From 1936 to 1938, the Federal Writers’ Project (FWP), a part of
the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration, hired writers,
editors, and researchers to interview as many former slaves as they
could find and document their lives during slavery. More than 2,000
former slaves in 17 states were interviewed. With Weren’t
No Good Times, John F. Blair, Publisher, continues its Real Voices,
Real History™ series with selections from 46 of the 125
interviews now archived in the Library of Congress that were
earmarked as interviews with Alabama slaves. Also included is an
excerpt from Thirty Years a Slave: From Bondage to Freedom, a
memoir written by Louis Hughes. This selection reveals a different
aspect of the Alabama slavery experience, because Hughes was hired
out by his master to work at the Confederate salt works during the
Civil War. Alabama was a frontier state and from the beginning, its
economy was built on cotton and slavery. That its laws were
fashioned to accommodate both becomes obvious when related through
the experiences of Alabama’s slaves. A year after it obtained
statehood, Alabama had a slave population of 41,879, as compared to
85,451 whites and 571 free blacks. By 1860, the slave population
had swelled to 435,080, while there were 536,271 whites and 2,690
free blacks. When emancipation came to the slaves, Alabama’s
slave owners lost an estimated $200 million of capital. These
narratives will help readers understand slavery by hearing the
voices of the people who lived it. Horace Randall Williams
describes himself as “among the last of Alabamians - black or
white - who have memories of picking cotton by hand not for a few
minutes to see how it felt but because I needed the few dollars I
would get for a day’s hard labor under a hot sun,” an
experience he says helped him recognize the cadences and dialect in
the slave narratives. An Alabama native, he has researched and
written extensively about civil rights, segregation, and slavery
during three decades as a reporter, writer, editor, and publisher
of newspapers, magazines, and books. He was the founder and, for
many years, the director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s
Klanwatch Project. He is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of
NewSouth Books in Montgomery, Alabama. He recently authored 100
Things You Need to Know about Alabama. "For a century and a half,
these stories and the truths they disclose have been hidden from
view. They are far too important to stay neglected and ignored.
Williams has resurrected the last generation of America’s slaves
and allowed them to speak in their own voices." - Elizabeth Breau
Foreword Review
General
Imprint: |
John F. Blair Publisher
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
February 2004 |
Firstpublished: |
2004 |
Editors: |
Horace Randall Williams
|
Dimensions: |
190 x 127 x 17mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
191 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-89587-284-5 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
0-89587-284-6 |
Barcode: |
9780895872845 |
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