Slave Narratives

This is a copyrighted document from the electronic archive for Wilma A. Dunaway, Slavery and Emancipation in the Mountain South: Evidence, Sources, and Methods, Virginia Tech Library.

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Description of Appalachian Slave Narratives

County of Origin or Residence

Gender of slave

Age of slave at beginning of Civil War

Ethnicity of WPA Interviewers

Comparison of Appalachian Narratives with the Entire WPA Collection

Access the List of Narratives

County of Origin or Residence

Appalachian Counties of:	Number Slave Narratives
Alabama	32
Georgia	45
Kentucky	26
Maryland	13
North Carolina	13
South Carolina	2
Tennessee	57
Virginia	80
West Virginia	25
Total Narratives	293

Age of Slave at Beginning of Civil War

Age of Ex-Slave in 1861	% All Narratives
9 or younger	27%
10 to 15	40%
16 to 25	21%
26 or older	12%

Gender of Slaves

Gender of Ex-slave	% All Narratives
Female	45%
Male	55%

Who interviewed the ex-slave in the 1930s?

Ethnicity of Interviewer	% All Narratives
White	36%
Black	64%

Comparison of Appalachian Narratives with the Entire WPA Collection

Appalachian slave narratives are not handicapped by the kinds of shortcomings that plague the national WPA collection. Large plantations, males, and house servants are over-represented among the entire universe of respondents. In addition, two-fifths of the ex-slaves had experienced less than ten years of enslavement. The most serious distortions derived from the class and racial biases of whites who conducted the vast majority of the interviews.

The Southern Mountain narratives were collected over a vast land area in nine states. Thus, the significant distances between respondents offer opportunities for comparison and for testing the widespread transmission of African-American culture.
By checking the slave narratives against Census manuscripts and slave schedules, I established that the vast majority of the Appalachian narratives were collected from individuals who had been enslaved on plantations that held fewer than twenty slaves.
Most of the Appalachian respondents had been field hands, and very few were employed full-time as artisans or domestic servants. In terms of gender differentiation, the Appalachian sample is almost evenly divided.
In contrast to the entire WPA collection, three-quarters of the Appalachian ex-slaves were older than ten when freed. Indeed, when emancipated, one-third of the Southern Mountain respondents were sixteen or older, and 12 percent were 25 or older. Thus, the vast majority of the Appalachian ex-slaves had endured fifteen years or more of enslavement, and they were old enough to form their own memories and to retain family oral histories.
Perhaps the greatest strength of the Appalachian collection has to do with the ethnicity of interviewers. Nearly two-thirds of the Appalachian narratives were written by the ex-slaves themselves or collected by black field workers. Many Tennessee and Georgia interviews were conducted under the auspices of Fisk University and the Atlanta Urban League, and all of the Virginia WPA interviews were conducted by black interviewers from Hampton Institute.

african.gif (1328 bytes) Slave Narratives and Photographs

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Access Slave Narrative List

Photographs of Ex-Slaves

Source: Federal Writers Project, National Archives

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Delia Garlic Oliver Bell Sarah Gudger

You can access additional photos at the Library of Congress website.

Read Three Slave Narratives Online

Thomas Cole (northern Alabama)

Rachel Cruze (east Tennessee)

Sarah Gudger (western North Carolina)

Source: Federal Writers Project, National Archives

african.gif (1328 bytes) How to Access Slave Narratives Online

The WPA Collection of Slave Narratives is now online at the Library of Congress website, so you will be able to access most of the Appalachian narratives at that site.

Greenwood Press has posted the entire WPA collection online; however, a subscription fee is required.

Many narratives are now online at the University of North Carolina. However, I have not yet found any additional Appalachian narratives in that collection.