1. The meaning of most of the documents in "Letters from Black Migrants" can be found in the social and political context of 1917 in the South and the North. The Reconstruction Era had proved a failure at giving most blacks a true chance at socioeconomic success. Instead, most were barely surviving. World War I brought the opportunity for better jobs and a better life in the industrial North, and this is what the letter-writers are seeking. The immediate meaning is that poor blacks are seeking that better life and fleeing the dangers and limitations of a still thoroughly racist South. Most of the letters are direct or indirect pleas or applications for work from Southern blacks to, apparently, the black Chicago newspaper's readers and/or editors. Some are well-written, and some are barely literate. All strive to give the best and most earnest and educated impression, just as one would do if applying in person for work. Some are adult writers and some are children. With respect to the question of whether or not the letters are truthful or not, we should expect that the writers are putting themselves and their work experience in the best light, while at the same time putting their life situation in the worst light. They are trying to impress the reader so that the reader is (1) impressed with the writer's work history and skills and abilities, and (2) sympathetic with the suffering of the writer and his or her family. Clearly, with so much at stake, we must expect that there would be exaggerations in the letters, in terms of "dressing up" the writer's work history and skills, and in terms of perhaps overstating the undesirable conditions facing the writer and his or her family.
The reports (letters) are written to The Defender, a black newspaper in Chicago. Clearly, the writers hope that their letters will reach anybody---mail-opener, editor, reader, etc.---who will be able to help the writer get a job or secure a new and better life ...