Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 to 1938
- Thread starter Asicz
- Start date
xoxodede
Superstar
Great post! Love LOC collections. It's so many ADOS jewels there -- Content, images, stories, audio, etc.
Thanks for posting this!! 
I think I might have found a distant aunt. Things match in her short narrative with what i've found on ancestry. I'll keep digging cuz this feels too good to be true
Bumping this as it came across my LinkedIn page today.
If you haven't seen this or haven't taken the time to look at it, you should. I'm reading through first hand accounts (transcribed in the 30's?) of former Slaves now. It's interesting.
It's terribly sad to see several different people comments about it not being so bad (as a slave) or even better for them (in at least 1 of these).
The other thing that stands out is their use of the word ni***r when talking about other Slaves. It strengthens my belief that no one should use that word in any form.
So yeah, if you haven't seen this, check it out.
Edit: Pg. 19 (Aunt Charity Anderson, @101 years old (in 1937)
"...I learnt the chillun how to weave, and wash, and iron and knit too and I's waited on de fo'th generation of our family. I jes' wish I could tell dese young chillun how to do.... I'd tell dem to be more 'spectful to dere mammies and to dere white folks and say yes ma'am and no ma'am... But honey, de good ole days is now gone forever....how I wish I could go back to da days we lived at Johnson's landing...."
If you haven't seen this or haven't taken the time to look at it, you should. I'm reading through first hand accounts (transcribed in the 30's?) of former Slaves now. It's interesting.
It's terribly sad to see several different people comments about it not being so bad (as a slave) or even better for them (in at least 1 of these).
The other thing that stands out is their use of the word ni***r when talking about other Slaves. It strengthens my belief that no one should use that word in any form.
So yeah, if you haven't seen this, check it out.
About this Collection | Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 | Digital Collections | Library of Congress
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. These narratives were collected in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers' Project (FWP) of the Works...
www.loc.gov
Edit: Pg. 19 (Aunt Charity Anderson, @101 years old (in 1937)
"...I learnt the chillun how to weave, and wash, and iron and knit too and I's waited on de fo'th generation of our family. I jes' wish I could tell dese young chillun how to do.... I'd tell dem to be more 'spectful to dere mammies and to dere white folks and say yes ma'am and no ma'am... But honey, de good ole days is now gone forever....how I wish I could go back to da days we lived at Johnson's landing...."