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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13847 ***
+
+SLAVE NARRATIVES
+
+A Folk History of Slavery in the United States
+From Interviews with Former Slaves
+
+
+TYPEWRITTEN RECORDS PREPARED BY
+THE FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT
+1936-1938
+ASSEMBLED BY
+THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PROJECT
+WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION
+FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
+SPONSORED BY THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
+
+
+WASHINGTON 1941
+
+
+
+
+FEDERAL WORKS AGENCY
+WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION
+FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
+
+
+Paul Edwards, Administrator
+Amelie S. Fair, Director, Division of Community Service Programs
+Mary Nan Gamble, Chief, Public Activities Programs
+
+
+THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PROJECT
+Official Project No. 165-2-26-7
+Work Project No. 540
+
+
+Mary Nan Gamble, Acting Project Supervisor
+Francesco M. Bianco, Assistant Project Supervisor
+B.A. Botkin, Chief Editor, Writers' Unit
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note: The CONTENTS section that follows lists the collection
+of Slave Narratives; the SELECTED RECORDS listing after the INTRODUCTION lists
+the nine Administrative Files included in this volume. An identifier has
+been added to the beginning of each of these Files.]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+ I. ALABAMA
+
+ II. ARKANSAS
+
+ III. FLORIDA
+
+ IV. GEORGIA
+
+ V. INDIANA
+
+ VI. KANSAS
+
+ VII. KENTUCKY
+
+VIII. MARYLAND
+
+ IX. MISSISSIPPI
+
+ X. MISSOURI
+
+ XI. NORTH CAROLINA
+
+ XII. OHIO
+
+XIII. OKLAHOMA
+
+ XIV. SOUTH CAROLINA
+
+ XV. TENNESSEE
+
+ XVI. TEXAS
+
+XVII. VIRGINIA
+
+
+
+
+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 John A. Lomax, then National Advisor on Folklore and
+Folkways for the Federal Writers' Project[1], was issued from Washington
+as "Supplementary Instructions #9-E to The American Guide Manual"
+(appended below). Also associated with the direction and criticism of
+the work in the Washington office of the Federal Writers' Project were
+Henry G. Alsberg, Director; George Cronyn, Associate Director; Sterling
+A. Brown, Editor on Negro Affairs; Mary Lloyd, Editor; and B.A. Botkin,
+Folklore Editor succeeding Mr. Lomax.[2]
+
+[Footnote 1: Mr. Lomax served from June 25, 1936, to October 23, 1937,
+with a ninety-day furlough beginning July 24, 1937. According to a
+memorandum written by Mr. Alsberg on March 23, 1937, Mr. Lomax was "in
+charge of the collection of folklore all over the United States for the
+Writers' Project. In connection with this work he is making recordings
+of Negro songs and cowboy ballads. Though technically on the payroll of
+the Survey of Historical Records, his work is done for the Writers and
+the results will make several national volumes of folklore. The essays
+in the State Guides devoted to folklore are also under his supervision."
+Since 1933 Mr. Lomax has been Honorary Curator of the Archive of
+American Folk Song, Library of Congress.]
+
+[Footnote 2: Folklore Consultant, from May 2 to July 31, 1938; Folklore
+Editor, from August 1, 1938, to August 31, 1939.]
+
+On August 31, 1939, the Federal Writers' Project became the Writers'
+Program, and the National Technical Project in Washington was
+terminated. On October 17, the first Library of Congress Project, under
+the sponsorship of the Library of Congress, was set up by the Work
+Projects Administration in the District of Columbia, to continue some of
+the functions of the National Technical Project, chiefly those concerned
+with books of a regional or nationwide scope. On February 12, 1940, the
+project was reorganized along strictly conservation lines, and on August
+16 it was succeeded by the present Library of Congress Project (Official
+Project No. 165-2-26-7, Work Project No. 540).
+
+The present Library of Congress Project, under the sponsorship of the
+Library of Congress, is a unit of the Public Activities Program of the
+Community Service Programs of the Work Projects Administration for the
+District of Columbia. According to the Project Proposal (WPA Form 301),
+the purpose of the Project is to "collect, check, edit, index, and
+otherwise prepare for use WPA records, Professional and Service
+Projects."
+
+The Writers' Unit of the Library of Congress Project processes material
+left over from or not needed for publication by the state Writers'
+Projects. On file in the Washington office in August, 1939, was a large
+body of slave narratives, photographs of former slaves, interviews with
+white informants regarding slavery, transcripts of laws, advertisements,
+records of sale, transfer, and manumission of slaves, and other
+documents. As unpublished manuscripts of the Federal Writers' Project
+these records passed into the hands of the Library of Congress Project
+for processing; and from them has been assembled the present collection
+of some two thousand narratives from the following seventeen states:
+Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky,
+Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South
+Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia[1].
+
+[Footnote 1: The bulk of the Virginia narratives is still in the state
+office. Excerpts from these are included in _The Negro in Virginia_,
+compiled by Workers of the Writers' Program of the Work Projects
+Administration in the State of Virginia, Sponsored by the Hampton
+Institute, Hastings House, Publishers, New York, 1940. Other slave
+narratives are published in _Drums and Shadows_, Survival Studies among
+the Georgia Coastal Negroes, Savannah Unit, Georgia Writers' Project,
+Work Projects Administration, University of Georgia Press, 1940. A
+composite article, "Slaves," based on excerpts from three interviews,
+was contributed by Elizabeth Lomax to the _American Stuff_ issue of
+_Direction_, Vol. 1, No. 3, 1935.]
+
+The work of the Writers' Unit in preparing the narratives for deposit in
+the Library of Congress consisted principally of arranging the
+manuscripts and photographs by states and alphabetically by informants
+within the states, listing the informants and illustrations, and
+collating the contents in seventeen volumes divided into thirty-three
+parts. The following material has been omitted: Most of the interviews
+with informants born too late to remember anything of significance
+regarding slavery or concerned chiefly with folklore; a few negligible
+fragments and unidentified manuscripts; a group of Tennessee interviews
+showing evidence of plagiarism; and the supplementary material gathered
+in connection with the narratives. In the course of the preparation of
+these volumes, the Writers' Unit compiled data for an essay on the
+narratives and partially completed an index and a glossary. Enough
+additional material is being received from the state Writers' Projects,
+as part of their surplus, to make a supplement, which, it is hoped, will
+contain several states not here represented, such as Louisiana.
+
+All editing had previously been done in the states or the Washington
+office. Some of the pencilled comments have been identified as those of
+John A. Lomax and Alan Lomax, who also read the manuscripts. In a few
+cases, two drafts or versions of the same interview have been included
+for comparison of interesting variations or alterations.
+
+
+II
+
+Set beside the work of formal historians, social scientists, and
+novelists, slave autobiographies, and contemporary records of
+abolitionists and planters, these life histories, taken down as far as
+possible in the narrators' words, constitute an invaluable body of
+unconscious evidence or indirect source material, which scholars and
+writers dealing with the South, especially social psychologists and
+cultural anthropologists, cannot afford to reckon without. For the first
+and the last time, a large number of surviving slaves (many of whom have
+since died) have been permitted to tell their own story, in their own
+way. In spite of obvious limitations--bias and fallibility of both
+informants and interviewers, the use of leading questions, unskilled
+techniques, and insufficient controls and checks--this saga must remain
+the most authentic and colorful source of our knowledge of the lives and
+thoughts of thousands of slaves, of their attitudes toward one another,
+toward their masters, mistresses, and overseers, toward poor whites,
+North and South, the Civil War, Emancipation, Reconstruction, religion,
+education, and virtually every phase of Negro life in the South.
+
+The narratives belong to folk history--history recovered from the
+memories and lips of participants or eye-witnesses, who mingle group
+with individual experience and both with observation, hearsay, and
+tradition. Whether the narrators relate what they actually saw and
+thought and felt, what they imagine, or what they have thought and felt
+about slavery since, now we know _why_ they thought and felt as they
+did. To the white myth of slavery must be added the slaves' own folklore
+and folk-say of slavery. The patterns they reveal are folk and regional
+patterns--the patterns of field hand, house and body servant, and
+artisan; the patterns of kind and cruel master or mistress; the patterns
+of Southeast and Southwest, lowland and upland, tidewater and inland,
+smaller and larger plantations, and racial mixture (including Creole and
+Indian).
+
+The narratives belong also to folk literature. Rich not only in folk
+songs, folk tales, and folk speech but also in folk humor and poetry,
+crude or skilful in dialect, uneven in tone and treatment, they
+constantly reward one with earthy imagery, salty phrase, and sensitive
+detail. In their unconscious art, exhibited in many a fine and powerful
+short story, they are a contribution to the realistic writing of the
+Negro. Beneath all the surface contradictions and exaggerations, the
+fantasy and flattery, they possess an essential truth and humanity which
+surpasses as it supplements history and literature.
+
+Washington, D.C.
+June 12, 1941
+
+B.A. Botkin
+Chief Editor, Writers' Unit
+Library of Congress Project
+
+
+
+
+SELECTED RECORDS
+Bearing on the History of the Slave Narratives
+
+From the correspondence and memoranda files of the Washington office of
+the Federal Writers' Project the following instructions and criticisms
+relative to the slave narrative collection, issued from April 1 to
+September 8, 1937, have been selected. They throw light on the progress
+of the work, the development of materials and methods, and some of the
+problems encountered.
+
+1. Copy of Memorandum from George Cronyn to Mrs. Eudora R. Richardson.
+April 1, 1937.
+
+2. Autograph Memorandum from John A. Lomax to George Cronyn. April 9,
+1937.
+
+3. Copy of Memorandum from George Cronyn to Edwin Bjorkman, enclosing a
+Memorandum from John A. Lomax on "Negro Dialect Suggestions." April 14,
+1937.
+
+4. Mimeographed "Supplementary Instructions #9-E to the American Guide
+Manual. Folklore. Stories from Ex-Slaves." April 22, 1937. Prepared by
+John A. Lomax.
+
+5. Copy of Memorandum from George Cronyn to Edwin Bjorkman. May 3, 1937.
+
+6. Copy of Memorandum from Henry G. Alsberg to State Directors of the
+Federal Writers' Project. June 9, 1937.
+
+7. Copy of "Notes by an Editor on Dialect Usage in Accounts by
+Interviews with Ex-Slaves." June 20, 1937. Prepared by Sterling A.
+Brown.
+
+8. Copy of Memorandum from Henry G. Alsberg to State Directors of the
+Federal Writers' Project. July 30, 1937.
+
+9. Copy of Memorandum from Henry G. Alsberg to State Directors of the
+Federal Writers' Project. September 8, 1937.
+
+
+
+
+[Document 1]
+
+Sent to: NORTH & SOUTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA, ALABAMA,
+ LOUISIANA, TEXAS, ARKANSAS, TENNESSEE,
+ KENTUCKY, MISSOURI, MISSISSIPPI, OKLA.
+
+April 1, 1937
+
+Mrs. Eudora R. Richardson, Acting State Director
+Federal Writers' Project, WPA
+Rooms 321-4, American Bank Building
+Richmond, Virginia
+
+Subj: Folklore
+
+
+Dear Mrs. Richardson:
+
+We have received from Florida a remarkably interesting collection of
+autobiographical stories by ex-slaves. Such documentary records by the
+survivors of a historic period in America are invaluable, both to the
+student of history and to creative writers.
+
+If a volume of such importance can be assembled we will endeavor to
+secure its publication. There undoubtedly is material of this sort to be
+found in your State by making the proper contact through tactful
+interviewers. While it is desirable to give a running story of the life
+of each subject, the color and human interest will be greatly enhanced
+if it is told largely in the words of the person interviewed. The
+peculiar idiom is often more expressive than a literary account.
+
+We shall be very glad to know if you have undertaken any research of
+this sort, or plan to do so.
+
+Very truly yours,
+George Cronyn
+Associate Director
+Federal Writers' Project
+
+GWCronyn/a
+
+
+
+
+[Document 2]
+(Transcript of Preceding Autograph Memorandum)
+[Transcriber's Note: The handwritten version is included in the original
+volume.]
+
+4/9/37
+
+Mr. Cronyn:
+
+In replying to this letter I should like for you to commend especially
+two stories:
+
+1. _Lula Flannigan_ by Sarah H. Hall Athens, Ga.
+
+2. _Uncle Willis_, Miss Velma Bell, Supervisor, Athens, Ga.
+
+All the stories are worth while but these two are mainly (one entirely)
+in dialect and abound in human interest touches. _All the interviewers
+should copy the Negro expressions_.
+
+I much prefer to read _un_edited (but typed) "interviews," and I should
+like to see as soon as possible all the seventy-five to which Miss
+Dillard refers.
+
+It is most important, too, to secure copies of "slave codes, overseers
+codes and the like." This item is new and all the states should send in
+similar material.
+
+Yours,
+John A. Lomax
+
+
+
+
+[Document 3]
+
+Sent to: North and South Carolina, Georgia,
+ Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas,
+ Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri,
+ Mississippi, Oklahoma.
+
+April 14, 1937
+
+Mr. Edwin Bjorkman
+State Director, Federal Writers' Project
+Works Progress Administration
+City Hall, Fifth Floor
+Asheville, North Carolina
+
+Dear Mr. Bjorkman:
+
+We have received more stories of ex-slaves and are gratified by the
+quality and interest of the narratives. Some of these stories have been
+accompanied by photographs of the subjects. We would like to have
+portraits wherever they can be secured, but we urge your photographers
+to make the studies as simple, natural, and "unposed" as possible. Let
+the background, cabin or whatnot, be the normal setting--in short, just
+the picture a visitor would expect to find by "dropping in" on one of
+these old-timers.
+
+Enclosed is a memorandum of Mr. Lomax with suggestions for simplifying
+the spelling of certain recurring dialect words. This does not mean that
+the interviews should be entirely in "straight English"--simply, that we
+want them to be more readable to those uninitiated in the broadest Negro
+speech.
+
+Very truly yours,
+
+George Cronyn
+Associate Director
+Federal Writers' Project
+
+GWCronyn:MEB
+
+
+This paragraph was added to the letter to Arkansas.
+
+Mr. Lomax is very eager to get such records as you mention: Court
+Records of Sale, Transfer, and Freeing of Slaves, as well as prices
+paid.
+
+
+
+
+Negro Dialect Suggestions
+(Stories of Ex-Slaves)
+
+Do not write:
+
+_Ah_ for I
+
+_Poe_ for po' (poor)
+
+_Hit_ for it
+
+_Tuh_ for to
+
+_Wuz_ for was
+
+_Baid_ for bed
+
+_Daid_ for dead
+
+_Ouh_ for our
+
+_Mah_ for my
+
+_Ovah_ for over
+
+_Othuh_ for other
+
+_Wha_ for whar (where)
+
+_Undah_ for under
+
+_Fuh_ for for
+
+_Yondah_ for yonder
+
+_Moster_ for marster or massa
+
+_Gwainter_ for gwineter (going to)
+
+_Oman_ for woman
+
+_Ifn_ for iffen (if)
+
+_Fiuh_ or _fiah_ for fire
+
+_Uz_ or _uv_ or _o'_ for of
+
+_Poar_ for poor or po'
+
+_J'in_ for jine
+
+_Coase_ for cose
+
+_Utha_ for other
+
+_Yo'_ for you
+
+_Gi'_ for give
+
+_Cot_ for caught
+
+_Kin'_ for kind
+
+_Cose_ for 'cause
+
+_Tho't_ for thought
+
+
+
+
+[Document 4]
+
+WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION
+Federal Writers' Project
+1500 Eye St. N.W.
+Washington, D.C.
+
+SUPPLEMENTARY INSTRUCTIONS #9-E
+To
+THE AMERICAN GUIDE MANUAL
+
+FOLKLORE
+STORIES FROM EX-SLAVES
+
+ Note: In some states it may be possible to locate only a very
+ few ex-slaves, but an attempt should be made in every state.
+ Interesting ex-slave data has recently been reported from Rhode
+ Island, for instance.
+
+April 22, 1937
+
+
+STORIES FROM EX-SLAVES
+
+The main purpose of these detailed and homely questions is to get the
+Negro interested in talking about the days of slavery. If he will talk
+freely, he should be encouraged to say what he pleases without reference
+to the questions. It should be remembered that the Federal Writers'
+Project is not interested in taking sides on any question. The worker
+should not censor any material collected, regardless of its nature.
+
+It will not be necessary, indeed it will probably be a mistake, to ask
+every person all of the questions. Any incidents or facts he can recall
+should be written down as nearly as possible just as he says them, but
+do not use dialect spelling so complicated that it may confuse the
+reader.
+
+A second visit, a few days after the first one, is important, so that
+the worker may gather all the worthwhile recollections that the first
+talk has aroused.
+
+
+Questions:
+
+1. Where and when were you born?
+
+2. Give the names of your father and mother. Where did they come from?
+Give names of your brothers and sisters. Tell about your life with them
+and describe your home and the "quarters." Describe the beds and where
+you slept. Do you remember anything about your grandparents or any
+stories told you about them?
+
+3. What work did you do in slavery days? Did you ever earn any money?
+How? What did you buy with this money?
+
+4. What did you eat and how was it cooked? Any possums? Rabbits? Fish?
+What food did you like best? Did the slaves have their own gardens?
+
+5. What clothing did you wear in hot weather? Cold weather? On Sundays?
+Any shoes? Describe your wedding clothes.
+
+6. Tell about your master, mistress, their children, the house they
+lived in, the overseer or driver, poor white neighbors.
+
+7. How many acres in the plantation? How many slaves on it? How and at
+what time did the overseer wake up the slaves? Did they work hard and
+late at night? How and for what causes were the slaves punished? Tell
+what you saw. Tell some of the stories you heard.
+
+8. Was there a jail for slaves? Did you ever see any slaves sold or
+auctioned off? How did groups of slaves travel? Did you ever see slaves
+in chains?
+
+9. Did the white folks help you to learn to read and write?
+
+10. Did the slaves have a church on your plantation? Did they read the
+Bible? Who was your favorite preacher? Your favorite spirituals? Tell
+about the baptizing; baptizing songs. Funerals and funeral songs.
+
+11. Did the slaves ever run away to the North? Why? What did you hear
+about patrollers? How did slaves carry news from one plantation to
+another? Did you hear of trouble between the blacks and whites?
+
+12. What did the slaves do when they went to their quarters after the
+day's work was done on the plantation? Did they work on Saturday
+afternoons? What did they do Saturday nights? Sundays? Christmas
+morning? New Year's Day? Any other holidays? Cornshucking? Cotton
+Picking? Dances? When some of the white master's family married or died?
+A wedding or death among the slaves?
+
+13. What games did you play as a child? Can you give the words or sing
+any of the play songs or ring games of the children? Riddles? Charms?
+Stories about "Raw Head and Bloody Bones" or other "hants" of ghosts?
+Stories about animals? What do you think of voodoo? Can you give the
+words or sing any lullabies? Work songs? Plantation hollers? Can you
+tell a funny story you have heard or something funny that happened to
+you? Tell about the ghosts you have seen.
+
+14. When slaves became sick who looked after them? What medicines did
+tho doctors give them? What medicine (herbs, leaves, or roots) did the
+slaves use for sickness? What charms did they wear and to keep off what
+diseases?
+
+15. What do you remember about the war that brought your freedom? What
+happened on the day news came that you were free? What did your master
+say and do? When the Yankees came what did they do and say?
+
+16. Tell what work you did and how you lived the first year after the
+war and what you saw or heard about the KuKlux Klan and the Nightriders.
+Any school then for Negroes? Any land?
+
+17. Whom did you marry? Describe the wedding. How many children and
+grandchildren have you and what are they doing?
+
+18. What do you think of Abraham Lincoln? Jefferson Davis? Booker
+Washington? Any other prominent white man or Negro you have known or
+heard of?
+
+19. Now that slavery is ended what do you think of it? Tell why you
+joined a church and why you think all people should be religious.
+
+20. Was the overseer "poor white trash"? What were some of his rules?
+
+The details of the interview should be reported as accurately as
+possible in the language of the original statements. An example of
+material collected through one of the interviews with ex-slaves is
+attached herewith. Although this material was collected before the
+standard questionnaire had been prepared, it represents an excellent
+method of reporting an interview. More information might have been
+obtained however, if a comprehensive questionnaire had been used.
+
+
+
+
+Sample Interview From Georgia
+
+LULA FLANNIGAN
+Ex-slave, 78 years.
+
+
+"Dey says I wuz jes fo' years ole when de war wuz over, but I sho' does
+member dat day dem Yankee sojers come down de road. Mary and Willie
+Durham wuz my mammy and pappy, en dey belong ter Marse Spence Durham at
+Watkinsville in slav'ry times."
+
+"When word cum dat de Yankee sojers wuz on de way, Marse Spence en his
+sons wuz 'way at de war. Miss Betsey tole my pappy ter take en hide de
+hosses down in de swamp. My mammy help Miss Betsey sew up de silver in
+de cotton bed ticks. Dem Yankee sojers nebber did find our whitefolks'
+hosses and deir silver."
+
+"Miss Marzee, she wuz Marse Spence en Miss Betsey's daughter. She wuz
+playin' on de pianny when de Yankee sojers come down de road. Two sojers
+cum in de house en ax her fer ter play er tune dat dey liked. I fergits
+de name er dey tune. Miss Marzee gits up fum de pianny en she low dat
+she ain' gwine play no tune for' no Yankee mens. Den de sojers takes her
+out en set her up on top er de high gate post in front er de big house,
+en mek her set dar twel de whole regiment pass by. She set dar en cry,
+but she sho' ain' nebber played no tune for dem Yankee mens!"
+
+"De Yankee sojers tuk all de blankets offen de beds. Dey stole all de
+meat dey want fum de smokehouse. Dey bash in de top er de syrup barrels
+en den turn de barrels upside down."
+
+"Marse Spence gave me ter Miss Marzee fer ter be her own maid, but
+slav'ry time ended fo' I wuz big 'nough ter be much good ter 'er."
+
+"Us had lots better times dem days dan now. Whatter dese niggers know
+'bout corn shuckin's, en log rollin's, en house raisin's? Marse Spence
+used ter let his niggers have candy pullin's in syrup mekkin' time, en
+de way us wud dance in de moonlight wuz sompin' dese niggers nowadays
+doan know nuffin' 'bout."
+
+"All de white folks love ter see plenty er healthy, strong black chillun
+comin' long, en dey wuz watchful ter see dat 'omans had good keer when
+dey chilluns vuz bawned. Dey let dese 'omans do easy, light wuk towards
+de last 'fo' de chilluns is bawned, en den atterwuds dey doan do nuffin
+much twel dey is well en strong ergin. Folks tell 'bout some plantations
+whar de 'omans ud run back home fum de fiel' en hev day baby, en den be
+back in do fiel' swingin' er hoe fo' right dat same day, but dey woan
+nuffin lak dat 'round Watkinsville."
+
+"When er scritch owl holler et night us put en iron in de fire quick, en
+den us turn all de shoes up side down on de flo', en turn de pockets
+wrong side out on call de close, kaze effan we diden' do dem things
+quick, sompin' moughty bad wuz sho' ter happen. Mos' en lakly, somebuddy
+gwint'er be daid in dat house fo' long, if us woan quick 'bout fixin'.
+Whut us do in summer time, 'bout fire at night fer de scritch owl? Us
+jes' onkivver de coals in de fire place. Us diden' hev no matches en us
+bank de fire wid ashes evvy night all de year 'roun'. Effen de fire go
+out, kaze some nigger git keerless 'bout it, den somebuddy gotter go off
+ter de next plantation sometime ter git live coals. Some er de mens
+could wuk de flints right good, but dat wuz er hard job. Dey jes rub dem
+flint rocks tergedder right fas' en let de sparks day makes drap down on
+er piece er punk wood, en dey gits er fire dat way effen dey is lucky."
+
+"Dem days nobuddy bring er axe in de house on his shoulder. Dat was er
+sho' sign er bad luck. En nebber lay no broom crost de bed. One time er
+likely pair er black folks git married, en somebuddy give 'em er new
+broom. De 'oman she proud uv her nice, spankin' new broom en she lay hit
+on de bed fer de weddin' crowd ter see it, wid de udder things been give
+'em. Fo' thee years go by her man wuz beatin' 'er, en not long atter dat
+she go plum stark crazy. She oughter ter know better'n ter lay dat broom
+on her bed. It sho' done brung her bad luck. Dey sent her off ter de
+crazy folks place, en she died dar."
+
+
+
+
+[Document 5]
+
+May 3, 1937
+
+Mr. Edwin Bjorkman, State Director
+Federal Writers' Project, WPA
+City Hall, Fifth Floor
+Asheville, North Carolina
+
+Subj: Ex-slave Narratives
+
+
+Dear Mr. Bjorkman:
+
+I am quoting a memorandum of Mr. Lomax, folklore editor, regarding the
+ex-slave stories:
+
+"Of the five States which have already sent in reminiscences of
+ex-slaves, Tennessee is the only one in which the workers are asking
+ex-slaves about their belief in signs, cures, hoodoo, etc. Also, the
+workers are requesting the ex-slaves to tell the stories that were
+current among the Negroes when they were growing up. Some of the best
+copy that has come in to the office is found in these stories."
+
+This suggestion, I believe, will add greatly to the value of the
+collection now being made.
+
+Very truly yours,
+George Cronyn
+Associate Director
+
+CC--Mr. W.T. Couch, Asso. Director Federal Writers' Project
+ University Press
+ Chapel Hill, No. Car.
+
+GWCronyn/a
+
+SENT TO: No. and So. Carolina; Georgia; Alabama; Louisiana;
+ Texas; Arkansas; Kentucky; Missouri; Mississippi;
+ Oklahoma; Florida
+
+
+
+
+[Document 6]
+
+MEMORANDUM
+June 9, 1937
+
+TO: STATE DIRECTORS OF THE FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT
+FROM: Henry G. Alsberg, Director
+
+
+In connection with the stories of ex-slaves, please send in to this
+office copies of State, county, or city laws affecting the conduct of
+slaves, free Negroes, overseers, patrollers, or any person or custom
+affecting the institution of slavery. It will, of course, not be
+necessary to send more than one copy of the laws that were common
+throughout the state, although any special law passed by a particular
+city would constitute worthwhile material.
+
+In addition, we should like to have you collect and send in copies of
+any laws or accounts of any established customs relating to the
+admission to your State of bodies of slaves from Africa or other
+sections, the escape of slaves, etc. Also, we should like to see copies
+of advertisements of sales of slaves, published offers of rewards for
+fugitive slaves, copies of transfers of slaves by will or otherwise,
+records of freeing of slaves, etc. Public records of very particular
+interest regarding any transaction involving slaves should be
+photostated and copies furnished to the Washington office.
+
+Furthermore, contemporary accounts of any noteworthy occurrences among
+the Negroes during slavery days or the Reconstruction period should be
+copied, if taken from contemporary newspapers. If such records have been
+published in books, a reference to the source would be sufficient. We
+have been receiving a large number of extremely interesting stories of
+ex-slaves. The historic background of the institution of slavery, which
+should be disclosed with the information we are now requesting, will be
+very helpful in the execution of the plans we have in mind.
+
+Copies sent to:
+Alabama Georgia Maryland North Carolina Tennessee
+Arkansas Kentucky Mississippi Oklahoma Texas
+Florida Louisiana Missouri South Carolina Virginia
+ West Virginia
+ Ohio
+ Kansas
+
+
+
+
+[Document 7]
+
+Notes by an editor on dialect usage in accounts
+by interviews with ex-slaves. (To be used in
+conjunction with Supplementary Instructions 9E.)
+
+
+Simplicity in recording the dialect is to be desired in order to hold
+the interest and attention of the readers. It seems to me that readers
+are repelled by pages sprinkled with misspellings, commas and
+apostrophes. The value of exact phonetic transcription is, of course, a
+great one. But few artists attempt this completely. Thomas Nelson Page
+was meticulous in his dialect; Joel Chandler Harris less meticulous but
+in my opinion even more accurate. But the values they sought are
+different from the values that I believe this book of slave narratives
+should have. Present day readers are less ready for the over-stress of
+phonetic spelling than in the days of local color. Authors realize this:
+Julia Peterkin uses a modified Gullah instead of Gonzales' carefully
+spelled out Gullah. Howard Odum has questioned the use of goin' for
+going since the g is seldom pronounced even by the educated.
+
+Truth to idiom is more important, I believe, than truth to
+pronunciation. Erskine Caldwell in his stories of Georgia, Ruth Suckow
+in stories of Iowa, and Nora Neale Hurston in stories of Florida Negroes
+get a truth to the manner of speaking without excessive misspellings. In
+order to make this volume of slave narratives more appealing and less
+difficult for the average reader, I recommend that truth to idiom be
+paramount, and exact truth to pronunciation secondary.
+
+I appreciate the fact that many of the writers have recorded
+sensitively. The writer who wrote "ret" for right is probably as
+accurate as the one who spelled it "raght." But in a single publication,
+not devoted to a study of local speech, the reader may conceivably be
+puzzled by different spellings of the same word. The words "whafolks,"
+"whufolks," "whi'foiks," etc., can all be heard in the South. But
+"whitefolks" is easier for the reader, and the word itself is suggestive
+of the setting and the attitude.
+
+Words that definitely have a notably different pronunciation from the
+usual should be recorded as heard. More important is the recording of
+words with a different local meaning. Most important, however, are the
+turns of phrase that have flavor and vividness. Examples occurring in
+the copy I read are:
+
+durin' of de war
+outmen my daddy (good, but unnecessarily put into quotes)
+piddled in de fields
+skit of woods
+kinder chillish
+
+There are, of course, questionable words, for which it may be hard to
+set up a single standard. Such words are:
+
+paddyrollers, padrollers, pattyrollers for patrollers
+missis, mistess for mistress
+marsa, massa, maussa, mastuh for master
+ter, tuh, teh for to
+
+I believe that there should be, for this book, a uniform word for each
+of these.
+
+The following list is composed of words which I think should not be
+used. These are merely samples of certain faults:
+
+ 1. ah for I
+ 2. bawn for born
+ 3. capper for caper
+ 4. com' for come
+ 5. do for dough
+ 6. ebry, ev'ry for every
+ 7. hawd for hard
+ 8. muh for my
+ 9. nekid for naked
+10. ole, ol' for old
+11. ret, raght for right
+12. sneik for snake
+13. sowd for sword
+14. sto' for store
+15. teh for tell
+16. twon't for twan't
+17. useter, useta for used to
+18. uv for of
+19. waggin for wagon
+20. whi' for white
+21. wuz for was
+
+I should like to recommend that the stories be told in the language of
+the ex-slave, without excessive editorializing and "artistic"
+introductions on the part of the interviewer. The contrast between the
+directness of the ex-slave speech and the roundabout and at times
+pompous comments of the interviewer is frequently glaring. Care should
+be taken lest expressions such as the following creep in: "inflicting
+wounds from which he never fully recovered" (supposed to be spoken by an
+ex-slave).
+
+Finally, I should like to recommend that the words darky and nigger and
+such expressions as "a comical little old black woman" be omitted from
+the editorial writing. Where the ex-slave himself uses these, they
+should be retained.
+
+
+This material sent June 20 to states of: Ala., Ark., Fla., Ga.,
+Ky., La., Md., Miss., Mo., N.C., Ohio, Okla., Tenn., Texas,
+Va., and S. Car.
+
+
+
+
+[Document 8]
+
+MEMORANDUM
+July 30, 1937.
+
+TO: STATE DIRECTORS OF THE FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT
+FROM: Henry G. Alsberg, Director
+
+
+The following general suggestions are being sent to all the States where
+there are ex-slaves still living. They will not apply _in toto_ to your
+State as they represent general conclusions reached after reading the
+mass of ex-slave material already submitted. However, they will, I hope,
+prove helpful as an indication, along broad lines, of what we want.
+
+
+GENERAL SUGGESTIONS:
+
+1. Instead of attempting to interview a large number of ex-slaves the
+workers should now concentrate on one or two of the more interesting and
+intelligent people, revisiting them, establishing friendly relations,
+and drawing them out over a period of time.
+
+2. The specific questions suggested to be asked of the slaves should be
+only a basis, a beginning. The talk should run to all subjects, and the
+interviewer should take care to sieze upon the information already
+given, and stories already told, and from them derive other questions.
+
+3. The interviewer should take the greatest care not to influence the
+point of view of the informant, and not to let his own opinion on the
+subject of slavery become obvious. Should the ex-slave, however, give
+only one side of the picture, the interviewer should suggest that there
+were other circumstances, and ask questions about them.
+
+4. We suggest that each state choose one or two of their most successful
+ex-slave interviewers and have them take down some stories _word_ for
+_word_. Some Negro informants are marvellous in their ability to
+participate in this type of interview. _All stories should be as nearly
+word-for-word as is possible._
+
+5. More emphasis should be laid on questions concerning the lives of the
+individuals since they were freed.
+
+
+SUGGESTIONS TO INTERVIEWERS:
+
+The interviewer should attempt to weave the following questions
+naturally into the conversation, in simple language. Many of the
+interviews show that the workers have simply sprung routine questions
+out of context, and received routine answers.
+
+1. What did the ex-slaves expect from freedom? Forty acres and a mule? A
+distribution of the land of their masters' plantation?
+
+2. What did the slaves get after freedom? Were any of the plantations
+actually divided up? Did their masters give them any money? Were they
+under any compulsion after the war to remain as servants?
+
+3. What did the slaves do after the war? What did they receive
+generally? What do they think about the reconstruction period?
+
+4. Did secret organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan exert or attempt to
+exert any influence over the lives of ex-slaves?
+
+5. Did the ex-slaves ever vote? If so, under what circumstances? Did any
+of their friends ever hold political office? What do the ex-slaves think
+of the present restricted suffrage?
+
+6. What have the ex-slaves been doing in the interim between 1864 and
+1937? What jobs have they held (in detail)? How are they supported
+nowadays?
+
+7. What do the ex-slaves think of the younger generation of Negroes and
+of present conditions?
+
+8. Were there any instances of slave uprisings?
+
+9. Were any of the ex-slaves in your community living in Virginia at the
+time of the Nat Turner rebellion? Do they remember anything about it?
+
+10. What songs were there of the period?
+
+The above sent to: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Ga., Kentucky, La.,
+Md., Mississippi, Mo., N. Car., Okla., S. Car., Tenn., Texas, Virginia,
+W. Va., Ohio, Kansas, Indiana.
+
+
+
+
+[Document 9]
+
+MEMORANDUM
+September 8, 1937
+
+TO: STATE DIRECTORS OF THE FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT
+FROM: HENRY G. ALSBERG
+
+
+It would be a good idea if you would ask such of your field workers as
+are collecting stories from ex-slaves to try to obtain stories given to
+the ex-slaves by their parents and grandparents. The workers should try
+to obtain information about family traditions and legends passed down
+from generation to generation. There should be a wealth of such material
+available.
+
+We have found that the most reliable way to obtain information about the
+age of ex-slaves or the time certain events in their lives took place is
+to ask them to try to recollect some event of importance of known date
+and to use that as a point of reference. For instance, Virginia had a
+very famous snow storm called Cox's Snow Storm which is listed in
+history books by date and which is well remembered by many ex-slaves. In
+Georgia and Alabama some ex-slaves remember the falling stars of the
+year 1883. An ex-slave will often remember his life story in relation to
+such events. Not only does it help the chronological accuracy of
+ex-slave stories to ask for dated happenings of this kind, but it often
+serves to show whether the story being told is real or imagined.
+
+Sent the following states:
+Alabama Maryland Tennessee
+Arkansas Mississippi Texas
+Florida Missouri Virginia
+Georgia N. Carolina West Virginia
+Kentucky Oklahoma Ohio
+Louisiana S. Carolina Kansas
+ Indiana
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Slave Narratives, Administrative Files
+(A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves), by Work Projects Administration
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13847 ***
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