Honors American History I
2nd Quarter Extra Credit Research Project Assignment
Slave Narratives
During the late 1930’s the Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United
States (often referred to as the WPA Slave Narrative Collection) was created as a
massive compilation of slave narratives (first- and second-hand oral
histories) undertaken by the Federal Writers' Project (a government works project
aimed at putting people back to work during the Great Depression of the 1930’s)
Excerpts from these Slave Narratives have been published by various publishers as
printed books or on the internet. The total collection contains more than 10,000 typed
pages representing more than 2000 interviews of former slaves and their descendants.
Your assignment is to (1) read any five of these Slave Narratives, (2) write a brief
summary of each of the five Narratives you read, and what did you learn from each
narrative (3) create a visual project which thoughtfully and accurately displays your
reaction to the five Narratives you read and which displays the themes of your chosen
narratives.
This is an extra credit project, and is not required. I will count it as a test grade, and
thus it could benefit your grade a good bit. All students intending to do a project must
give me a list of your chosen Narratives via email (lhumphrey@wsfcs.k12.nc.us) or in
writing by or over the Winter break. All Projects are due on/by January 7.
See the following web page to access most/all of the Slave Narrative
Collection:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/mesnbibnarrindex.html