Slave Narrative Collection
Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States (often referred to as the WPA Slave Narrative Collection) is a collection of histories by formerly enslaved people undertaken by the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration from 1936 to 1938. It was the simultaneous effort of state-level branches of FWP in seventeen states, working largely separately from each other. FWP administrators sought to develop a new appreciation for the elements of American life from different backgrounds, including that from the last generation of formerly enslaved individuals. The collections of life histories and materials on African American life that resulted gave impetus to the collection.[1]
The collection of narratives and photographs are works of the U.S. federal government and, as such, are in the public domain. They have been digitized and are available online. Excerpts also have been published by various publishers as printed books or on the Internet. The total collection contains more than 10,000 typed pages, representing more than 2,000 interviews. The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. also has a digitized collection of audio recordings that were sometimes made during these interviews.
Origins and inspiration
After 1916,
The earliest of these were two projects began in 1929, one led by Charles S. Johnson at Fisk University and a second by John B. Cade at Southern University, called "Opinions Regarding Slavery - Slave Narratives." In 1934 Lawrence D. Reddick, one of Johnson's students, proposed a federally-funded project to collect narratives from formerly enslaved individuals through the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, which was providing work opportunities for unemployed people as part of the first wave of New Deal funding. This program, however, did not achieve its ambitious goals. Several years passed before narratives began to be collected again.
Although some members of the Federal Writers' Project were aware of Reddick's project, the FWP slave narrative collection was more directly inspired by the collections of folklore undertaken by John Lomax. Carolyn Dillard, director of the Georgia branch of the Writers' Project, pursued the goal of collecting stories from persons in the state who had been born into slavery. A parallel project was started in Florida with Lomax's participation, and the effort subsequently grew to cover all of the southern states (except Louisiana) and several northern states. In the end, Arkansas collected the largest volume of slave narratives of any state.
Controversy surrounding the interviews
Though the collection preserved hundreds of life stories that would otherwise have been lost, later historians have agreed that, compiled as it was by primarily white interviewers, the collection does not represent an entirely unbiased view. Because the federal government employed mostly white interviewers to document these former enslaved individuals' stories, there is a debate regarding whether these interviews are tainted by racism.
Historian Catherine Stewart argues in her book Long Past Slavery: Representing Race in the Federal Writer's Project,[4] that "a way for Anderson, a former slave being who was interviewed by a white man, to comment on race relations in Jim Crow Florida- a means for a black interviewee to make an argument about the unwelcome presence of a white interviewer in her home, and to point out the danger she perceived in his presence, all while preserving a mask of civility and giving the interviewer what he had asked for? While Federal Writer's Project interviewers like Frost were engaged in writing down African American ghost stories", Stewart writes, "former slaves such as Josephine Anderson were conjuring up tales about power and racial identities".[5] Historian Lauren Tilton asserts that "the Ex-Slave Narratives became a site to negotiate black people's right to full citizenship and to be a part of the nation's identity. The subjectivity of the interviewer, the questions posed, responses from the interviewees, and the ways the stories were written shaped the narratives, which became a contested space to assert or de-legitimize black selfhood and therefore rights to full incorporation into the nation."[6]
Project impact
More recently, even as the narratives have become more widely available through digital means, historians have used them for more narrow, specific kinds of studies. For instance, one historian has examined responses to conflict among the members of the
Clint Smith writes that these narratives have also impacted the Black Lives Matter movement, which "has further pushed historians to revisit these stories. The past several years—and particularly the months since last summer’s racial-justice protests—have prompted many people to question what we’ve been taught, to see our shared past with new eyes. The FWP narratives afford us the opportunity to understand how slavery shaped this country through the stories of those who survived it".[8]
Publication
A small group of the narratives first appeared in print in a Writers' Project book, These Are Our Lives.
Legacy
As presented on the
Photograph gallery
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Photograph of William Watkins, ex-slave, from the Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
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Photograph of Uncle Van Moore, ex-slave from the Slave Narratives from the Federal Writer's Project, 1936-1938, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
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Photograph of George Dillard, age 85, former slave, from the Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
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Photograph of Wayman William, ex-slave, from the Slave Narratives from the Federal Writer's Project, 1936-1938, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
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Photograph of Susan Merritt, ex-slave, from the Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
See also
References
- ^ "The WPA and the Slave Narrative Collection | An Introduction to the WPA Slave Narratives | Articles and Essays | Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 | Digital Collections | Library of Congress". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
- JSTOR 2205559.
- JSTOR 205156.
- ISBN 978-1469626260.
- ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
- S2CID 202371395.
- JSTOR 30040012.
- ^ Smith, Clint (2021-02-09). "Stories of Slavery, From Those Who Survived It". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
- ^ "These Are Our Lives | Federal Writers' Project, Regional Staff". University of North Carolina Press. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
- ^ "Virginia Writers Project – Encyclopedia Virginia". Retrieved 2022-05-12.
- OCLC 461525269.
- ^ "American Slave Narratives". xroads.virginia.edu. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
- ^ Bell, Ed; Lennon, Thomas, Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives (Documentary), Home Box Office (HBO), retrieved 2022-05-12
- ^ Gates, H.L., wr. "We Come From People." African American Lives 2 Episode 3. PBS. 13 Feb 2008
External links
- Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 to 1938 (Library of Congress)
Online versions of collected narratives, by state: