Remembering Slavery: African Americans Talk about Their Personal Experiences of Slavery and Emancipation

By Ira Berlin

Book Overview

The groundbreaking, bestselling history of slavery, with a new foreword by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed

"As vital and necessary a historical document as anyone has ever produced in this country." --The Boston Globe

With the publication of the 1619 Project and the national reckoning over racial inequality, the story of slavery has gripped America's imagination--and conscience--once again.

No group of people better understood the power of slavery's legacies than the last generation of American people who had lived as slaves. Little-known before the first publication of Remembering Slavery, their memories were recorded on paper, and in some cases on primitive recording devices, by WPA workers in the 1930s. A major publishing event, Remembering Slavery captured these extraordinary voices in a single volume for the first time, presenting them as an unprecedented, first-person history of slavery in America.

Remembering Slavery received the kind of commercial attention seldom accorded projects of this nature--nationwide reviews as well as extensive coverage on prime-time television, including Good Morning America, Nightline, CBS Sunday Morning, and CNN. Reviewers called the book "chilling . . . and] riveting" (Publishers Weekly) and "something, truly, truly new" (The Village Voice).

With a new foreword by Pulitzer Prize-winning scholar Annette Gordon-Reed, this new edition of Remembering Slavery is an essential text for anyone seeking to understand one of the most basic and essential chapters in our collective history.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1620970287
• ISBN13: 9781620970287
• Release Date: September 2021
• Publisher: New Press
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.13 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Powerful and Enlightening

I am currently a high school student that read part of this for a Civil War class and let me say this is one powerful book. With people who were the slaves themselves tell you their stories, you learn alot about the antebellum period. I would recommend this book for any mature person due to the fact that some of these stories show the true horror of slavery.

the book and tapes are a must for all people.

the collection puts a face and voice to slavery. it answered any questions, while creating others. informative, letting the listeners know of the pride, courage and brillance of slaves. but in knowing more, the tapes clearly reveal that the whole, real truth died with the people of that era. we will never know the complete truth about that institution. it was a brutal mistake that still haunts all of civilization. the collection is an unbelievable experience.

Excellent book for reading or reference

This is a must read book! If you buy no other book this year this is the one to read and listen! I'm also saving this book and tape as a reference book for my children. It's not eveyday that one has a chance to listen to acual voices of slaves. It like the past comes alive as listen to their voices.

Close your eyes, listen. Open them, read.

Ira Berlin brings life to a dead and dark time in our world history. The book and tape combination was prepared with the the utmost care and circumspection. The ominous voices of the ex-slaves are clear and well produced.The hardcover is a delight from inception to completion. Mr. Berlin is a concise, in-your-face author.

Every American Should Read This

It's tough to tackle slavery and a work of such substance in a forum such as this, but here goes anyway...Ira Berlin does a magnificent job, especially with his introduction, which sets the tone of the work and explains the various shortcomings related to the primary sources for his material.This is not a compilation of slave narratives. This is a compilation of excerpts from interviews with elderly former slaves. It is a powerful look into the institution of slavery; while hardly exhaustive. it provides an excellent snapshot of slavery by the people who lived through and, indeed, suffered under it. You read about slaves: how they were born; where they lived; their relationship with the land, their masters, their drivers, and their fellow slaves; their religious expression; and several other aspects of their lives. I found that this work helped puncture the mythology of slavery on both sides -- the mythology of the apologists as well as the liberals. For me, ultimately, it reinforced a belief that I have developed a long time ago. There were "degrees" of slavery in practice across the US; there were good owners and bad ones; but one thing is for sure, all slave owners at some level knew of the humanity of their slaves. While for some this lead to leniency, for others this lead to denial-inspired harshness with their slaves. Either way, slave owners, whether "benevolent" or vicious, in the mere act of slaveowning performed a crime against humanity because they simply knew better...