This work documents the lived experience of an African American woman born into a large sharecropping family, examining the socioeconomic realities of the early 20th-century American South and the subsequent Great Migration. The authors, Dorothy Marie Rice and Lucille Mabel Walthall Payne, utilize oral history techniques to capture the personal narrative of the seventeenth child. By centering the subject's voice, the text provides a granular account of survival, labor, and domestic life during the Great Depression across two distinct geographic regions.

The subject matter points to a significant, primary-source-driven account that offers a localized view of the African American experience during a period of profound national instability. The framing suggests a valuable, intimate historical record that prioritizes the subject's individual perspective over broader, generalized historical narratives.