Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2020/Fall/105/Section071/Needham Hickman

Overview
Needham Hickman was interviewed on November 12-13, 1938 by James S. Beaman. The Interview was conducted for the Federal Writers' Project as they interviewed multiple people during this period to understand life during the Civil War period.

Early Life
Needham Hickman was born in the year 1857 in Carteret County, North Carolina. He was born into slavery with his mother, Sarah Hickman, and they were originally owned by Elijah Dudley. However, they were eventually given to Elijah's son, Kit Dudley, as wedding presents. Although Needham and his mother were owned by Elijah and then Kit, Needham's father, David Hickman, was owned by James Rowe who was a different slave owner. After becoming a free man, Needham was able to obtain some land from his father who originally received the land from Rowe's son after James Rowe promised to give David Hickman land for being a loyal and faithful slave. Eventually, Needham was able to become married to Louisa Green and start a family of his own.

Family Man
Needham Hickman was an African American farmer that lived in Craven County which is just fourteen miles southeast of New Bern, North Carolina. He was eighty one years old at the time of the interview and had a very large family that consisted of children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. Hickman was originally born into slavery to Elijah Dudley who was one of the largest land owners before the Civil War began. Needham was not educated but he did learn how to read when his owners wanted to teach him. Needham is also a religious man as Sundays offer an “escape” to his everyday life and work on the farm. Although Hickman was a generally positive man, he had experienced many instances of suffering and turmoil within his lifetime. For example, not only was he born into slavery but he had also lost multiple family members. Hickman had seven children and one of his daughters, Carrie, died at the age of forty two, and Hickman had lost his wife, Louisa Green, which left Hickman living alone. Even though these are very influential and traumatic events, Hickman mainly elects to look on the bright side as compared to dwelling in the past. However, all of these events have shaped his character and why he was chosen to be interviewed.

Day to Day Life
Slavery and racism played a very large role in Needham Hickman's life. First of all, he was born into slavery which means that he was affected by it from birth. However, it was not only Hickman that was enslaved. Thousands of African Americans during the Pre Civil War era were enslaved. Even the African American population that was not enslaved often faced instances of racism on a day to day basis. Racism was present in everything that the African American population did. This would range from violent events such as hanging and brutal killings to simply people avoiding African Americans by walking on the other side of the street.

Education
Along with the day to day life of racism, segregation was very prevalent within the education system. This segregation ranged from elementary school to the college level as African Americans often received fewer and worse resources. This idea of segregation occurred across the country as seen in the quote “...separate schools for racial minorities often arose in response to concerted struggles by people of color to gain access to educational opportunities for their children.”(Lewis 29). Along with the general segregation of schools, African American students often had to walk long distances to get to school as they had limited funding and were not able to obtain any form of public transportation. This led to a decrease in the African American population that was able to attend school, which in turn created an education gap between the Caucasian and African American populations.