Sunday, February 28, 2010

Voices From Slavery

To close out Black History Month, a fascinating collection of audio from several interviews with ex-slaves.

From the Library of Congress...
The recordings of former slaves in Voices from the Days of Slavery: Former Slaves Tell Their Stories come from several collections held in the American Folklife Center's Archive of Folk Culture. They were made by various interviewers working in nine Southern states between 1932 and 1975.

A segment from one of the transcripts...
My name is Fountain Hughes. I was born in Charlottesville, Virginia. My grandfather belong to Thomas Jefferson...

...You wasn't no more than a dog to some of them in them days. You wasn't treated as good as they treat dogs now. But still I didn't like to talk about it. Because it makes, makes people feel bad you know. Uh, I, I could say a whole lot I don't like to say. And I won't say a whole lot more.

To listen to Fountain Hughes' interview and others, click here.

Update: A friend of mine (thanks SG!) told me about an HBO documentary entitled "Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives" which presents selections from the extensive Slave Narrative Collection through readings by over a dozen actors, interspersed with archival photographs, music, film and period images. (

A brief segment from Unchained Memories...

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