Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves Kentucky Narratives

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

166 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2006

Reviews

[Susan Molloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

✒️ Excellent, excellent! Reading these narratives provides another look into what the interviewees experienced, witnessed, and heard about. I enjoyed reading this immensely.

This is part of a series of interviews the United States government (under the WPA) conducted with former servants in Kentucky during The Great Depression. 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. The contemporary black and white photographs add greatly to this work of valuable history and research.

📙Published in 1941. In the public domain.

🟢The e-book version can be found at Project Gutenberg.
🟣 Kindle.
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[Fran · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since the printed page is really just a copy of the typewritten reports, some narratives are hard to read. After awhile some are just a repeat of everything else. It's a shame that more questions weren't asked of these valuable resources than the interviewers asked. I was stricken with the statements these folks made regarding how good their life was on the plantation. They all seemed to know slaves that were badly treated but none thought they were. They also described their homes as being cabins, chinked with mud, some with dirt floors. They talked of getting one set of clothes in the winter and one for summer. They talked about what they ate and it really wasn't much. I kept thinking of the old saying "You don't really miss what you've never had." and think that it is true!