Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery

By Various

This book is about true statements from ex-slaves, it speak's of their time in captivity and the civil war in America. Their interviews were conducted by the Federal Writers' Project in the year of 1937. Ex-slave: IDA ADKINS was 79 years old in 1937 when interviewed.She's speaking of the civil war when the union soldiers arrived. quote: When dey seed Marse Frank standin' on de po'ch wid de gun leveled on dem, dey got mad. Time Marse Frank done shot one time a bully Yankee snatched de gun away an' tole Marse Frank to hold up his hand. Den deytied his hands an' pushed him down on de floor 'side de house an' tole him dat if he moved dey would shoot him. Den dey went in de house.I wuz skeered near 'bout to death, but I run in de kitchen an' got a butcher knife, an' when de Yankees wasn' lookin', I tried to cut de rope an' set Marse Frank free. But one of dem blue debils seed me an' come runnin'. He say: 'Whut you doin', you black brat! you stinkin' little alligator bait!' He snatched de knife from my hand an' toldme to stick out my tongue, dat he wuz gwine to cut it off. I let out a yell an' run behin' de house. unquote. Just in case you don't know what alligator bait is, it was an evil act thatthe slave masters would do to young slaves babies and children. They would tie a rope around the babies, throw them in the river to catch alligators. Black babies were used as alligator bait. This is only one of the suppressed and hidden history of slavery in America.CHARITY AUSTIN: Ex-slave I wus borned in the year 1852, July 27. I wus born in Granville County, sold to a slave speculator at ten years old and carried to Southwest, Georgia. I belonged to Samuel Howard. His daughter took me to Kinston, NorthCarolina and I stayed there until I wus sold. She married a man named Bill Brown, and her name wus Julia Howard Brown. My father wus named Paul Howard and my mother wus named Chollie Howard. My old missus wus named Polly Howard. e. Slaveswere bought up and sent there in chains. Some were chained to each other by the legs, some by the arms. When de white folks were preparing to go to de war they had big dinners and speakin'. Dey tole what dey were goin' to do to Sherman and Grant. Alot of such men as Grant and Sherman and Lincoln came through de Southin rags and were at some o' dese meetings, an' et de dinners. When dewhite folks foun' it out, dere wus some sick folks. Sometimes we got twodays Christmas and two days July. When de nigger wus freed dey didn'tknow where to go and what to do. It wus hard, but it has been hardsince. From what de white folks, marster and missus tole us we thoughtLincoln wus terrible. By what mother and father tole me I thought he wusall right. I think Roosevelt wus put in by God to do the right things. unquote.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1521439737
• ISBN13: 9781521439739
• Release Date: June 2017
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 210 Pages
• Weight: 1.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 11.0" x 0.5" x 8.5"