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Assorted manuscript documents from the William Massie family, arranged chronologically. Includes business correspondence and news; agricultural dispatches regarding weather, crops, and prices; correspondence to Massie about buying and selling crops and seeds, including rye; financial accounts for equipment, supplies, and crops; a 1841 report by Joseph Cabell on the a turnpike company; an invoice to Massie for postage fees due in 1842; an 1841 report card for Helen Massie and a 1845 October 10 letter about her schooling from Ellen Massie; a letter dated 1847 March 18 denouncing President Polk from James Heath; and some family and personal correspondence from William Effinger. Includes a note to William Massie from Alexander Brown conveying disappointment that Massie was not running for state legislature in 1840. Includes receipt for the 1840 December 29 purchase of "a Negro Man Warner" (also referred to as "Boy Warner") by William Massie for eight hundred three dollars. Includes a letter dated 1841 January 3 from an agent, Bowling Clark, to Massie, containing details of typical hiring prices he witnessed for different enslaved laborers, including "middle aged men with their wives and from one to three small children with them hired from one hundred and twenty to $140 and with an express understanding that they were neither to ditch nor work on any public work." Includes a letter from John Jenkins to William Massie offering the sale of an unnamed enslaved girl, writing: "I would like to sell them to you as you have her mother," and "as she wishes to come to you I would like to accommodate her" (1847 June 8).

Ye Yaolang (b.1938) is a resident of Zhaixia Village, Pengzhai Town, Heping County, Heyuan City, Guangdong Province. Ye learned tailoring with his father after elementary school and then taught himself painting bed boards. He went to places to paint boards to escape the Great Famine. Ye recollects that, during the Great Leap Forward, the production team planted crops on two sides of the road just to impress their leaders, and used soil to fake fertilizers. The production team also spilled too many crop seeds and gained no harvest. They put layers of sweet potato vines on the field, which did not lead to more sweet potatoes at all.

Zeng Man (b.1929) is a resident of Zhaixia Village, Pengzhai Town, Heping County, Heyuan City, Guangdong Province. Zeng took part in the denunciation of landlords during the Cultural Revolution. She went to landlords' homes to tie people up and carry their properties. The landlords were put in pig cages and their properties were shared between other villagers. The Red Guards wronged many people. After the communization, many starved to death. The production team put too many seeds in the field, and could not get enough harvest afterwards. People ran out of food quickly. Zeng did not suffer hunger because her family works at the eating hall and secretly brought back food. The transcript of this interview has been translated into English.

Huang Yujiao (b.1935) is a resident of Zhaixia Village, Pengzhai Town, Heping County, Heyuan City, Guangdong Province. When Huang was seven years old, she became a child bride. After the liberation, she got divorced after being abused. She was then married to Ye Hengqin. Huang says that they sprinkled seeds instead of planting them. Following orders from higher authorities, they put many seeds within the same field and the crops could not live. During the Famine, people ate many kinds of famine foods. Someone ate twelve jin of zucchinis and got bloated to death. Someone died after eating too many bamboo shoots.

Ye Shiying (b.1938) is a resident of Zhaixia Village, Pengzhai Town, Heping County, Heyuan City, Guangdong Province. Ye recollects that, during the Great Famine, people could only get two tablespoons of porridge from the eating hall every day, and ate them with steamed sweet potato slices at home. She also ate many other kinds of famine food and she could hardly find potatoes in the mountains after working for a whole day. Many people starved to death after the communization, including people in the elderly homes and maternities. The production team sprinkled seeds instead of actually planting them; they had no harvest, but reported the opposite to the higher authorities.

Zhang Xiaogeng (b.1930) is a resident of Xizhai Village, Hanguguan Town, Lingbao City, Henan Province. In this interview, Zhang remembers experiences during the Great Leap Forward and the Great Famine. Due to the proneness to boasting and exaggeration at that time, tens of thousands jin of wheat and sweet potatoes were reported while the actual yield was only two or three hundred, and otherwise they would be criticized. When constructing backyard furnace, the village was organized into military units. Starvation began in 1960, because too much food was collected, the peasants didn't have enough to eat. He recalls eating corns and all kinds of leaves, eating grain seeds secretly while planting them as long as the cadres didn't know. At that time, peasants were divided into two classes, and landlords and rich peasants were struggled and beaten up.

Zhu Shunlian (b. 1937) was born in Zhushan County, Shiyan City, Hubei Province, and moved to Diaoyutai Village (Yindian Town, Suizhou City, Hubei Province) in 1988. Her husband was once the production team leader. In this interview, Zhu recalls that she and her husband worked at Zhushan mine and ate at the People's Commune canteen in 1959. The food available in the canteen and households included buckwheat, corn flour, grass root, rice chaff, tree leaves, chingma abutilon seed and wild walnut, as well as a mixture made of soy milk, pumpkin leaves, string bean leaves, potato leaves and wild plants. Zhu also remembers that some people from Sichuan escaped to Hubei because of the famine.

Qiu Jiafa (b.1940) is a resident of Diaoyutai Village, Yindian Town, Suizhou City, Hubei Province. During the Great Famine, Qiu was in middle school and his teachers led students to find oak tree seed and bark, vitex leaves and Chinese scholar tree flowers for food. All members of the production team had to participate in building the reservoir and a meal provided by the People's Commune Canteen included only two liang of rice and boiled water grass. Qiu's father starved to death in 1959. Qiu believes that the Great Famine happened partly because the cadres much exaggerated the grain production to gain political achievements, and partly because the cadres stole some grain given by the government. Commune members of the production team dared not report because they were afraid of the vengency from the cadres.

Fang Xuekun said that the People's Commue was a total failure. The Great Leap Forward movement gave only empty promises. The village cadres bragged about production and sold all harvest including grain seeds to the state. In 1959 many people were sick because of starvation. Their belly was so bloated and big. He almost died. People had to mix kaolin clay with little grain to eat in order to survive.

Tang Taozhen (b. 1937) is a resident of Jimingqiao Village, Baiyun Town, Shimen County, Hunan Province. In this interview, Tang recalls how she cooked in the people's commune canteen, and how some villagers ate grass seeds because of starvation. Tang also recalls no babies were born during 1958 and 1961 because couples were working separately at different places and they were too starving.

Tang Chaogao (b. 1944) is a resident of Jimingqiao Village, Baiyun Town, Shimen County, Hunan Province. In this interview, Tang briefly talks about how he ate tree bark and grass seeds because of starvation when running the people's commune canteen.

Liu Yuzhen (b. 1919) is a resident of Wangjiayan Village, Baiyun Town, Shimen County, Hunan Province. In this interview, Liu recalls how her in-laws died of starvation and how some villagers were forced to stand for eating grass seeds when running the people's commune canteen.

Lu Fenglan (b. 1947) is a resident of Nanhou Village, Shanxi Province. In this interview, Lu talks about her experience during the Great Leap Forward and the Great Famine. After the communal canteen was established in 1958, whoever didn't work in the field couldn't get any food from the canteen. Those who owed the production team work points had to be fined. Therefore, Lu had to ask someone to take care of her kids while she went to work at the dam. She had to pay the nanny with some of the work points she earned. Although her own life was quite difficult, Lu lent several buns to her maternal grandpa twice.