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Size | 47 items |
Abstract | The collection consists of interviews of Ned Cobb (1885-1973), an African American farmer and a former member of the Alabama Sharecroppers Union in Tallapoosa County, Ala., and his family, by Theodore Rosengarten (1944- ), a white historian of American civilization. The interviews describe Cobb's life as a sharecropper, then independent farmer, in east-central Alabama, his involvement with the Alabama Sharecroppers Union, his 12-year imprisonment for shooting at sheriff's deputies intent on seizing a neighbor's livestock, and his life after leaving prison. Included are 18 tapes of interviews with Ned Cobb, 20 tapes of interviews with his family, and five tapes of interviews with unidentified persons. There is also a small number of tapes containing music and other recordings. Rosengarten edited and re-ordered the interviews for his book All God's Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw (1974). |
Creator | Cobb, Ned, 1885-1973.
Cobb (Family : Tallapoosa County, Ala.) Rosengarten, Theodore. |
Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
Language | English |
Processed by: Jennie Clements, November 2010
Encoded by: Jennie Clements, November 2010
Revisions by: Anne Wells
Conscious Editing Work by: Nancy Kaiser, July 2020. Updated title (previous title: Theodore Rosengarten Oral History Interviews and Other Recordings), abstract, subject headings, and scope and content note.
Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.
Back to TopThe following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
Theodore Rosengarten (1944- ) graduated from Amherst College in 1966 and received his Ph.D. in American civilization from Harvard University in 1975. In 1969, while working on his Ph.D., Rosengarten researched the Alabama Sharecropper's Union in Tallapoosa County, Ala. In the course of his research, he met African American farmer Ned Cobb (1885-1973), a former member of the Union. He went on to record a series of oral histories with Cobb and his family. These interviews were edited and re-ordered by Rosengarten for his book, All God's Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw (Knopf, 1974), which won the National Book award in 1975. Rosengarten went on to teach history at various institutions including the University of California, Irvine; the College of Charleston, and the University of South Carolina.
All God's Dangers describes Ned Cobb's life in Tallapoosa, Ala. His father was a former slave and tenant farmer. Ned Cobb began sharecropping on his own at age 19 and was eventually able to purchase his own land and become prosperous. In 1931, he joined the Alabama Sharecroppers Union, which was associated with the American Communist Party and fought for the rights of sharecroppers to sell their own crops and deal directly with banks. In 1932, sheriff's deputies came to seize livestock belonging to Cobb's neighbor, a fellow Union member. In the attempted to stop them, Cobb fired at the deputies, for which he was spent 12 years in prison. All God's Dangers also describes Cobb's life after leaving prison as he adjusted to the changes in agriculture that had occurred and to living with his adult children.
Back to TopThe collection consists of interviews of Ned Cobb (1885-1973), an African American farmer and a former member of the Alabama Sharecroppers Union in Tallapoosa County, Ala., and his family, by Theodore Rosengarten (1944- ), a white historian of American civilization. The interviews describe Cobb's life as a sharecropper, then independent farmer, in east-central Alabama, his involvement with the Alabama Sharecroppers Union, his 12-year imprisonment for shooting at sheriff's deputies intent on seizing a neighbor's livestock, and his life after leaving prison.
Rosengarten's original recordings consisted of more than 60 hours of interviews with Ned Cobb and an unknown number of hours of interviews with members of his family, including his children and second wife. The 47 tapes represent a portion of the original interviews. There are 18 tapes of interviews with Ned Cobb, 20 tapes of interviews with his family, and five tapes of interviews with unidentified persons. There is also a small number of tapes with music and other recordings. Rosengarten edited and re-ordered the interviews for his book All God's Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw (1974).
Back to TopArrangement: Chronological by interviewee followed by unidentified and miscellaneous sound recordings.
Titles and descriptions compiled from original containers. If known, original session numbers and listed beneath titles.
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6148 |
Interview with Edgar Cobb, Philadelphia, Ala., 1 March 19711/4" Open Reel Audio |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6183 |
Interview with Edgar Cobb, 25 March 1972; Interview with Edgar Cobb, 26 March 19721/4" Open Reel Audio Session 3, 25 March 1972 Session 4, 26 March 1972 |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6184 |
Interview with L.G. Cobb, 8 July 19711/4" Open Reel Audio Session 2, 8 July 1971 Side 2, unlabeled |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6187 |
Interview with L.G. Cobb, 9 September 19711/4" Open Reel Audio Side 1, unlabeled Session 4, 9 September 1971 |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6174 |
Interview with Loreen Cobb, 29 November 19711/4" Open Reel Audio Side 1, interview with unidentified male Side 2, Loreen Cobb session 2, 29 November 1971 |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6189 |
Interview with Loreen Cobb, 3 December 19711/4" Open Reel Audio Session 3, 3 December 1971 Side 2, blank |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6190 |
Interview with Ned Cobb, 22 June 19711/4" Open Reel Audio Session 1, 22 June 1971 |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6165 |
Interview with Ned Cobb, 30 June 1971; Interview with Ned Cobb, 2 July 19711/4" Open Reel Audio Session 3, 30 June 1971 Session 4, 30 June 1971 continued on 2 July 1971 |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6153 |
Interview with Ned Cobb, 12 July 19711/4" Open Reel Audio Session 4, 12 July 1971 Session 5, 12 July 1971 |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6154 |
Interview with Ned Cobb, 9 July 1971; Interview with Ned Cobb, 13 July 19711/4" Open Reel Audio Session 6, 9 July 1971 Session 7, 13 July 1971 |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6179 |
Interview with Ned Cobb, 19-20 July 19711/4" Open Reel Audio Side 1, unlabeled Session 9, 19-20 July 1971 |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6151 |
Interview with Ned Cobb, 3 August 19711/4" Open Reel Audio Session 13, 3 August 1971 |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6150 |
Interview with Ned Cobb, 6 August 1971; Interview with Ned Cobb, 7 August 19711/4" Open Reel Audio Session 14, 6 August 1971 Session 15, 7 August 1971 |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6177 |
Interview with Ned Cobb, 20 August 19711/4" Open Reel Audio Session 8, 20 August 1971 |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6185 |
Interview with Ned Cobb, 30 August 19711/4" Open Reel Audio Side 1, unlabeled Session 2, 30 August 1971 |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6166 |
Interview with Ned Cobb, 9 September 19711/4" Open Reel Audio Side 1, unlabeled Session 26, 9 September 1971 |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6162 |
Readings by Theodore Rosengarten, undated; Interview with Ned Cobb, 11 September 19711/4" Open Reel Audio Readings by Theodore Rosengarten, undated Session 27, 11 September 1971 |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6164 |
Interview with Ned Cobb, 22 September 1971; Interview with Ned Cobb, 23 September 19711/4" Open Reel Audio Session 23, 22 September 1971 Session 24, 23 September 1971 |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6178 |
Interview with Ned Cobb, 28 September 19711/4" Open Reel Audio Side 1, unlabeled Session 28, September 1971 |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6168 |
Interview with Ned Cobb, undated1/4" Open Reel Audio |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6170 |
Interview with Ned Cobb, undated1/4" Open Reel Audio Side 2, blank |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6175 |
Interview with Ned Cobb, undated1/4" Open Reel Audio |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6176 |
Interview with Ned Cobb, undated1/4" Open Reel Audio |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6186 |
Interview with Ned Cobb, undated1/4" Open Reel Audio Side 1, unlabeled Side 2, blank |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6181 |
Interview with O.C. Cobb, Detroit Mich., 3 July 19721/4" Open Reel Audio Session 1, 3 July 1972 Detroit Mich. Side 2, unlabeled |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6173 |
Interview with O.C. Cobb, 10 July 19721/4" Open Reel Audio Side 1, interview with unidentified male Side 2, O.C. Cobb session 3, 10 July 1972 |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6171 |
Interview with O.C. Cobb, Detroit Mich., 11 July 19721/4" Open Reel Audio Session 4, 11 July 1972, Detroit Mich. Side 2, blank |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6155 |
Interview with Paul Cobb, 21 June 1971; Interview with Paul Cobb, 24 June 19711/4" Open Reel Audio Session 1, 21 June 1971 Session 2, 24 June 1971 |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6157 |
Interview with Paul Cobb and Eddie Kendall, undated; Interview with Paul Cobb, 1 July 19711/4" Open Reel Audio |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6156 |
Interview with Paul Cobb, 5 April 1971; Interview with Paul Cobb, 5 July 19711/4" Open Reel Audio 5 April 1971 Session 6, 5 July 1971 |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6152 |
Interview with Paul Cobb, 12 July 1971; Interview with Paul Cobb, 22 July 19711/4" Open Reel Audio Session 7, 12 July 1971 Session 8, 22 July 1971 |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6159 |
Interview with Roberta Cobb, 1 September 19711/4" Open Reel Audio Side 1, unlabeled Session 2, 1 September 1971 |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6169 |
Interview with Annie Ruth Cobb Hill, 9 December 19711/4" Open Reel Audio Side 1, unlabeled Side 2, Annie Ruth Cobb Hill session 2, 9 December 1971 |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6180 |
Interview with Lisa Cobb Holland, 9 August 1971; Interview with Lisa Cobb Holland, 16 August 19711/4" Open Reel Audio Session 3, 9 August 1971 Session 4, 16 August 1971 |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6191 |
Interview with Lisa Cobb Holland, undated1/4" Open Reel Audio |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6182 |
Interview with Lorenzo "Pipa" Davis, Birmingham, Ala., 9 July 19771/4" Open Reel Audio Session 1, 9 July 1977, Birmingham, Ala. Side 2, unlabeled |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6149 |
Interview with Caludie Mae Hutchenson, Brooklyn, N.Y., 22-23 March 19721/4" Open Reel Audio |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6188 |
Interview with one of Ned Cobb's daughters, undated1/4" Open Reel Audio |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6195 |
Interview with unidentified person, Canton, Ohio, undated1/4" Open Reel Audio |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6194 |
Interview with unidentified person talking about baseball, undated1/4" Open Reel Audio |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6167 |
Interview with unidentified woman, undated1/4" Open Reel Audio Side 2, blank |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6193 |
Interview with unidentified woman, undated1/4" Open Reel Audio |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6172 |
Music, undated1/4" Open Reel Audio Live music by unknown performers |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6158 |
Music, undated1/4" Open Reel Audio |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6160 |
Music, undated1/4" Open Reel Audio |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6161 |
Political meeting, undated1/4" Open Reel Audio |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6192 |
Sonny and Brownie, Work gang, undated1/4" Open Reel Audio |
SFC Audio Open Reel FT-5407/6163 |
Unidentified sound recording, undated1/4" Open Reel Audio |