The fact that the site states that Oral History is indeed research boggles me. People lie, a lot. They also change and tweek and bend stories/ questions all of the time. I particularly like the story of the slave being interviewed. It reminded me of something I had to study in American Sign Language Linguistics and Deaf Culture when I was going to Camden County College for Interpreting. In the article, it states that the slave had different answers when speaking to the Caucasion interviewer and the African American interviewer. Though, both answers were said to be correct! The slave would tell the interviewers wanted to hear about, or what she believed that they wanted to hear about. This happened in ASL with the Deaf Community. Deaf people, when interviewed by other Deaf people have a different demeanour about them than they would if being interviewed by a Hearing person. What is meant by this is that if a Deaf person realizes that the interviewer is Hearing, the answers change & also the language for that matter. The Deaf person will begin sigining PSE (Pidgin Signed English) or SEE (Signed Exact English). This change in "language" is called a pidgin. The pidgins are used to balance the languages -- but you'll notice that the Deaf on Deaf interview goes more smoothly and the Deaf person being interviewed seems to reveal more and sign more than they would when being interviewed by the Hearing person.
This scares me a bit! When we are going to do out Oral History, I have to make sure to be as neutral as possible with my demeanour and questions asked. I have to be SURE not to sway any answers.