In 1935, as part of the WPA, President Roosevelt created the
Federal Writers Project. This was a very ambitious program designed
to put unemployed writers, editors, teachers and others to work.
They were paid between $20 and $25 dollars per week on average.
Over 6000 people were employed by the Federal Writers Project. Some
later on became quite famous in the literary world. Among those
were Conrad Aiken, Nelson Algren, Saul Bellow, Anna Bontemps, John
Cheever, Malcolm Cowley, Edward Dahlberg, Ralph Ellison, Zora Neale
Hurston, Claude Mckay, Kenneth Patchen, Phillip Rahv, Kenneth
Rexroth, Harold Rosenberg, John Steinbeck, Studs Terkel, Margaret
Walker, Richard Wright, and Frank Yerby. One of the Writers Project
best known projects was the Oral History Project. Interviewers went
out all over the country talking to the "common" people to document
their lives. Thousands of people in hundreds of groups were
interviewed. One of these groups were former slaves. This book is a
compilation of some of those interviews conducted in North
Carolina. As you read them you will notice that the interviewers
tried to write as the subjects spoke, in their own dialect. The
former slaves used words and terms that are not considered
politically correct in today's world. They may be offensive to
some, but I hope not. It is how the subjects of the interviews
actually spoke. In this book, the interviews are presented exactly
as they were written during the years 1836-1938. They have not been
edited. The writers at that time were instructed to stick to the
exact words spoken by those interviewed. Editing it was feared
would change the tone and meaning of the interview. So, here they
are. If they give anyone offense, I sincerely apologize. I feel
that these documents are far too important to be languishing in
some collection, that most people will never see. It is my hope
that you will find these stories compelling, fascinating,
disturbing, interesting and an essential chronicle of an unpleasant
and embarrassing period in our nation's history.
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