| Summary: | In this interview, Charles Vance talks about the numerous jobs he worked as he left Alabama and moved north, eventually settling in Philadelphia. He also explains the term "Levy Camp." Vance's mother died when he was nine, and he and his father lived with his grandmother for a time. When his father left to south to go up north for work, promising to send for him later, he also decided to leave Alabama. He did various kinds of industrial work as well as coal mining in Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina. He also lived in several places in the north, such as Atlantic City, New York City, and Buffalo. He says he found racism and segregation in the north, too. At age 21, he met up with his father and stepmother in Philadelphia. Vance explains the term "Levy Camp." He says men without jobs would be recruited and transported somewhere to do work, promised money but normally receiving very little if any. He says it was dangerous to try to escape, because there was usually a reward for foreman who caught them. He also says that women were similarly recruited, and men--married or not--often took up with a particular woman for the duration of their time in the camp.The digitization of this collection was funded by a gift from EBSCO Industries.
|
|---|
