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Bullwhip Days The Slaves Remember, an Oral History de James Mellon | |||
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Twenty-nine oral histories and additional excerpts, selected from 2000 interviews with former slaves conducted in the 1930s for a WPA Federal Writers Project, document the conditions of slavery that, Mellon ( The Face of Lincoln ) maintains, lie at the root of today's racism. Chilling examples of brutality and degradation alternate with moving accounts of humane treatment and affectionate respect between master and slave. Despite the close bonds that developed between some whites and blacks, however, racial and cultural confrontation dominated most relationships, "timelessly freezing them in an attitude of mutual rejection" that today still defies the Jeffersonian promise of real equality. Grouped by subjectabuse of both adults and children, religion, education, Civil War and Reconstructionthese annals of everyday life recorded in flavorful vernacular portray the resourcefulness and faith with which slaves survived. Photos not seen by PW. As part of the Federal Writers' Project in the 1920s and 1930s, a rich oral history of slavery was compiled from interviews with thousands of former slaves. Selections were first published in 1945 in B.A. Botkin's Lay My Burden Down , and later in collections by Norman Yetman and Lester Julius, now all out of print. The complete set is still available (George P. Rawick, ed. The American Slave A Composite Autobiography , 19 vols, 1972; Suppl. Series 1, 12 vols., 1978; Suppl. Series 2, 10 vols., 1980, Greenwood Pr.). Although this sample of 29 full narratives and several excerpts is excellent, recalling such varied experiences as religion, sexuality, and escape attempts, editor Mellon provides no historical context or setting. As a result, the larger meaning of a people's resilience in adversity is lost. Currently, libraries in need of a one-volume sampling of this fascinating body of work will have to be content with this faint echo. Randall M. Miller, St. Joseph's Univ., Philadelphia | |||
