British Universities Film & Video Council

moving image and sound, knowledge and access

Remembering Slavery: African Americans Talk About Their Personal Experiences of Slavery and Emancipation

Synopsis
Many years after the Civil War had ended, those survivors who had once been slaves were interviewed by a variety of scholars and researchers. Accounts of many of those interviews were set down on paper, and some were tape-recorded. Those transcribed and taped interviews are collected in the Library of Congress, and in state archives and university manuscript collections.The two-part radio series, broadcast in the US on Public Radio International, consists of excerpts from many of these interviews

The book and tape package expands upon these taped interviews with many additional transcribed narratives. The programmes consist of first-person accounts by former slaves, including Fountain Hughes, whose grandfather belonged to Thomas Jefferson. Part 1 contains stories of slave auctions, life on the plantation, master-slave relationships, beatings and escapes. Part 2 includes accounts of the former slaves’ experiences during the Civil War, their first days of freedom, the captivity of life as sharecroppers, the Reconstruction, and their lives up to the time of the interview. The stories are told in their own voices on restored recordings and through dramatic readings of written interview transcripts.

The online version consists of five sections, each tied to a presentation from the radio series, an excerpt from the book, and photographs of former slaves.
Language
English
Country
United States
Year of release
1998
Year of production
1998
Subjects
History
Keywords
oral history; slavery; United States of America

Online availability

URI
http://rememberingslavery.si.edu/audio.html
Price
free
Delivery
Streamed

Distribution Formats

Type
Audio
Format
Cassette
Price
$16.95
Availability
Sale
Duration/Size
120 minutes
Year
2004

Production Company

Name

Institute of Language and Culture, Clanton, Alabama

Name

Public Radio International

Name

Smithsonian Productions

Sponsor

Name

National Endowment for the Humanities

Record Stats

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