Lab 2: Voices from the WPA Slave Narratives
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Lab 2: Voices from the WPA Slave Narratives
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Objectives
By the end of this lab, students will be able to:
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describe the enslavement experience using primary sources such as
first-hand accounts
evaluate the challenges scholars face in studying the history of enslaved
African Americans
Purpose
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to introduce the use of primary sources and the Library of Congress
to humanize and bring to life the experience of enslavement in America
through the stories of real people
Background Information on the WPA and the Oral History Projec
t
From 1936 to 1938, over 2,300 formerly enslaved African Americans from the South were interviewed by writers and
journalists as part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). This study was part of the Federal Writers Project, and it
gathered more than 2,000 interviews and 500 photographs reflecting the experience of slavery. In 1941, the collection was
compiled into the 17 volume Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former
Slaves, a compelling oral history that detailed the enslaved African Americans' experience on plantations, in cities, and on
small farms.
Assignment
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Jump
1. Visit one (1) of the online collections of the WPA slave narratives, including these:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snhome.html
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/wpa/wpahome.html
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/voices/title.html
2. Familiarize yourself with the site by reading at least one or two narratives.
3. Explore one of the following topics, by searching for key words in the interviews:
a. Resistance to enslavement (search for "escape" or "runaway")
b. Marriage among enslaved people (search for "wedding," "married," "husband," or
"wife")
c. Religion within enslaved communities (search for "church" or "pray")
d. Education among enslaved people (search for "school" or "learning")
4. Select at least two interviews that discuss your chosen theme. You will probably need to
review several narratives to find ones with enough information on your topic.
5. Choose one of the following assignments described below.
Option A: Report Comparing Slave Narratives
Note: A big part of this assignment is seeking out and choosing people who have interesting experiences in the topic you
have chosen. Keep in mind that a poor choice of subject could lead to an underdeveloped report.
Write a three paragraph report comparing and contrasting the experiences of two or
three formerly enslaved people in the WPA narratives, focusing on the topic of your
choice (resistance, marriage, religion, or education). Your report should offer a
combined view of the topic, but you should also describe the particular experiences of
each individual.
 Your report should include the following about each narrator:
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Where was the person born and enslaved?
How old was he or she at the time of emancipation?
Did he or she have any children?
What was this person’s experience with the theme you selected?
Was the theme important to the broader pattern of life he or she lived as an
enslaved person, or was this topic treated with more or less severity than usual?
o Do you think one person was treated more harshly than another? Explain why or
why not in five to eight sentences, citing specific examples from your readings.
o Remember to check your work against the grading rubric to make sure you have
understood the assignment and done a good job.
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Option B: Reflection Essay on Interpreting Slave Narratives
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Write a three to five paragraph essay, interpreting two or three narratives from the WPA
collection. For this essay, you need to think about what historians can learn or prove
based on these narratives. Several problems exist with the way these narratives were
collected and written. This Web page links to several sites that explore these problems
in general terms:http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snintro00.html
Your essay should list and describe some of the general problems in using these
interviews to piece together history.
Choose two narratives and describe how these specific interviews might present evidence
or problems to a historian.
Who was the interviewer for the interviews you selected?
Do you see traces of bias that might be due to the race of the interviewer?
Where do the people interviewed live? Why might that be a problem for the historian?
What kind of language do your chosen narrators use?
Do you agree with the decision to transcribe these narratives exactly as the interviewers
heard them?
How did reading these interviews make you feel?
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How have they affected your understanding of the lives of enslaved people?
Remember to check your work against the grading rubric to make sure you have
understood the assignment and done a good job.
Grading Rubric
Option A: Report Comparing Slave Narratives
A good answer will include the following:
Introduces the topics of comparison and names the two or three narrators you will discuss. Includes
complete and accurate biographical information for at least two chosen narrators and the links to the page
where you located this information.
10
Compares the experiences of the narrators in your chosen topic (resistance, marriage, religion, or
education)
10
Offers a general conclusion about the topic from the evidence of the chosen narratives
10
Organizes writing with one idea flowing logically into next
5
Proofreads for grammar and spelling errors
5
Total
40
Option B: Reflection Essay on Interpreting Slave Narratives
A good answer will include the following:
Gives specific information about two or three narratives: the interviewer, the place, biography, and
language; includes quotes
10
Describes how the chosen interviews might present challenges to a historian
10
Discusses your personal experience reading the narratives, giving examples of what moved you
10
Organizes writing with one idea flowing logically into next
5
Proofreads for grammar and spelling errors
5
Total
40