Zora Neale Hurston began working for the Florida division of the Work Projects Administration (WPA) in Florida in the late 1930s. She signed on for the position of Junior Interviewer with the Federal Writers' Project (FWP). At the time, Hurston had already published Jonah's Gourd Vine and Mules and Men and was the only widely published author on the Florida payroll.
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L to R: Hurston, French, Brown.
Hurston worked for the WPA, collecting folklife and folklore from Floridians throughout the state. She is pictured here collecting music from French and Brown. Photograph was part of a 1985 traveling exhibit called "Pursuits and Pastimes." Reproducted from the collection of the Library of Congress.
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Working out of her Eatonville home, Hurston finished her fifth novel, Moses: Man of the Mountain, while making numerous folklife collecting trips across Florida. Hurston never mentioned her work with the FWP in her autobiography, perhaps because of the stigma associated with the WPA's relief programs.
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In August of 1939, Hurston went to Cross City, Florida to interview workers of the Aycock and Lindsay turpentine camp. Material from her essay "Turpentine" later appeared in her book Seraph on the Suwanee.
Turpentine camps were isolated and known for their terrible and abusive working conditions. It was unusual for a writer to be allowed in to gather information. Hurston's essay is one of the few written, first-hand accounts of the lives of turpentine workers. Although Hurston was aware of and made notes concerning some of the abuses that occurred in the camp, her essay focuses on the workday.
Federal Writers' Project staff photographer Robert Cook accompanied the team to Cross City, but those photographs were lost before they could be preserved by the Library of Congress. These photographs of the turpentine camps are from the collections of the State Archives of Florida.
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A chip paddle is being used in chipping and pulling to prevent chips and bark from falling into the cup.
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She appears to be teaching the children, but there is not a school house shown, nor desks or supplies. Sign hanging on building reads: Use more turpentine; accept no substitute. The possible location is near the turpentine factory.
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Photographer: Muir, B. W.
Photographed July 26, 1948.
From 1937 to 1942, Stetson Kennedy headed the Florida Writers' Project unit on folklore, oral history, and social-ethnic studies. Kennedy and Hurston worked together to capture the traditions, songs, tales, and anecdotes of the people of Florida. Kennedy's introduction to A Reference Guide to the Florida Foklore from the Federal WPA includes the story of the trip that he and Hurston took to the Cross City turpentine camp. His introduction mentions the essay she wrote and helps to put the piece in context.
