Weevils in the Wheat: Interviews with Virginia Ex-Slaves by Charles L. Perdue Jr.

by Charles L. Perdue

Taken from the records of the Federal Writers' Project of the 1930s, these interviews with one-time Virginia slaves provide a clear window into what it was like to be enslaved in the antebellum American South.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, African American, American History

Unknown Binding

First published March 1, 1980

Reviews

[Emunah Y'srael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome compilations of real life stories from slavery, you can feel, touch and hear the sentiments, experiences and mood of slavery from the source.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a large compilation of interviews from Virginian ex-slaves. The interviews come from various government projects in the late 1930s, and it looks like a good bit of work was done in trying to work on the data to aid and assist the reader in verifying dates, places, or people.

I happened to see this while walking through the library, and I was impressed by how real these stories are. Because we're no longer able to hear these stories firsthand, it is wonderful that these were saved so that we can hear about these experiences today. At times, some of these stories are hard to push through because these were written from verbal interviews in the dialect of the subjects. But the dialect is part of the experience, so it more than makes up for any difficulty in reading the dialect.

In this book, you will find stories of all types that give a great understanding of what life must have been like for these people. Because these stories are so good and meaningful, I would recommend it to anyone that wishes they would have had the ability to sit down and talk to these folks. I thought it was well worth it for that experience.