Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves South Carolina Narratives, Part 1

by Work Projects Administration

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Race

385 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 2, 2007

Reviews

[Susan Molloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

✒️ This is part of a series of interviews the United States government (under the WPA) conducted with former servants in North Carolina during 1936-38 (within The Great Depression). Excellent for my research projects. It’s interesting to read the former slaves’ recollections and events they experienced or overhead during the slave years, and their general thoughts on the current world and society. Many, but not all, of the interviews were transcribed in dialect, so reading them is all the more special. It continues to fascinate me how many of them speak about how the youngsters of their current day don’t appreciate what they have and that they are generally “lazy” (Some thoughts and comments such as these just don’t change over the centuries, do they?), and that they had a better life under slavery since they had every need securely supplied on the plantation. The contemporary black and white photographs add greatly to this work of valuable history and research.

📙Published in 1941. In the public domain.
🎨Illustrated.

જ⁀🟢Read e-book at Project Gutenberg.
જ⁀🟣 Kindle.
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[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Im greatful the government put unemployed writer to work by interviewing former slaves. There are volumes and volumes of these interviews. Its an honor to read the past and be directly enlightened by people directly affected (oppressed) by slavery.

[Wealhtheow · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s mostly in dialect, which I hate, but I was enthralled by these stories. I have never been more thankful for the Depression (and thus, the WPA) than while reading ex-slaves’ tales of their lives. What’s really fascinating is how matter-of-fact they are about everything, and the casual cruelties they took for granted—whipping people in the morning so they would have to work the entire day with a flayed back, that sort of thing.

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have mixed feeling about this one. Worth reading, but painful to think of the hardships which were endured. One line of questioning in particular bothered me, about beliefs in ghosts, because it seemed more about ridiculing those being interviewed than understanding the reasons for those beliefs.