|
978-0-89587-118-3
0-89587-118-1
$7.95 paperback
5" x 7 1/2"
103 pages
|
"Shep Miller
was my master. Bought my mother, a little girl, when he was married. She
was a real Christian and he respected her a little. Didn't beat her so
much. 'Course he beat her once in a while. Beat women! Why, sure he beat
women. Beat women just like men. Beat women naked and wash them down in
brine."--Elizabeth Sparks
"When you
gather a bunch of cattle to sell they calves, how the calves and cows
will bawl, that the way the slaves was then. They didn't know nothing
about they kinfolks. Most chillun didn't know who they pappy was and
some they mammy, 'cause they taken away from the mammy when she wean
them, and sell or trade the chillun to someone else, so they couldn't
get attached to they mammy or pappy."--Elige Davison
In the 1930s, the Federal
Writers' Project undertook a massive effort at gathering the oral
testimony of former slaves. Those ex-slaves were in their declining
years by the time of the Great Depression, but Elizabeth Sparks, Elige
Davison, and others like them nonetheless provided a priceless record of
life under the yoke: where the slaves lived, how they were treated, what
they ate, how they worked, how they adjusted to freedom.
Here, Belinda Hurmence
presents the interviews of 21 former Virginia slaves. This is a
companion to Hurmence's popular collections of North Carolina and South
Carolina slave narratives, My
Folks Don't Want Me To Talk About Slavery and Before
Freedom, When I Just Can Remember. The success of these slave
narratives spurred John F. Blair, Publisher, to create a line of books
featuring real people in their own voices known as the Real Voices, Real
History ™ series. Other titles in this series include On
Jordan's Stormy Banks and Mighty
Rough Times, I Tell You.
about the editor
Belinda Hurmence was born in Oklahoma, raised in Texas, and educated
at the University of Texas and Columbia University. In addition to other
slave narratives in this series, she has written several novels for
young people.
Other slave narrative titles in
Blair's Real Voices, Real History™ series:
My
Folks Don't Want Me To Talk About Slavery
Before
Freedom, When I Just Can Remember
On Jordan's Stormy Banks
Mighty Rough Times, I Tell You
Prayin'
to Be Set Free
I
Was Born in Slavery
Weren't
No Good Times
|
