Oral Histories From The Past Give a View of What Life was Like

While researching, I came across an oral history of a man who had worked as a guard in convict camp number 7 near Bessemer. I was not researching mining camps but this got my attention.. There are a lot of oral histories out there, but this guy told the interviewer he did not want his words made available to the public until 5 years after his death. The locations that keeps these oral histories has to abide by this and sign statements to this matter. He worked at the camp for 15  years and stated that there were 9 convict mining camps in Jefferson County Alabama during this time. He was talking about years of the depression 1929 - 1943 , 7 negro convict camps and 2 whites convict camps. He says he was never laid off but his pay was cut. It was a good 10 page read.