Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2019/Fall/Section 1/Joseph E Webb

= Joseph E Webb = Joseph Eliot Webb (Born July 4, 1907) was a Caucasian lawyer who lived in Athens, Georgia. As part of the Federal Writers Project, Webb was interviewed by Sadie B. Hornsbury. The interview was edited and revised by Sarah H. Hall on March 6, 1939.

Early Life
Mr. Joseph Webb was born on July 4th, 1907 to a working family. He was raised by a father who owned a machine shop and a mother who made money from selling farmed products such as milk, butter, and eggs. As a child, he lived in a town near the middle of Georgia. His parents made sacrifices and risks in order to allow Joseph and his sister to both go to college. Before he started college, Joseph had an experience where he was pushed in the direction of studying law. In high school, he saw an advertisement about books in which he was interested in. The advertisement was about a deal where a person could try out different books and if the person was not satisfied, then they could easily return them. Webb then ordered some of the books, inspected them, and found that he was not interested in them, thus, he promptly returned them. After he returned the books, he was notified that he had broken a binding contract, and that he could be sued unless he paid for the books. Webb then went to a local attorney who he knew and he was given legal advice that helped him get out of his situation. Webb said that that experience caused him to want to study law in college.

Adult Life
In the Mid-1920s, Webb began college at Mercer University. After a year there, he took a year off to teach at a school. Then, he enrolled at the University of Georgia where he received his Bachelor of Law Degree. The beginning of his practice started out rocky due to his partnership with a man that had lied about passing the Bar Exam. Webb was forced to dissolve the partnership and continue his practice by himself. In the interview, he then goes on to explain how small-town courts often work. Because attorneys in small towns rarely restrict themselves to one branch of law, he would take cases concerning property, divorce, criminal court, and more. Religiously, Joseph was a Baptist Christian who was considerably involved with his church. To culminate the interview, Webb tells several personal anecdotes about the most interesting cases he has been involved with. At the time of the 1940 United States Census, Webb was married to Tempia Webb and, at the time, they had four children.

Religion During the Depression
During the Great Depression, the unemployment rate exploded and millions of Americans were left without jobs. A country in this state has great potential to see a rejuvenation of the church. Jon Butler wrote that economic depression happens to be a natural support to religion. At the time of the Depression, most major denominations saw a growth of about 5% in membership. In the 15 years between 1920 and 1935, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) gained more than 1.3 million members. At the time in which the Great Depression began, protestant churches were more influential on society than ever. This time was the first since the Civil War where churches had to deal with social and economic suffering on an individual level. In the beginning, religious leaders across the country had a solution to the problem; a nationwide religious revival. However, as the depression thickened, this solution fell apart. Especially for the SBC, as unemployment reached 25% and people blamed capitalism for this crisis, many conservative church leaders in the south called for more government intervention.

Upper Class During the Depression
Although working Americans were hit the hardest by the Great Depression, it was not easy for the upper-class at this time of chaos. Before the Stock Market Crash of 1929, the rich accounted for one-third of the entire country’s wealth. Lower-class members became annoyed because they were suffering while the economic stability of the upper-class remained intact. Many wealthy Americans did not even suffer from unemployment and they began to flaunt their wealth wherever they went. Conversely, members of the upper-class began to hold contempt toward the impoverished due to the recovery policies being put into effect. Several programs from FDR’s New Deal forced the rich to pay taxes that went to supply loans to lower-class Americans. Tensions between members of different socioeconomic status were at an all-time high. Many were worried that a civil war between classes would start. President Roosevelt, from the perspective of the wealthy, only seemed to care about the likes of the poverty stricken. The New Deal also contributed to the unionization of labor groups which led to even more conflict between different classes. The rich felt as though they were being treated unfairly and the lower-classes felt as though they deserved better.