Crossing Over, Author Edith Stanley Chronicled the

¶ … Crossing Over," author Edith Stanley chronicled the life of Mary Lee and fellow African-Americans who were formerly slaves in Gee's Bend, Alabama. In chronicling the life of former slaves and generations of African-Americans after them, Stanly connected poignant points in Mary Lee's life with significant changes and events in the lives of the former slaves in Gee's Bend.

Stanley's depiction of Mary Lee's story was both personal and historical, and the two stories are inextricably linked, allowing the readers to further understand a former cotton plantation slave's view of life with slavery, without slavery, and the changes that time has brought to her life and her community at Gee's Bend.

Stanley's interview of Mary Lee and her narrative of the former slave's life in Gee's Bend demonstrates the effective utilization of an in-depth interview to provide insight into the experiences of a former plantation slave and delve into the psyche of an African-American who was a former slave and has experienced changes in her life throughout different milestones in African-Americans' fight for freedom and equality in American society.

Stanley's methodology, in-depth interview, shows that this kind of qualitative methodology can cull out important information and insights that would give greater understanding of a specific topic or issue at hand. In Stanley's case, an in-depth interview with Mary Lee gave her and her readers a powerful depiction of the life an African-American throughout specific points of history, back when slavery was part of American society to the civil rights movement, and finally as Mary Lee survived to live in the 20th century.

One issue of interest to the researcher that could be explored through the qualitative research design was exploring the concept of "altruism" from the perspective of "voluntourists," tourists who travel to other countries to experience both the country's tourist sites and culture and at the same time, take part in volunteering for charity foundations or non-government organizations (or NGOs).

In addition to feelings of altruism, the researcher will also look into the 'voluntourism experience,' and differentiate this to the experience of a real volunteer for development and a tourist visiting a country solely for leisure. The proposed methodology for this study is in-depth interview, since this is the most appropriate methodology, taking into account the possibility that the individual/voluntourist to be interviewed is not currently located in the U.S., and deployed or currently 'voluntouring' in another country and/or continent. In-depth interviews.