I decided to do a little experiment with the Virginia narratives,
conveniently collected and indexed in Perdue, et. al., Weevils in the
Wheat, which has previously been cited.

According to the introduction, the book collects "all or part of 159
interviews" from 157 informants.

Let's peruse the index.  We have 41 entries under "slave resistance";
under "punishments" there are 49 references JUST to whippings; 40
references to patrollers, and, believe me, their not positive; 49
references to runaways.  We, of course, could count the entries for
slave auctions, etc., but you get the idea.

Some of the song titles certainly catch the eye: "Jeff Davis to a Sour
Apple Tree," "Massa's Gwyne Sell Us Termerrer," "Slavery Chain is Broke
at Las', "T'aint No Mo' Sellin' Today."

This perusal of the index confirms what one will find by reading the
book--many of the interviews do in fact mention rather unpleasant
aspects of slavery and slave resistance.  No doubt slavery was a complex
institution.  This complexity is conveyed by the narrative of William I.
Johnson, Jr. (p. 165-170).  Johnson does positively recollect his
plantation existence (food and housing), where he was a butler in the
big house, and he recounts that his master "seldom ever had any of his
slaves whipped."  Seldom is apparently good, because he then goes on to
describe the brutality of a white neighbor with the lash as well as his
overseer. He then makes this statement: "White folks in my part of the
county didn't think anything of breaking up a family and selling the
children," relating that when a master needed money he would simply sell
some slaves.  He then relates the careful physical examination of black
women on the auction block and moves on to runaways and a slave forging
a pass.  It would be easy to cherry pick a line from this narrative to
prove that slaves were "happy," but that's hardly the general impression
one gets from the entire narrative.

I'm all for students reading the narratives for themselves within the
context of the larger literature describing what we know about slave
work, diet, the domestic slave trade, and other aspects of slavery based
on primary sources.  I guarantee that if they read the Virginia
narratives it will be very difficult for them to come to the conclusion
that the "vast majority of the former slaves . . . thought with kindness
and nostalgia about their life in slavery."  Even whites involved in the
creation of the Virginia narratives didn't think that.  Read the
introduction to "Weavils in the Wheat," especially pp. xx-xxvi. Some of
the narratives were abstracted in a publication called "The Negro in
Virginia," which brought together many of the WPA project materials.
One of the senior WPA Writer's Project administrators questioned
generally what was being collected, using as an example a narrative
recounting slaves not being given enough to eat.  She apparently worked
over the material.  Perdue points to a number of narratives in the The
Negro in Virginia that were clearly excised of material that would have
gone against the prevalent white notions of benevolence under slavery.
This is the political context in which the narratives were collected, so
why would we be surprised if interviewees were very circumspect when
faced with a white interviewer?

Gregg Kimball 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of [log in to unmask]
Sent: Friday, March 02, 2007 8:05 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Slave Narrative for WPA Project

After reading all the slave narratives, I am struck by the weight of
evidence that the vast majority of the former slaves interviewed thought
with kindness and nostalgia about their life in slavery.  It appears
that few immediately left their plantations after the war, but chose to
continue to live  with their masters.
 
Question-Do any of the educators in this forum who teach  history during
this period mention the alternative view that perhaps the  majority of
slaves were treated well and were not unhappy with their  status?  Just
curious.
 
JD South
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