Born in Slavery

Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. These narratives were collected in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and assembled and microfilmed in 1941 as the seventeen-volume Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves.

 Abe Whitess, age over 90, 1936-38

 Anderson and Minerva Edwards, age 93 and 87, Marshall, Texas, 1936-38

 Charles H. Anderson, age 92, 1936-38

[Note that Mr. Anderson sports a hat with the logo "G.A.R.", standing for Grand Army of the Republic, meaning that in addition to being a former slave, he is a Union Army veteran.]

 Elijah Cox, 1930-40

 Ellen Butler, ex-slave, Beaumont, Texas, 1937

 Georgia Flournoy, Alabama, 1930-40

 Henry Cheatam, age 86, 1937

 Mary Armstrong, ex-slave, Houston, 1937

 Molly Ammonds, 1936-38

 Nathan Beauchamp, age about 92, 1936-38

 William Adams, ex-slave, Ft. Worth, 1937