Voices from slavery : 100 authentic slave narratives / edited by Norman R. Yetman.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Yetman, Norman R., 1938-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Enslaved persons--United States--Biography.

Enslaved persons.

United States.

African Americans--Interviews.

African Americans.

Genre:

Biographies.

Interviews.

Physical Description:

xiii, 398 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Mineola, N.Y. : Dover, [2000]

Summary:

In the late 1930s, the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration embarked upon a project to interview 100 former American slaves. The result of that unique undertaking was this collection of authentic first-hand accounts documenting the lives of men and women once held in bondage in the antebellum South.

In candid, often blunt narratives, elderly former slaves recall what it was like to wake before sunrise and work until dark, endure whippings, branding, and separation from one's spouse and children, suffer the horrors of slave auctions and countless other indignities, and finally -- to witness the arrival of Northern troops and experience the first days of ambiguous freedom.

Included here are vivid descriptions of good masters and bad ones, and treatment that ran the gamut from indulgent and benevolent supervision to the harshest exploitation and cruelty. These and many other unforgettable -- sometimes unspeakable -- aspects of slave life are recalled in simple, often poignant language that brings home with dramatic impact the true nature of slavery. Accompanied by 32 starkly compelling photographs, the text includes a new preface and an additional essay by Norman R. Yetman, a specialist in American studies.

An invaluable resource for students and scholars of African-American history, this thoroughly engrossing book will be of great interest as well to general readers.

Contents:

The Background of the Slave Narrative Collection 339

Ex-Slave Interviews and the Historiography of Slavery 357

Appendix I Narratives in the Slave Narrative Collection by State 387

Appendix II Race of Interviewers 388.

Notes:

Originally published: New York : Holt, Rinehart and Winston, c1970. With new pref.

Contains additional chapter, "Ex-slave interviews and the historiography of slavery," originally published in 1984 in American quarterly.

ISBN:

0486409120

OCLC:

42652695