This is a copyrighted document from the electronic
archive for Wilma A. Dunaway, Women, Work
and Family in the Antebellum Mountain South (Cambridge University Press, 2008).
County of
Origin or Residence Gender
of slave
Age of slave at
beginning of Civil War
Ethnicity of
WPA Interviewers
Comparison
of Appalachian Narratives with the Entire WPA Collection
Access
the List of Narratives
County of Origin
or Residence
Appalachian
Counties of: |
Number Slave
Narratives |
| Alabama |
32 |
| Georgia |
45 |
| Kentucky |
26 |
| Maryland |
13 |
| North Carolina |
13 |
| South Carolina |
2 |
| Tennessee |
57 |
| Virginia |
80 |
| West Virginia |
25 |
| Total Narratives |
293 |
Age of Slave at Beginning of Civil
War
| Age of Ex-Slave in 1861 |
% All Narratives |
| 9 or younger |
27% |
| 10 to 15 |
40% |
| 16 to 25 |
21% |
| 26 or older |
12% |
Gender of Slaves
| Gender of Ex-slave |
% All Narratives |
| Female |
45% |
| Male |
55% |
Who interviewed
the ex-slave in the 1930s?
| Ethnicity of Interviewer |
% All Narratives |
| White |
36% |
| Black |
64% |
Comparison
of Appalachian Narratives with the Entire WPA Collection
Appalachian slave narratives are not
handicapped by the kinds of shortcomings that plague the national WPA collection. Large
plantations, males, and house servants are over-represented among the entire universe of
respondents. In addition, two-fifths of the ex-slaves had experienced less than ten years
of enslavement. The most serious distortions derived from the class and racial biases of
whites who conducted the vast majority of the interviews.
The Southern Mountain narratives were
collected over a vast land area in nine states. Thus, the significant distances between
respondents offer opportunities for comparison and for testing the widespread transmission
of African-American culture.
By checking the slave narratives
against Census manuscripts and slave schedules, I established that the vast majority of
the Appalachian narratives were collected from individuals who had been enslaved on
plantations that held fewer than twenty slaves.
Most of the Appalachian respondents
had been field hands, and very few were employed full-time as artisans or domestic
servants. In terms of gender differentiation, the Appalachian sample is almost evenly
divided.
In contrast to the entire WPA
collection, three-quarters of the Appalachian ex-slaves were older than ten when freed.
Indeed, when emancipated, one-third of the Southern Mountain respondents were sixteen or
older, and 12 percent were 25 or older. Thus, the vast majority of the Appalachian
ex-slaves had endured fifteen years or more of enslavement, and they were old enough to
form their own memories and to retain family oral histories.
Perhaps the greatest strength of the
Appalachian collection has to do with the ethnicity of interviewers. Nearly two-thirds
of the Appalachian narratives were written by the ex-slaves themselves or collected
by black field workers. Many Tennessee and Georgia interviews were conducted under the
auspices of Fisk University and the Atlanta Urban League, and all of the Virginia WPA
interviews were conducted by black interviewers from Hampton Institute.
Photographs of Ex-Slaves
To
access these files, you will need Acrobat
Reader 3 which you can download free.
Source: Federal Writers
Project, National Archives
To view the full photo image
on your screen, click "View" on the Acrobat Reader menu, then "Fit in Window."
Delia Garlic
Oliver Bell
Sarah
Gudger
You can access additional photos at the Library of Congress website.
Read Three Slave Narratives Online
Thomas Cole (northern Alabama)
Rachel Cruze (east Tennessee)
Sarah Gudger (western North Carolina)
Source: Federal
Writers Project, National Archives
How to Access Slave Narratives Online
The WPA Collection of Slave
Narratives is now online at the Library of Congress website, so you will be able to
access most of the Appalachian narratives at that site.
Greenwood
Press has posted the entire WPA collection online; however, a subscription fee
is required. Many university libraries now own the electronic collection.
