Interview with Olga Kalinina by Karina Kalinina:

Revealing the Hidden Secrets of the Past

Topic: Compare/contrast life of African Americans to life of the white population of the South

Question:

1. How did the lives of enslaved African Americans differ from the lives led by their masters?

Answer:

1. Every aspect of a typical life, such as access to education, varied meals, clothing, and forms of entertainment, differed greatly in the daily lives led by the two races.

Question:

2. How did the lives of enslaved African Americans prove to be similar to the lives led by their masters?

Answer:

2. Each race had a specific culture and some form of entertainment, such as dancing, singing, acting, and so on and so forth.

Question:

3. How did the attitudes of whites toward African Americans differ from the North to the South?

Answer:

3. Whites living in the North regarded African Americans as humans and thus outlawed slavery, yet Caucasians of the South viewed blacks as their property, which should be kept enslaved.

Question:

4. What role did African Americans serve during the Civil War?

Answer:

4. African Americans served an honorable role in the Civil War by accompanying the Union troops in the battle against the Confederates in order to gain their individual freedom and liberty for their brethren.

Question:

5. How did the general African American view of President Lincoln differ with the view of the president by white supremacists?

Answer:

5. African Americans considered President Lincoln to be “the emancipator” and an impartial, honorable man. White supremacists, however, believed Lincoln was a menacing and unjust abolitionist centered more on issues concerning blacks, rather than the nation’s troubles.

Question:

6. What forms of segregation did African Americans experience?

Answer:

6. African Americans were mainly segregated from whites at hotels, restaurants, cinemas, theaters, certain shops, and other public locations. Additionally, black individuals were mandated by law to have used separate drinking fountains and restrooms, to have been divided into separate regiments in the military, etc.

Question:

7. How did the lifestyles of African Americans revolutionize after the Civil War?

Answer:

7. African Americans finally gained their independence after the Civil War, yet most of them weren’t accustomed to this new sensation of liberty and were deprived of the food, shelter, and clothing typically received from their masters. This caused colossal swarms of blacks to seek vocations as sharecroppers on white-owned land without the landowners being able to claim the free blacks as their slaves.