Kentucky Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves

by Work Projects Administration

Uncle Dan tells me "he was born May 5, 1858 at the Abe Wheeler place near Spoonsville, now known as Nina, about nine miles due east from Lancaster. Mother, whose name was Lucinda Wheeler, belonged to the Wheeler family. My father was a slave of Dan Bogie's, at Kirksville, in Madison County, and I was named for him. My mother's people were born in Garrard County as far as I know. I had one sister, born in 1860, who is now dead, and is buried not far from Lancaster. Marse Bogie owned about 200 acres of land in the eastern section of the county, and as far as I can remember there were only four slaves on the place. We lived in a one-room cabin, with a loft above, and this cabin was an old fashioned one about hundred yards from the house. We lived in one room, with one bed in the cabin. The one bed was an old fashioned, high post corded bed where my father and mother slept. My sister and me slept in a trundle bed, made like the big bed except the posts were made smaller and was on rollers, so it could be rolled under the big bed. There was also a cradle, made of a wooden box, with rockers nailed on, and my mother told me that she rocked me in that cradle when I was a baby. She used to sit and sing in the evening. She carded the wool and spun yarn on the old spinning wheel. My grandfather was a slave of Talton Embry, whose farm joined the Wheeler farm. He made shingles with a steel drawing knife, that had a wooden handle. He made these shingles in Mr. Embry's yard. I do not remember my grandmother, and I didn't have to work in slave days, because my mother and father did all the work except the heavy farm work. My Mistus used to give me my winter clothes. My shoes were called brogans. My old master had shoes made. He would put my foot on the floor and mark around it for the measure of my shoes.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

114 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2006

Reviews

[Susan Molloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

✒️ Excellent, excellent! Reading these narratives provides another look into what the interviewees experienced, witnessed, and heard about. I enjoyed reading this immensely.

This is part of a series of interviews the United States government (under the WPA) conducted with former servants in Kentucky during The Great Depression. It’s interesting to read the former slaves’ recollections and events they experienced or overhead during the slave years, and their general thoughts on the current world and society. Many, but not all, of the interviews were transcribed in dialect, so reading them is all the more special. The contemporary black and white photographs add greatly to this work of valuable history and research.

📙Published in 1941. In the public domain.

🟢The e-book version can be found at Project Gutenberg.
🟣 Kindle.
ˋ°•*⁀ ˋ°•*⁀➷

[Fran · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since the printed page is really just a copy of the typewritten reports, some narratives are hard to read. After awhile some are just a repeat of everything else. It's a shame that more questions weren't asked of these valuable resources than the interviewers asked. I was stricken with the statements these folks made regarding how good their life was on the plantation. They all seemed to know slaves that were badly treated but none thought they were. They also described their homes as being cabins, chinked with mud, some with dirt floors. They talked of getting one set of clothes in the winter and one for summer. They talked about what they ate and it really wasn't much. I kept thinking of the old saying "You don't really miss what you've never had." and think that it is true!