Listen to the voices of the Great Migration with JSTOR Daily.

In the 1970s, Johnetta Brazzell and her colleagues recorded Black residents of Pontiac, Michigan, as they recalled the journeys that brought their families north. Their stories preserve memories of work, discrimination, community life, and the decisions that shaped a new home. Many of these interviews now live on JSTOR as audio recordings with transcripts, allowing listeners to hear the pauses and emotion that written history can miss. They have been shared by Oakland University.

Explore an oral history archive built from the memories of everyday people.

He got stuck in the garage

(Nashville Warbler?)

Jean-Baptiste Pointe DuSable was born in Saint-Domingue, Haiti (French colony) during the Haitian Revolution. At some point he settled in the part of North America that is now known as the city of Chicago and was described in historical documents as "a handsome negro" He married a Native American woman, Kitiwaha, and they had two children. In 1779, during the American Revolutionary War, he was arrested by the British on suspicion of being an American Patriot sympathizer. In the early 1780s he worked for the British lieutenant-governor of Michilimackinac on an estate at what is now the city of St. Clair, Michigan north of Detroit. In the late 1700's, Jean-Baptiste was the first person to establish an extensive and prosperous trading settlement in what would become the city of Chicago. Historic documents confirm that his property was right at the mouth of the Chicago River. Many people, however, believe that John Kinzie (a white trader) and his family were the first to settle in the area that is now known as Chicago, and it is true that the Kinzie family were Chicago's first "permanent" European settlers. But the truth is that the Kinzie family purchased their property from a French trader who had purchased it from Jean-Baptiste. He died in August 1818, and because he was a Black man, many people tried to white wash the story of Chicago's founding. But in 1912, after the Great Migration, a plaque commemorating Jean-Baptiste appeared in downtown Chicago on the site of his former home. Later in 1913, a white historian named Dr. Milo Milton Quaife also recognized Jean-Baptiste as the founder of Chicago. And as the years went by, more and more Black notables such as Carter G. Woodson and Langston Hughes began to include Jean-Baptiste in their writings as "the brownskin pioneer who founded the Windy City." In 2009, a bronze bust of Jean-Baptiste was designed and placed in Pioneer Square in Chicago along the Magnificent Mile. There is also a popular museum in Chicago named after him called the DuSable Museum of African American History.

Where are you from? Where are you really from?

Do You Know What It Means to Be Loved By Death:

Santiago: D'you both have the same maker? Claudia We did. Yeah. His name was Bruce. Santiago: Bruce? Is he Scottish? ( laughter ) Claudia: He said he was from Copenhagen. We met him on the road just outside of... Chicago. We traveled a lot.

No Pain

Louis: He's in Copenhagen working at a car factory. He hates his maker, takes the boat back to America. He gets me on an El train to Chicago Claudia: I said outside of Chicago. He said he didn't like big cities. He gets me outside Chicago. A diner on the Claudia: way to Gary. You find me in Springfield... Selling chestnuts outside the train station. By the train station. He kills himself in Cincinnati. Louis: What the hell do we know about Cincinnati? Claudia: What do they know about Cincinnati?.. Louis:I pry to keep us safe. You might be having a good time now, but there's danger if they find out we lied. Maybe not Cincinnati. How about Shreveport? Caddo Lake. My daddy took me and Paul there to fish. There's a drawbridge there. He burned on the bridge. Claudia: Shreveport, Caddo Lake, burned himself on the bridge.

Santiago:And what was your shabby life in Chicago before the vampire Bruce bit down on your wee neck? Claudia I was in Springfield... selling little trinkets at the train station. Santiago: You were an orphan? Claudia You could say that. Santiago: And an orphan again. We have that in common... Santiago:It's Louis who's from Chicago, yes? Claudia Just outside it. Gary, Indiana. Santiago:Stick with it, Puce. You're almost there.

And it's very interesting to me that Armand isn't insisting on a specific accent from her for her performances, when he's so rigid about English speaking and "Toulousian Gs" from other actors. [Not all Southern accents sound the same either.] And Claudia sings in French which is different than spoken French.

I Want You More Than Anything In The World

Santiago: See, now that I've wriggled inside your voice, pulled it on like a costume, you don't sound all that Chicago to me. Louis: Outside Chicago. We roamed all around. Santiago: It's that emphasis on the second syllable, borrowed from the French. Louis: So it's mimicry that you're good at. Santiago: Like a parrot? Santiago: Like a gent with upright downstairs. Louis: Or an organ monkey? Santiago: Cajun drawl. I want to test a theory. Say New Orleans! Louis: Or a buffoon!

Santiago is a random British man (not from London) who adopted a Spanish first name who Parisian theater company. What does he actually know? We never hear him go through the woodcutter skit in French. There is no way this man sounds fully bilingual in Parisian French, if Claudia gets teased for her spoken French (by Madeleine).

Santiago, should not have been able to catch Louis out with his Amateur Accent Detective Routine (outside reading Claudia's diaries or vampire mind reading). It's not even a gotcha to say Louis sounds New Orleanean.

It's not even suspicious that a couple of Americans who say they're from around Chicago don't sound like Santiago's idea of "Chicago."

There are TWO very plausible reasons for this:

NOT EVERYONE BORN AND RAISED IN A GREATER METROPOLITAN AREA SPEAKS THE SAME WAY

Not everyone from Chicago sounds the same and not everyone from Boston sounds like Mayor Quimby, and not everyone from Pittsburgh sounds like a yinzer, even if their families have lived there for generations.

The history of segregation is part of it. People first talk like their parents when they're small and then their similarly aged peers.

LOUIS AND CLAUDIA COULD'VE EASILY BEEN MEMBERS OF THE GREAT MIGRATION

Louis and Claudia could've easily been members of the Great Migration. Louis knows several people, including family members, who are part of the Great Migration.

Jonah Macon, Jelly Roll Morton, Grace, Levi, Benjamin, the twins, Louis and Claudia would ALL sound like transplanted New Orleaneans, because that's what they are.

Great Migration routes, 1910-1970.

In their real lives, Louis and Claudia have a lot of incentive to leave New Orleans -- remember Louis' brothel holdings got completely wiped out in 1917 due to the ordinance and not only that the riots (in the show) were in the city burned down Louis' establishment and burned down Claudia's rooming house.

There were riots all over the country in 1917 and 1919 (see the Red Summer), including in Chicago. Claudia leaves in 1923, comes back in 1930, and tries to leave again in 1939. only for Lestat to intercept her riding the train out of New Orleans.

Claudia, in her travels, took the trains up and down all across the country. She absolutely would be familiar with which trains she could stow a ride on and where they went. It's even likely she'd know when the train crossed the Mason Dixon line and she could move freely about the cabins.

She's been to at least one HCBU (Lincoln University in Jefferson, MO) and would probably have picked up on how those students didn't sound exactly like the white people from the same area. Even the students who grew up there.

By the time they leave New Orleans, even Lestat is spooked enough to think the locals might torch their house and wants to leave. A maker who wanted to leave makes sense. It's not even a real lie.

It is extremely plausible that a couple of New Orleaneans could end up in Chicago and not sound like some random transatlantic vampire's idea of Chicago. Santiago is some random British man (who is probably not from London) who adopted a Spanish first name while working with a Parisian theater company. (We never do hear Santiago go through the woodcutter skit in French.)

The most direct trainline out of New Orleans went to Chicago. Chicago was a huge destination during the Great Migration. Springfield, Illinois and Gary, Indiana are close by in the sense they are closer to Chicago but not Chicago.

JONAH MACON

Before 1917: (Philadelphia, Delaware), after 1917(?)

Is My Very Nature That of a Devil (s1e3)

Louis: Where you been, Jonah? Jonah: Philadelphia for a spell, hotel work. Then, a gunpowder mill in Delaware. Fella working next to me blew off three fingers. I saw enough. Hell. Thought this might be a way to rise through the ranks, and... and all that... Louis: You worried about goin' over there? Jonah: Some nights. I mean, my squad's all colored, so we mostly gon' be in the rear, supply lines and shit. Louis: Better than gettin' shot at for a country makes you use the side entrance. Jonah: And most of why I signed up is I kept hearing something about something they call "European sensibilities". They care less what you look like or who you're lookin' at...

Later in the episode Louis says he met Jonah again decades later. He never gives any further details in the series so we can't be sure where they met up, but it's probably not back in the South and definitely not New Orleans.

JELLY ROLL MORTON January/February 1917 (Chicago)

Is My Very Nature That of a Devil (s1e3)

Louis: He admitted later there was nothing wrong with Jelly Roll's playing, only something he overheard in an alleyway... a steady gig for the band in Chicago. Jelly was going to leave me high and dry in a few days, and Lestat took umbrage.

The real Jelly Roll Morton went from New Orleans to Chicago, Vancouver, New York City, Los Angeles in addition to constantly touring. He met and married his wife in 1928 in Gary, Indiana ).

GRACE DE POINTE DU LAC, LEVI FRENIERE, THE TWINS & BENJAMIN

after October 18, 1930 (Boston)

A Vile Hunger For Your Hammering Heart(s1e5):

Grace: We're, um... We're headed north. Crash cleaned us out. And don't offer, because I'm not asking. Levi found some work near Boston. We feel blessed for the work.

"Powerful people don't like educating the people they oppress, because once they're educated, they will take the reins."

Refresh your memory with a look at the unique academic trajectory of John Henrik Clarke: https://www.petervintonjr.com/blm/lesson171.html