Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves Maryland Narratives by Work Projects Administration

Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves Maryland Narratives Reviews

• 
  Rebecca

  See also Florida Slave Narratives, by Works Progress Administration Federal Writers' Project
  
  This volume was so rich for me, having lived in Maryland near some of the sites for many years. On the first page the writer gives directions from Rockville to the house where Aunt Lucy is interviewed. It's got to be in Forest Glen! See mention of "ole Forest Glen hotel" and National Park Seminary on page 3.
  
  pages 4-5 The person who was enslaved speaks highly of the person and family who held him in slavery. This kind of recital appears several times throughout these narratives; It's got me thinking about why someone would say these things.
  
  page 10-11 kidnapped in 1860 at age 10, taught French to the slave-holder's children
  page 13 graduated from Fisk University, taught French there.
  
  page 19 - "Mrs. Davidson's dishes were considered the finest, and to receive an invitation from the Davidsons meant that you would enjoy Maryland's finest terrapin and chicken besides the best wine and champagne on the market. All of the cooking was supervised by mother. . . ." (interesting after reading The Cooking Gene - let's think about who really did the cooking)
  
  page 20 sheltered in Baltimore by "ardent supporters of the Underground Railroad"
  
  pages 22-23 "the Staffords liberated my parents, not because he believed in the freedom of slaves but because of saving the lives of his entire family . . . diving into the river to rescue them.
  
  29 "My grandfather ran away through the aid of Harriet Tubman and went to Philadelphia . . . ."
  
  32 "On Sunday the slaves who wanted to worship would gather . . . and have their church. . . . No one could read the Bible. . . . coachman was the preacher, he would go to the white Baptist church . . . and be better informed because he heard the white preacher."
  
  33 "On New Year's Day we were all scared, that was the time for selling, buying and trading slaves."
  
  33 re games and sport: "We boys used to take the horns of a dead cow or bull, cut the end off of it, we could blow it, some having different notes. We could tell who was blowing and from what plantation."
  
  34 re other children on the plantation: "they treated me fairly good . . . until they realized their father was my father"
  
  35 "In the year of 1865, I left South Carolina, went to Washington, entered Howard University 1868, graduated in 1873, taught schools in Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland, retired 1910."
  
  37-38 "My grandfather was sold to a man in South Carolina, to work in the rice field. Grandmother drowned herself in the river when she heard that grand-pap was going away."
  
  40 On New Year's Day everybody was scared as that was the day that slaves were taken away or brought to the farm."
  
  46 "No ma'am, none of the Wakefiel' [en-slaved people] ever run away. They was too well off! They knew who they friends was! My white folkses was good to their [enslaved people]!" "cotton picking was fun, believe me!" [Hmm.]
  
  53 story of "a colored girl" who "was taken by the trader to his room to satisfy his bestial nature. She could not be coerced or forced, so she was attacked by him. In the struggle she grabbed a knife . . . ."
  
  54 "We had a graveyard on the place. Whites were buried inside of railing and the slaves on the outside. The members of the white family had tombstones, the colored had headstones and cedar post to show where they were buried."
  
  61 "Simms asserted that even as late as 1856 the Constitution of Maryland enacted that a Negro convicted of murder should have his right hand cut off, should be hanged in the usual manner . . . ."
  
  62 "We all thought of running off to Canada or to Washington, but feared the patrollers. As a rule most slaves were lazy." [Where does a statement like this come from?]
  
  77 This last narrative (pages 68-78) is not just an interview; the references it lists include the Baltimore Morning Sun, Election Registration Books, Maryland Historical Magazine, as well as a personal interview. "The increasing numbers of free negroes also had much to do with causing the civil war. The south was finding black slavery a sort of white elephant. Everywhere the question was what to do with the freeman. Nobody wanted them. Some states declared they were a public nuisance."
  
  Much to ponder in these narratives.
• 
  Susan

  This is part of a series of interviews the United States government (under the WPA) conducted with former slaves in Maryland 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. It continues to fascinate me how many of them speak about how the youngsters of their current day don’t appreciate what they have and that they are generally “lazy” (Some thoughts and comments such as these just don’t change over the centuries, do they?), and that they had a better life under slavery since they had every need securely supplied on the plantation. The contemporary black and white photographs add greatly to this work of valuable history and research.
• 
  Christina

  Just as telling as the experiences are about what people endured during slavery…the questions posed by the interviewers also tells its own story.