Mississippi Slave Narratives

by Work Projects Administration (Compiler), Applewood Books (Creator)

The view that slavery could best be described by those who had themselves experienced it personally has found expression in several thousand commentaries, autobiographies, narratives, and interviews with those who "endured." Although most of these accounts appeared before the Civil War, more than one-third are the result of the ambitious efforts of the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to interview surviving ex-slaves during the 1930s. The result of these efforts was the Slave Narrative Collection, a group of autobiographical accounts of former slaves that today stands as one of the most enduring and noteworthy achievements of the WPA. Compiled in seventeen states during the years 1936-38, the collection consists of more than two thousand interviews with former slaves, most of them first-person accounts of slave life and the respondents' own reactions to bondage. The interviews afforded aged ex-slaves an unparalleled opportunity to give their personal accounts of life under the "peculiar institution," to describe in their own words what it felt like to be a slave in the United States. -Norman R. Yetman, American Memory, Library of Congress This paperback edition of selected Mississippi narratives is reprinted in facsimile from the typewritten pages of the interviewers, just as they were originally typed.

Genres: History, American History, Nonfiction, African American, Research

168 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2006

Reviews

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I somehow landed on the Library of Congress web page that has this available for free to read online, probably from a link in an article or on Instagram. Short, 167 pages, of typed transcripts from interviews with people who were born as slaves and then freed after the Civil War. There is some controversy over whether the fact the interviewers were white influenced what the black interviewees had to say. I was fascinated and kept reading longer than I expected to. Many said that they were better off under slavery, which I had not expected to read. Collections of personal narratives is a new style of book for me, and I like it a lot.

[Christine mcgahee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book

The slave narratives are a wonderful way to get the other side of the story. Many books on how the wealthy lived before the civil war. Very few explain life from enslaved people's view. I love these book

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

great information

I am a family historian and this volume contains details of black life in Lauderdale County, Mississippi, which is where my mother grew up. Her mother and father worked on a farm east of Meridian.

[Ebony Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book on real history! This book is a wonderful read due to the historical interviews of real slaves! We all need to know our American history; the good and bad! 

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This narrative contains some of the most blatant interviewer bias I have seen in the narratives so far. Interviewers describe people in the room at the time of the interview as "bucks" and have several other patently racist comments that are made about the person they are interviewing.

[Susan Molloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is part of a series of interviews the United States government (under the WPA) conducted with former slaves in Mississippi during The Great Depression. It’s interesting to read the former slaves’ recollections and events they experienced or over

[Ed Tinkertoy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book because it covered interviews with slaves who were living in Mississippi. I was just curious as to whether I may find references to my family from Mississippi.

[Ed Tinkertoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

this type book is one that you read portions of that may relate to your family tree rather than the whole book. I did skim through many parts of it.