More than 2,000 interviews with former slaves, who, in blunt, simple language, provide often-startling first-person accounts of their lives in bondage. Includes some of the most detailed, compelling, and engrossing life histories in the Slave Narrative Collection, a project funded by the U.S. Government. An illuminating source of information.
When I Was a Slave
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Sommeguy
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
A shocking and brutal account of slavery, moved me to tears at time n all that. A recommended read of a brutal time in history. Saying that though a little known fact is that there are more slaves now than there ever has been in history. We now call them sweat shops.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Cielle
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
We have not long moved to the States from England. I was aware of the slave trade, but only as a set of historical facts. These interviews brought the slave's lives into a better perspective and answered a lot of my questions.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.7 out of 5 stars
79 reviews
94 of 98 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Collection of Life Stories as Told By Actual Slaves
30 Oct 2004
By Minnesota Raven
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
I was captured by the frankness and brutal honesty depicted in these slave narratives. The stories are varied and I am reminded that yes, slavery was horrific and barbaric but these were people and as such all have different experiences. African Americans in this country are at a clear disadvantage in terms of understanding our heritage and reading these stories kept reminding me of that fact.
That's a good thing because this collection covers the gamut of slavery. Unimagineable cruelty to high society life, all led by slaves. Each story is kept short but in the end you have a better view of the people component of slavery not just a view of the "institution of slavery." There was one story about a family run plantation that was considered fairer than most in that they didn't beat, brand or mistreat their slaves. During the course of the Civil War slave families are torn apart and taken away. After the Civil War, these particular plantation owners went looking for all their former slaves as most were starving or being worked in worse conditions than pre Civil War. One former slave girl they found wanted to find her mother and siblings and they set about helping her to do that. In the end she actually finds her mother and a few siblings in another state but it would not have been possible without the assistance of her former owners. This story imparts that there were people who understood that skin color does not mean you lack feelings, that states like Texas were horrible slave raiding states and that the south after the Civil War wasn't a good place to be if you were a former slave.
This is a good book to read if you want that overview and being 149 pages it's not overly long. It's also great if you have to pick it up and put it down as each story is only a few pages long.
That's a good thing because this collection covers the gamut of slavery. Unimagineable cruelty to high society life, all led by slaves. Each story is kept short but in the end you have a better view of the people component of slavery not just a view of the "institution of slavery." There was one story about a family run plantation that was considered fairer than most in that they didn't beat, brand or mistreat their slaves. During the course of the Civil War slave families are torn apart and taken away. After the Civil War, these particular plantation owners went looking for all their former slaves as most were starving or being worked in worse conditions than pre Civil War. One former slave girl they found wanted to find her mother and siblings and they set about helping her to do that. In the end she actually finds her mother and a few siblings in another state but it would not have been possible without the assistance of her former owners. This story imparts that there were people who understood that skin color does not mean you lack feelings, that states like Texas were horrible slave raiding states and that the south after the Civil War wasn't a good place to be if you were a former slave.
This is a good book to read if you want that overview and being 149 pages it's not overly long. It's also great if you have to pick it up and put it down as each story is only a few pages long.
39 of 40 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Treasure Trove
26 Jun 2007
By Robert W. Kellemen
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Norman Yetman has done every researcher of African American history a great service by his splendid compilation in "When I Was a Slave." Yetman used a precise formula for inclusion and/or exclusion in order to compile these narratives out of more than 3,000 interviews performed by the WPA in the 1930s. They are clearly representative of the entire 3,000, while at the same time of greater length and providing more detail than the 2,900 others.
Here the reader hears first-hand the voices of the ex-enslaved African American--telling his or her story with startling imagery and amazing detail. This is a one-of-a-kind collection well worth buying, reading, and re-reading.
Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction , Spiritual Friends: A Methodology of Soul Care And Spiritual Direction, and Soul Physicians.
Here the reader hears first-hand the voices of the ex-enslaved African American--telling his or her story with startling imagery and amazing detail. This is a one-of-a-kind collection well worth buying, reading, and re-reading.
Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction , Spiritual Friends: A Methodology of Soul Care And Spiritual Direction, and Soul Physicians.
35 of 36 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is no "Gone With the Wind"
10 Jun 2007
By Florence Graving
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is one of the most startling yet enlightening books I have ever read. Remembrances, recollections and memories of ex-slaves were gathered by Mr. Yetman and reproduced unedited (except for clarity) as a project developed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Written in the 1930's when a few very elderly slaves were still living and taken directly from them, the reader gets a true sense of the inhumanity of slavery.
Althugh some slaves were treated decently (I cannot say "kindly" - that word didn't exist when it came to slaves), most were simply a product or asset on a plantation or farm.
Families were ripped apart and sold at the owner's whim - never to see brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers again.
Husbands and wives suffered the same fate.
Many were starved and beaten. Many had no place to sleep at night.
It was forbidden for them to learn to read.
The treatment, tortures and torments these poor souls endured will break the hardest of hearts.
This was not just a "Southern" way of life. There were Northerners equally guilty of these crimes against humanity.
There is simply no way to describe the less-than-human conditions that slaves endured except to read their travails for yourself.
We owe a great debt of gratitude to Mr. Yetman for preserving these remembrances of "our eternal shame".
I feel that this should be required reading in schools. And included in some way in the test for citizenship.
The book is slim and the memoirs are short and quickly read.
Although it is revolting, slavery is part of our American heritage and
every American should know that slavery was our legacy of dishonor" and will foreveer remain our eternal regret.
Written in the 1930's when a few very elderly slaves were still living and taken directly from them, the reader gets a true sense of the inhumanity of slavery.
Althugh some slaves were treated decently (I cannot say "kindly" - that word didn't exist when it came to slaves), most were simply a product or asset on a plantation or farm.
Families were ripped apart and sold at the owner's whim - never to see brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers again.
Husbands and wives suffered the same fate.
Many were starved and beaten. Many had no place to sleep at night.
It was forbidden for them to learn to read.
The treatment, tortures and torments these poor souls endured will break the hardest of hearts.
This was not just a "Southern" way of life. There were Northerners equally guilty of these crimes against humanity.
There is simply no way to describe the less-than-human conditions that slaves endured except to read their travails for yourself.
We owe a great debt of gratitude to Mr. Yetman for preserving these remembrances of "our eternal shame".
I feel that this should be required reading in schools. And included in some way in the test for citizenship.
The book is slim and the memoirs are short and quickly read.
Although it is revolting, slavery is part of our American heritage and
every American should know that slavery was our legacy of dishonor" and will foreveer remain our eternal regret.
›
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4.7 out of 5 stars
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