Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United StatesFrom Interviews with Former SlavesArkansas 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

216 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 11, 1941

Reviews

[Doreen Petersen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Heart breaking stories of slaves. The reason I gave this book 1 star was because of the interviewers comments and attitudes towards the people they interviewed. It was cold and unfeeling and they should be ashamed of themselves. These were human beings they were talking to and they should have been treated with far more respect than they were.

[Sundry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely fascinating. There are as many different tales as there are individuals who lived it. I've looked at a few of these WPA collections and very much prefer those in the style of this collection, which aims to preserve the speech patterns and character of the speakers.

I started reading a collection of narratives collected in Indiana but was dismayed to find that they had been rewritten in third person by someone else.

The only reason I didn't give this 5 stars is that I would like to know a bit about the interviewers, and I wish they gave a little more info on how they found the interviewees. There are some hints, but they are few.

One also has to remember that most of the interviewees were little children at the end of slavery and in the aftermath, so unless things were pretty dire, many report being fairly satisfied with their lives. As we know, kids don't have the perspective of adults and weren't privvy to many of the realities of their situations.

It's interesting, too, how many children didn't survive, and on the other hand, how many lived into their 90s and beyond.

[Susan Molloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

✒️An excellent resource of workers' narratives, mostly recollections from the Antebellum period, and some interviews with secondhand stories. Important to note that some interviews are written in dialect. A WPA Project.

📕Published — 1936. In the public domain.
🎨 Illustrated with black and white photographs.

જ⁀🟢Read on ρ𝕣ꪮ𝕛ꫀᥴ𝕥 ᧁꪊ𝕥ꫀꪀ᥇ꫀ𝕣ᧁ.
༺༻༺༻✬༺༻༺༻✬༺༻༺༻✬༺༻༺༻


INTERVIEWEES:
Abbott, Silas
Abernathy,
Lucian Abromsom,
Laura Adeline,
Aunt Adway,
Rose Aiken,
Liddie Aldridge,
Mattie Alexander,
Amsy O. Alexander,
Diana Alexander,
Fannie Alexander,
Lucretia Allen,
Ed Allison,
Lucindy Ames,
Josephine Anderson,
Charles Anderson,
Nancy Anderson,
R.B. Anderson,
Sarah Anderson,
Selie Anderson,
W.A. Anthony,
Henry Arbery,
Katie Armstrong,
Campbell Armstrong,
Cora Baccus,
Lillie Badgett,
Joseph Samuel Bailey,
Jeff Baker,
James Baltimore,
William Banks,
Mose Banner,
Henry Barnett,
John W.H. Barnett,
Josephine Ann Barnett,
Lizzie Barnett,
Spencer Barr,
Emma Barr,
Robert Bass,
Matilda Beal,
Emmett Beard,
Dina Beck,
Annie Beckwith,
J.H. Beel,
Enoch Belle,
Sophie D. Bellus,
Cyrus Benford,
Bob Bennet,
Carrie Bradley Logan Benson,
George Benton,
Kato Bertrand,
James Biggs,
Alice Billings,
Mandy Birch,
Jane Black,
Beatrice Blackwell,
Boston Blake,
Henry Blakeley,
Adeline Bobo,
Vera Roy Boechus,
Liddie Bond, Maggie (Bunny) Bonds,
Caroline Boone,
Rev. Frank T. Boone,
J.F. Boone,
Jonas Bowdry,
John Boyd,
Jack Boyd,
Mal Braddox,
George Braddox,
George Bradley,
Edward Bradley,
Rachel Brannon,
Elizabeth Brantley,
Mack Brass,
Ellen Bratton,
Alice Briles,
Frank Brooks,
Mary Ann Brooks,
Waters Brown,
Casie Jones Brown,
Elcie Brown,
F.H. Brown,
George Brown,
J.N. Brown,
Lewis Brown,
Lewis Brown,
Lewis Brown,
Mag Brown,
Mary Brown,
Mattie Brown,
Molly Brown,
Peter Brown,
William Brown,
William Broyles,
Maggie Bryant,
Ida Buntin,
Belle Burgess,
Jeff Burkes,
Norman Burks, Sr.,
Will Burris,
Adeline Butler,
Jennie Byrd,
E.L. Byrd,
Emmett Augusta

[Monica Hess · Rating 5 out of 5]

Real people, telling their stories of life during slavery. It shocked me when I read it. This is an amazing study and difficult to comprehend. Not every slave owner was a horrible person. Many were good people who worked hard to scratch out a living in rough circumstances. Freedom brought both good and bad things to both sides. It seems that after reading their testimonies I realize how complicated things really are and that we shouldn't go back 150 years and judge people by the yardsticks we have now.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not done reading this, and I wouldn't say I am enjoying it, but I am so grateful these books exist. I want to read them all. I have a mania about source documents, "hearing" where something started from, and what the participants thought about it all. We have more access to source materials than ever before, yet to me it seems that regard for them has grown less. Take no-one's word for anything! Take "everyone's" word for nothing! Let no one do your thinking for you!