Memories of Childhood's Slavery Days

by Annie L. Burton

The memory of my happy, care-free childhood days on the plantation, with my little white and black companions, is often with me. Neither master nor mistress nor neighbors had time to bestow a thought upon us, for the great Civil War was raging. That great event in American history was a matter wholly outside the realm of our childish interests. Of course we heard our elders discuss the various events of the great struggle, but it meant nothing to us. On the plantation there were ten white children and fourteen colored children. Our days were spent roaming about from plantation to plantation, not knowing or caring what things were going on in the great world outside our little realm. Planting time and harvest time were happy days for us. How often at the harvest time the planters discovered cornstalks missing from the ends of the rows, and blamed the crows! We were called the "little fairy devils. " To the sweet potatoes and peanuts and sugar cane we also helped ourselves.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction

100 pages, Kindle Edition

About the author

Annie L. Burton (born c. 1858) was an African American memoirist. She was born into slavery on a plantation near Clayton, Alabama. Her date of death is uncertain. Her life's story is captured in her 1909 autobiography Memories of Childhood's Slavery Days. In her autobiography Burton relates that the end of slavery not only signaled a time for African Americans to start a new life, but also a time to redefine their lives. "Burton's Memories details not only one woman's quest from slavery to physical freedom but also her journey from a proscribed role to the creation of own free identity."

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Joanne Fate · Rating 4 out of 5]

The memoir portion is very short, and then there is a short essay by another person. After that, there's a series of her favorite hymns. I think it is really a 3 star book, but former slave narratives are important to read. I read this on my Kindle. It's a quick read.

[Cryssy · Rating 5 out of 5]

HISTORY

I've always enjoyed books and movies about cultural history, especially one that is apart of me. This book is a good read although the events are not always in order and the grammar is exactly what you would expect a slave to speak like, in my opinion it's still interesting reading and the grammar gives it a more personal touch. African-Americans went through so much during those days and still managed to make livings and some even become successful. This book made me think about my life and how blessed I am in this day and age.

[Teri · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a short little book written by Annie L. Burton, a young African American who grew up a slave. Most of her autobiography is written about her life after emancipation but it does briefly discuss the days of living as a young slave on a plantation in Alabama. The last 1/3 or more of the book is dedicated to poems and songs that inspired her.

[Wynsum Wise · Rating 2 out of 5]

More like a log of life events. Aurora is cool and detached from the narrative.

[Corinna Dunn · Rating 1 out of 5]

The narration was atrocious and it irritated me. It made it difficult to take I'm the true importance of this short book.

[Geoff Sebesta · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is amazing how typical this narrative is; I would call it probably the most average narrative I've read yet. It was written by a woman who was only seven when she was freed, went on and lived an interesting and productive life, finally went to college in her old age, was asked by a teacher to write a narrative of her experiences, and did so.

It suffers from bad structure, since she repeats the whole story twice, most of it happens long after the 1860s, there's a long section about how amazing it was that her teacher asked to write it, and the last half of the narrative is just poems that she likes. These features are all very typical of former slave narratives, but here there's nothing else. Other than some tidbits about reconstruction, some observations on marriage under slavery, and some good stories about her mother, there isn't much here for a modern reader.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two books that also aren't worth mentioning at great length are The Story of My Childhood by Clara Barton and Memories of Childhood's Slavery Days by Annie L. Burton. I listened to these both on Librivox while I was doing Christmas iStore. Ms. Barton wrote her memoirs of childhood as an elderly woman after schoolchildren wrote to her persistently asking her about her younger days. Mrs. Burton wrote her memoirs while attending a night school in Boston. Ms. Barton's stories are all about growing up as the oops child of a prosperous New England farm family and being taught everything by four siblings who were already teenage schoolteachers. Mrs. Burton had worse origins, obviously. She still had time to roughhouse in the woods and poke at interesting things with sticks, but she didn't have any food. All the slaves left the plantation during the Civil War, including Mrs. Burton's mother, who went to set up a better life for her children, and Mrs. Burton and her siblings remained in the big house for a year until her mother came back for them. Ms. Barton attended the Civil War and says she would rather face the cannons at Antietam again than speak at public meeting. Mrs. Burton tells about the first night in her mother's cabin with a small hoe cake to divide between mother, a brother and a sister, and some other children, when a white woman and her children knocked cautiously at the door and asked if they could stay the night, because they are displaced by the war. Mother shares the hoe cake and young Annie is happy when they go so she won't have to share her food again. Meanwhile, Clara Barton's friend's horse runs away. Mrs. Burton grows up and moves north, works a series of jobs, and opens a couple restaurants. There's not a lot of childhood or slavery here and the books falls to a litany of employers. Ms. Barton's keeps the anecdotes coming. Being forbidden to ice skate, fever, crippling shyness. In the end, one of the leading lights of American phrenology stays at her parents' house while he's on the New England lecture circuit and he tells Mrs. Baron, "Clara will never stick up for herself, but she'll stick up for other people. Get her a school." So Ms. Barton is quickly trained up as a school teacher and rousingly successful at it. Founding the Red Cross isn't mentioned at all. Both books are worth the two hours it takes to listen to each of them.

http://surfeitofbooks.blogspot.com/20...

[Nicholas Maulucci · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting, cultural book. written from a slave's point of view. this slave had sympathetic owners. while many slaves were treated badly, many were much better off in America with work and love from their owners. after the emancipation, many slaves were bereaved as they now had to find work and lodging on their own. it was a provocative time in American history. an insightful read. simple and sheds light on slavery days.

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enlightening ;-)

[lemoney snicket · Rating 1 out of 5]

it was ok

[Karen]

* Understanding Oppression: African American Rights (Then and Now)

Documenting the American South: the Southern Experience in 19-th Century America #slavery