevelt did still remember the importance of keeping the Americans dignity. Rather than just receive a check in the mail every month, it would be much be much more helpful to all of America to give these people something to do during the day. A task, a duty, anything as long as it helped keep Americans keep their chins up. And so, jobs all across the board began to pop up, see the page on Art for more examples. Here, as one of the many jobs created to document the era, people were hired to go out and collect songs poems and rythmes to write down and have preserved.
3. Although I do not know if Robert Cornwall and Robert Cook were African Americans or not, the fact that this was sung by blacks brings up the fact that the WPA did employ black men as well as whites. This time of hardship was in fact a little bit beneficial in that it set the stage for equality among black and white men and greatly increased the percentage of African Americans in the work force. It is hard to understand the meaning of this song but there is mention of getting letters and getting a paycheck every month, just as the WPA gave them, and hard times and not having enough money. I suppose this reflects how although the WPA was extremely beneficial, it didn't solve everything and people still had many many problems and not enough money. Even with all of Roosevelts many new programs and systems and rules being established, it would take a long time for Americans to really get back on their own two feet again.
2. The WPAs goal was to create jobs, no matter what they were, although Roosevelt did still remember the importance of keeping the Americans dignity. Rather than just receive a check in the mail every month, it would be much be much more helpful to all of America to give these people something to do during the day. A task, a duty, anything as long as it helped keep Americans keep their chins up. And so, jobs all across the board began to pop up, see the page on Art for more examples. Here, as one of the many jobs created to document the era, people were hired to go out and collect songs poems and rythmes to write down and have preserved.
3. Although I do not know if Robert Cornwall and Robert Cook were African Americans or not, the fact that this was sung by blacks brings up the fact that the WPA did employ black men as well as whites. This time of hardship was in fact a little bit beneficial in that it set the stage for equality among black and white men and greatly increased the percentage of African Americans in the work force. It is hard to understand the meaning of this song but there is mention of getting letters and getting a paycheck every month, just as the WPA gave them, and hard times and not having enough money. I suppose this reflects how although the WPA was extremely beneficial, it didn't solve everything and people still had many many problems and not enough money. Even with all of Roosevelts many new programs and systems and rules being established, it would take a long time for Americans to really get back on their own two feet again.
Source: http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/S?ammem/flwpabib:@FIELD(SUBJ+@band(+transcriptions+))
More:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/help/view.html#text
http://www.loc.gov/search/?q=wpa+literature
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/connections/florida-folklife/file.html
More:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/help/view.html#text
http://www.loc.gov/search/?q=wpa+literature
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/connections/florida-folklife/file.html