Slave Narratives: Black Indians

Texas "Y" Surname Index


The WPA Narratives

To the Readers: You may find some terms or phrases offensive. The narratives have been transcribed as written, although they contain statements that may not be politically correct for the year 2000, they were terms used in the early 1900 (and even today) by all races.I am proud to say I am a Freedmen descendant, therefore to change their words would be a disservice to them, myself and to those who seek the truth.

Transcribed by Eleanor Wyatt : All names; Slaves, Slave owners and family members of both have been highlighted.

The narratives were copied word for word including most of the misspellings that occurred in the original. The spelling errors give some sense that the Federal Writers' Project employed writers who may have been somewhat less than Professionals

In this Texas collection there are interviews with over 600 ex-slaves, as well as interviews with whites old enough at the time to have remembered slavery. All narratives that displayed even the slightest change from those originally published have been included; in all but a few cases the changes are substantive. The interviews with whites provide a contrasting backdrop against which to read the ex-slave narratives. A few of the ex-slaves were interviewed together with a spouse or some other close relative, and in those cases two ex-slaves are presented. To view some of the items deleted for the ex-slaves narratives click the Dove at the bottome of this page

 Yarbrough, Fannie  Yarbrough, Virginia   Young, Litt
photo with narrative  
 Young, Louis
 
 Young, Mary

photo with narrative  
 Young, Teshan
       Amazing Grace

Total: 6

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