Remembering slavery : African Americans talk about their personal experiences of slavery and emancipation

416 Pages·1998·15.7 MB·English

SAN FRANCISfltfifinUC LIBRARY
E R I N G
African Americans Talk About Their Personal
Experiences of Slavery and Emancipation
,
by Ira Berlin Marc Favreau, Steven F. Miller
edited and
a Robin F).G. Kelley
with foreword by
Published in conjunction
with the Library of Congress
and as a companion to Smithsonian
Productions’s radio documentor)
In the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration
dispatched writers all over America to interview the
last remaining black witnesses to slavery. Long
ignored by historians, the recordings and printed
interviews gained the attention of scholars during
the civil rights movement. Concerned with slavery
not as one of several causes of the Civil War
but, rather, as the primary experience of millions
of Americans, this new generation of historians
pored over the narratives as a means of gaining
access to the slaves’ voices. The narratives, once
dismissed as historical ephemera, had moved
to the center of the study of slavery.
Now these visceral accounts- in recorded
voice and in the printed word of confrontations
with owners, of the long hours in the field,
of maintaining families without the legitimating
force Of law, and of sustaining dignity in the most
inhumane of circumstances, are made available
to a general audience, many for the first time.
“We were slaves,” said Fountain Hughes.
“If I had an idea that I’d ever be a slave again,
I’d take a gun and just end it all right away.”
Historian Ira Berlin guides readers through
the stories and provides a comprehensive
introduction to the history of American slavery.
With a foreword by historian Robin Kelley and
an afterword by Librarian of Congress, James
H. Billington, this book offers an important
contribution to American historiography.
Presented faithfully in these volumes, the voices
of men and women who experienced enslavement
give listeners an immediate link to a world often
relegated to the distant past.
This book is published in conjunction with
two sixty-minute audio tapes of live, recordings
'and dramatic readings.

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REMEMBERING SLAVERY
Also by Ira Berlin, published by The New Press
Slaves without Masters: The Free Negro in the Antebellum South
Families and Freedom: A Documentary History of
African-American Kinship in the Civil War Era
(co-edited with Leslie S. Rowland)
Also by Ira Berlin and Steven F. Miller, published by The New Press
Free at Last: A Documentary History of Slavery, Freedom,
and the Civil War (co-edited with Barbara J. Fields, Joseph P Reidy,
and Leshe S. Rowland)
Main Children’s Center
3 1223 04197 6425
REMEMBERING
SLAVERY
AFRICAN AMERICANS
TALK ABOUT THEIR PERSONAL
EXPERIENCES OF SLAVERY
AND
FREEDOM
EDITED BY
IRA BERLIN, MARC FAVREAU,
AND STEVEN F. MILLER
THE NEW PRESS • NEW YORK
in association with The Library of Congress
Washington, D.C.
© 1998 BY IRA. BERLIN, MARC FAVREAU, AND STEVEN F. MILLER.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
The publisher of Weevils in The Wheat: Interviews with Virginia Ex-Slaves, by Charles L.
Perdue, Jr., Thomas E. Barden, and Robert K. Phillips (Charlottesville, Va., 1994) has gener¬
ously given permission to use extended quotations from this copyrighted work. Reprinted with
permission of the University Press of Virginia.
The portrait on the cover is of Fannie Moore, a resident of Asheville, North Carolina Ms
Moore s interview appears on pages 132-34.
“Mother to Son,” from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, © by the estate of Langston
Hughes, reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
PUBLISHED BY THE NEW PRESS, NEW YORK
DISTRIBUTED BY W. W. NORTON & COMPANY, INC., NEW YORK
THE NEW PRESS WAS ESTABLISHED IN 1990 AS A NOT-FOR-PROFIT ALTERNATIVE TO THE LARGE, COMMERCIAL
PUBLISHING HOUSES CURRENTLY DOMINATING THE BOOK PUBLISHING INDUSTRY. THE NEW PRESS OPERATES
IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST RATHER THAN FOR PRIVATE GAIN, AND IS COMMITTED TO PUBLISHING, IN INNOVA¬
TIVE WAYS, WORKS OF EDUCATIONAL, CULTURAL, AND COMMUNITY VALUE THAT ARE OFTEN DEEMED INSUF¬
FICIENTLY PROFITABLE.
The Library of Congress is the world’s largest library—an institution that serves as the
memory of a nation and contains over 110 million items in all media, on all subjects, and from
around the world, including written material in over 460 languages
The sound recordings of former slaves featured in this product are from the collection of the
Labraiy of Congress Archive of Folk Culture. The photographs of former slaves are from “U.S.
of Congress^ Ex"S aVe Narratlves”m the collection of the Manuscript Division of the Library
stitnm^rian P.r,0daCti0ns is the electronic media production center of the Smithsonian In¬
stitution, the world s largest complex of museum and research facilities.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
987654321
CONTENTS
FOREWORD VVt
PREFACE ix
introduction Slavery as Memory and History xiii
EDITORIAL METHOD xl'ix
chapter I. The Faces of Power:
Slaves and Owners 3
chapter II. Work and Slave Life:
“From Can to Can’t” 71
chapter m. Family Life in Slavery:
“Our Folks” 121
chapter iv. Slave Culture: “honest and fair service to the Lord
and all mankind everywhere” 165
CHAPTER v. Slaves No More:
Civil War and the Coming of Freedom 209
appendix 1 “Remembering Slavery”: The Radio Documentary 279
appendix 2 Recordings of Slave Narratives and Related
Materials in the Archive of Folk Culture,
Library of Congress 335
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING 339
SHORT TITLES USED IN NOTES 343
NOTES 345
AFTERWORD 349
INDEX 351
.