Remembering the days of sorrow : the WPA and the Texas slave narratives / Ronald E. Goodwin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Goodwin, Ronald E., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Slavery--Texas.

Slavery.

Enslaved persons--Texas--Social conditions.

Enslaved persons.

Enslaved persons--Texas--Biography.

Social conditions.

Texas.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xiv, 174 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Buffalo Gap, Texas : State House Press, [2013]

Summary:

Remembering the Days of Sorrow uses the oral narratives of the Texas Slaves' Narratives Project-a Works Progress Administration program designed to support the social and economic agenda of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal-to give hundreds of surviving ex-slaves the opportunity to tell their stories of slavery. Many of the ex-slaves were feeble and frail, and some eagerly anticipated death. Some willingly told their stories, whereas others hesitatingly agreed. Goodwin uses these narratives to shed light on slavery from the slaves' perspective from their feelings about their former masters and overseers, to marriage and children, and many other aspects of their antebellum lives. Further, these narratives, which are quoted extensively in the text, provide glimpses into black life and culture during two of the most distressing times in US history, slavery and the Great Depression, when to be black meant being confined to the lower rungs of US society. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part 1 The Government, the New Deal, and Aging Ex-Slaves 1

1 The WPA and the Slave Narratives 3

2 Remembering Slavery in Texas 13

Part 2 Masters and Slaves 23

3 The Master 25

4 The Plantation's Labor 37

5 Fight the Power 49

6 The Slave Family 61

7 The Conditions of Slavery 77

Part 3 Freedom and the War of the Lost Cause 95

8 The War and Emancipation 97

9 Life after Slavery 111

10 Changing Slavery's Paradigm 129.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 165-170) and index.

ISBN:

1933337478

9781933337470

OCLC:

879212882

Publisher Number:

99958861940