United States. Work Projects Administration

"My folks allus belongs to the Cavins and wore their name till after 'mancipation. Pa and ma was named Freeman and Amelia Cavin and Massa Dave fotches them to Texas from Alabama, along with ma's mother, what we called Maria. "The Cavins allus thunk lots of their niggers and Grandma Maria say, 'Why shouldn't they—it was their money.' She say there was plenty Indians... more...

INTRODUCTION I This collection of slave narratives had its beginning in the second year of the former Federal Writers' Project (now the Writers' Program), 1936, when several state Writers' Projects—notably those of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina—recorded interviews with ex-slaves residing in those states. On April 22, 1937, a standard questionnaire for field workers drawn up by... more...

PLANTATION LIFE RACHEL ADAMS, Age 78300 Odd StreetAthens, Georgia Written by:Sadie B. Hornsby [HW: (White)]Athens Edited by:Sarah H. HallAthens andJohn N. BoothDistrict SupervisorFederal Writers' ProjectResidencies 6 & 7Augusta, Georgia Rachel Adams' two-room, frame house is perched on the side of a steep hill where peach trees and bamboo form dense shade. Stalks of corn at the rear of... more...

LOUISA ADAMS My name is Louisa Adams. I wuz bawned in Rockingham, Richmond County, North Carolina. I wuz eight years old when the Yankees come through. I belonged to Marster Tom A. Covington, Sir. My mother wuz named Easter, and my father wuz named Jacob. We were all Covingtons. No Sir, I don't know whur my mother and father come from. Soloman wuz brother number one, then Luke, Josh, Stephen,... more...

Maryland[--]-23-37Guthrie AUNT LUCY [HW: BROOKS].References: Interview with Aunt Lucy and her son, Lafayette Brooks. Aunt Lucy, an ex-slave, lives with her son, Lafayette Brooks, in a shack on the Carroll Inn Springs property at Forest Glen, Montgomery County, Md. To go to her home from Rockville, leave the Court House going east on Montgomery Ave. and follow US Highway No. 240, otherwise known as the... more...

THE AMERICAN GUIDETOPEKA, KANSAS EX SLAVE STORYOTTAWA, KANSASBY: Leta Gray (interviewer) "My name is Clayton Holbert, and I am an ex slave. I am eighty-six years old. I was born and raised in Linn County, Tennessee. My master's name was Pleasant "Ples" Holbert. My master had a fairly large plantation; he had, I imagine, around one hundred slaves." "I was working the fields... more...

[HW: Dist 5Ex-Slave #63] Whitley,1-22-36Driskell EX SLAVEJENNIE KENDRICKS[Date Stamp: MAY 8 1937] Jennie Kendricks, the oldest of 7 children, was born in Sheram, Georgia in 1855. Her parents were Martha and Henry Bell. She says that the first thing she remembers is being whipped by her mother. Jennie Kendricks' grandmother and her ten children lived on this plantation. The grandmother had been... more...

MEMORIES OF UNCLE JACKSON "I was born in 1851, in the yard where my owner lived next door to the City Hall. I remember when they was finishin' up the City Hall. I also remember the foreman, Mr. James Walker, he was general manager. The overseen (overseer) was Mr. Keen. I remember all the bricklayers; they all was colored. The man that plastered the City Hall was named George Price, he... more...

NAT TURNER Back 'fore the sixties, I can 'member my Mistress, Miss Sara Ann, comin' to de window an' hollerin', "De niggers is arisin'! De niggers is arisin'! De niggers is killin' all de white folks, killin' all de babies in de cradle!" It must have been Nat Turner's Insurrection; which wuz sometime 'fo de breakin' of de Civil War. I... more...

Interviewer: Samuel S. TaylorPerson interviewed: Dr. D. B. Gaines1720 Izard Street, Little Rock, ArkansasAge: 75 “I was born in 1863 and am now seventy-five years old. You see, therefore, that I know nothing experimentally and practically about slavery. “I was born in South Carolina in Lawrence County, and my father moved away from the old place before I had any recollection. I remember nothing... more...