arrow left envelope headphones search facebook instagram twitter flickr menu rss play circle itunes calendar
Oct. 12, 2019
John Egerton Prize at the Southern Festival of Books, Nashville
Oct. 24-26, 2019
2019 SFA Fall Symposium, Oxford ⟶
Dec. 9, 2019
SFA Celebrates Jenni Harris, Atlanta History Center
March 28, 2020
2020 SFA Spring Symposium, Birmingham
Oct. 8-10, 2020
2020 SFA Fall Symposium, Oxford
Support
the SFA
Support
the SFA
Oct. 12, 2019
John Egerton Prize at the Southern Festival of Books, Nashville
Oct. 24-26, 2019
2019 SFA Fall Symposium, Oxford ⟶
Dec. 9, 2019
SFA Celebrates Jenni Harris, Atlanta History Center
March 28, 2020
2020 SFA Spring Symposium, Birmingham
Oct. 8-10, 2020
2020 SFA Fall Symposium, Oxford

Oral Histories

The SFA oral history program documents life stories from the American South. Collecting these stories, we honor the people whose labor defines the region.

< Back to Oral History project: Tidewater Foodways

ORAL HISTORY

Kevin Godsey

Kevin Godsey, born in 1972, is the son and grandson of watermen. He lives on land that has been in his family for three hundred years. Godsey has witnessed the continual decline of commercial watermen in Mathews County, Virginia. As a child, helping his father, he saw eighty to a hundred boats leave the docks each morning. Now, Kevin works alone on a skiff. He crabs, oysters, and fishes seasonally. He carries his catch directly to Richmond to a network of seafood stores. Godsey also takes part in state aquaculture programs, growing hybrid oysters. He educates young people about how oysters are harvested. He is also an avid collector of seafood-related ephemera, from oyster cans to general store accounting books.

Date of interview:
2018-05-20

Interviewer:
Jessica Taylor and Patrick Daglaris

Photographer:
Beth Wood

Download Transcript

“

“The average crabber in Virginia is sixty-two years old now. And there’s nobody young. I’m the youngest person at forty-six that’s doing it.”

Other Project Interviews

Interview

William Barnhardt

William Barnhardt owns and manages Willaby’s in White Stone, Virginia.

Interview

William “Tootsie” Harwood

William “Tootsie” Harwood farms and raises livestock in Gloucester County, Virginia.

Interview

Susan Hill

Susan Hill owns and manages Car Wash Cafe in Kilmarnock, Virginia.

Interview

Susan “Sudy” McKnight

Sudy McKnight recounts her childhood spent at her grandfather’s general store in Mobjack Bay, Virginia.

Interview

Richard Carr

Richard Carr cooks at Berret’s Seafood Restaurant in Williamsburg, Virginia

Interview

Charles and Mary Alice Woerner

Charles and Mary Alice Woerner volunteer at the Church of St. Therese in Gloucester Courthouse, Virginia.

Interview

Ashley Spivey

Ashley Spivey directs the Pamunkey Indian Tribal Resource Center in King William County, Virginia.

Interview

Abigail Fine

Abigail Fine worked as a historical interpreter in the kitchens of Colonial Williamsburg in Williamsburg, Virginia.

WORKING TOGETHER

WE CAN CULTIVATE PROGRESS.

The Southern Foodways Alliance drives a more progressive future by leading conversations that challenge existing constructs, shape perspectives, and foster meaningful discussions. We reconsider the past with research, scrutiny, and documentation.

BECOME A MEMBER TODAY

Bill Smith Crooks Corner

Let’s Stay in Touch

Sign up for the SFA newsletter to have the latest content
delivered directly to your inbox.