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. i •k 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 .