My folks don't want me to talk about slavery : twenty-one oral histories of former North Carolina slaves

by Belinda Hurmence

Paper Book, 1984

Description

Twenty-one oral histories of former North Carolina slaves.

Status

Available

Call number

975.6/00496073/0922B

Publication

Winston-Salem, N.C. : J.F. Blair, c1984.

User reviews

LibraryThing member mkboylan
Somewhere in the Library of Congress there are 10,000 typewritten pages of interviews with former slaves. This archive, known as Slave Narratives, is the result of a government funded project to provide work for some of the unemployed during the depression in the U.S. in the 1930's: The Federal
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Writers' Project. Out of these stories of 2,000 people, Belinda Hurmence has chosen to edit and publish 21 of these stories, focusing on those who lived in North Carolina. The location was perfect for me because I recently read Emma LeConte's diary of her life in North Carolina during the march of Sherman, written from her perspective as a slave owner. Each chapter is short, around 4 pages, and the interviewers worked from a list of the same questions. Because of that I found the stories to be somewhat repetitive at times, but realized this method also provided for a good comparison of attitudes and experiences of different people in similar circumstances. For example, all were asked about their physical care regarding food, clothing, and housing. In this common experience of slavery, there was a variety of stories as some were starved, while others were fed well. Other questions were directed at literacy (non-existent), religion, whipping. No analysis is made of the stories, although there is a good introduction by Hurmence, reminding the reader of the circumstances and timing of the interviews, e.g. during the depression the past may have looked better than it would if you interviewed the same people today. Of course there is the fact that the period following emancipation was a transition period that did not go smoothly. Some met it with joy, others with fear, and others with the common Stockholm Syndrome.

This was interesting, if painful, reading in light of conversations today as we hear responses to current movies such as Django and Twelve Years a Slave, as well as the class wars addressed by Occupy Wall Street. There are some who say that plantations have been replaced by ghettoes, which are just as difficult to escape from. It's difficult for me to understand that comparison when I think about slaves being whipped and starved and separated from their families. Then I think about the racist use of the death penalty today, hunger and poverty in the U.S. today, and the racist use of child protective services and let's don't even get started on who died in Vietnam.

Fascinating if depressing reading, these are stories that deserve to be heard, with a reminder that they were told to white people so need to be followed up by reading African American authors.
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LibraryThing member lamour
During the the 1930's, The Federal Writers' Project was an initiative to create work for jobless writers & researchers. Some of these people were sent out to interview former slaves before they all died. This book is a collection of some of the 170 interviews that were done in North Carolina. It is
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fascinating to read the different treatment by different masters on the same road. Even more intriguing is the different treatment meted out to slaves on the same plantation by the master & the mistress. Contrary to what you may think, at least two of the memoirs in this volume tell of plantations where the master was a caring man who did not use physical punishment while the mistress was a terror with whip. Some of these men & women look back on the slavery period with fondness. They had warm shelter & good clothes both of which they did have after freedom.
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LibraryThing member empress8411
As with Hurmence's previous collection (We Lived in a Little Cabin in the Yard), this is a troubling and mind-opening collection of narratives by slaves. Collected as part of the Federal Writer's Project, these stories languished in dusty archives until Hurmence pulled them into the light. This
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particular collection is from slaves in North Carolina. It is broad-ranging, meaning not all narrators hated slavery and whites. It is an interesting thing to find. One would assume that given the horrors of slavery, there would be much vitriol and bitterness. You do find this, but not as much as I expected. Hurmence does mention that the collectors of the stories were white and this may have skewed the narratives (meaning that even in 1924, blacks would not be comfortable criticizing whites to a white person). It is important to remember this when reading these narratives.
This book, and the others in the series, are must-reads for anyone who wants to learn about the history of slavery and racism in the US. They are particularly suited for classroom use, either public or homeschool, and would be okay for children in later elementary and up.
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LibraryThing member erwinkennythomas
Editor Belinda Hurmence’s My Folks Don’t Want Me To Talk About Slavery provides excerpts about the lives of ex-slaves. Much of this narrative originated through the Federal Writers’ Project that was created to provide work for jobless writers and researchers. It initiated a program whereby
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field workers interviewed ex-slaves wherever they were found. But the contents of this book represented a compilation of stories of ex-slaves in North Carolina.
Each ex-slave’s narrative begins with where he or she was born in North Carolina. A discussion followed and the slaves who were mainly in their “eighties and nineties” described their lives in slavery. They commented about their meagre diets of cornbread, meats, and molasses, and their inadequate clothing. They talked about having working in the fields from sun up to sun down, and the whippings they received from their master or mistress when they disobeyed them. The slaves’ rules were often harsh, and based on the whims of the slave holders.
Many ex-slaves were encouraged to attend the church of their master and mistress. They would hear the preacher talk about how they should obey their master. But they were never given the chance to learn from books. For it was against the rules for them to be caught reading a book or a newspaper. These slaves couldn’t even read the Bible. So for the most part, a majority of the ex-slaves didn’t even know how to read or write.
It was however surprising to hear that many of these ex-slaves liked being with their master and mistress. Some of them said that they were well-treated, and they enjoyed their slave holders. On the other hand one wonders if these ex-slaves were only saying what they thought the interviewers wanted to hear. Many of them though thought that even after they were emancipated that their living conditions were worse. This was because they had their freedom, but had no one to care for them with a cabin, food, and clothing. Many of these ex-slaves therefore opted to remain with their slave master and mistress, for they lacked the means to take care of themselves.
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Language

Original publication date

1984

ISBN

0895870398 / 9780895870391
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