American Slaves Tell Their Stories Six Interviews

by Albert, Octavia V. Rogers

• ISBN13: 9780486441900
• ISBN10: 0486441903
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-04-01
• Publisher: Dover Publications

Summary

Vivid narratives recall life during and just after the Civil War, not only describing cruel punishments, divided families, and debilitating labor, but also providing information about religious beliefs and practices, as well as the condition and progress of former slaves. Essential reading for students of African-American studies.

Table of Contents

Charlotte Brooks	1	(3)
Causes of immorality among colored people
Charlotte Brooks
She is sold South
Sunday work
Charlotte's Story	4	(4)
Meeting Jane Lee from Virginia
Conversion of Charlotte Brooks
Aunt Charlotte's Friends	8	(4)
Death of Aunt Charlotte's children
Jane Lee's master leaves the neighborhood
Nellie Johnson tries to escape to her old Virginia home
Cruel Masters	12	(4)
Nellie Johnson is barbarously treated
Sam Wilson living in the swamps of Louisiana
Richard's wife living on another plantation
His master refuses to allow him to visit her
Caught by patrollers and beaten almost to death
Great Tribulations	16	(5)
The death of Lena
Her dying testimony
Aunt Charlotte's mistress ties a servant by the thumbs
She returns and finds her dead
A Kind Mistress	21	(4)
Death of Aunt Charlotte's mistress
Second marriage of her master
George beaten nearly to death and one of his eyes put out for being overheard talking about freedom
Broken-Down Freedmen	25	(4)
Aunt Charlotte splitting rails
In Sunday-school
Joe Sims, a runaway, sleeping in the woods with rattlesnakes
Eating out of trash-boxes
The Curse of Whisky	29	(4)
The Methodist Episcopal Church
The colored people and whisky-drinking
When the Yankees came to Louisiana
The end of Aunt Charlotte's story
John and Lorendo	33	(4)
Work to be done
John Goodwin and Lorendo, his wife
Uncle John's little brother washed away by the rain
A Converted Catholic	37	(5)
Going to church on Sunday in Georgia
Ill-treatment of Uncle John's daughter
Aunt Lorendo's second visit
Her conversion from Romanism
Her Cousin Albert to be hung
Hattie runs away and gives birth to a child in the woods
Prison Horrors	42	(6)
Uncle John taking lessons
Andersonville horrors
Bloodhounds
Silas bitten by blood-hounds and eaten by buzzards
Sallie Smith's Story	48	(4)
Sallie Smith living in the woods
Death of her mother
The ill-treatment she suffered
In the Woods	52	(4)
Aunt Sallie's cruel treatment, continued
Her brother Warren runs away and joins her in the woods
Uncle Stephen Jordon	56	(4)
Uncle Stephen sold with a calf
A sheriff's sale in slave-days
He is made to leave his wife, and children, and his master gives him another wife
He does not want the new wife
Counterfeit Free Papers	60	(5)
Uncle Stephen's cabin searched and his counterfeit free papers found by the overseer
His master, about to kill him, determines to sell him
Uncle Stephen's new master
His break for freedom and capture
Sentenced to be hanged
He finally gets free
Uncle Cephas's Story	65	(5)
Lizzie Beaufort determines to die rather than lead a wicked life
Cato runs away, and finally makes his way to freedom by the aid of the Underground Railroad
Cato becomes a soldier, a senator, a congressman
How Uncle Cephas learned to read, bought himself, and became a rich and honored citizen
A Colored Soldier	70	(5)
Colonel Douglass Wilson on the war
Color-bearer Planchiancio and Captain Caillioux
Joel Brinkley, a Yankee school-teacher, caned nearly to death
Negro Government	75	(5)
Kuklux
Reign of terror
Black laws
Reconstruction
Colored men in constitutional conventions and State legislatures
Lieutenant-Governor Dunn
Honest Antoine Dubuclet
Negro problem
What the race has accomplished since the war
Emigration and colonization
The Colored Delegates	80	(4)
The Methodist General Conference of 1888
Negro delegates
Reception tendered them by Mrs. General Grant
Presentation of a Bible to Mrs. Grant
Dr. Minor's great presentation address
A Touching Incident	84	(1)
Cotton Centennial Exposition of 1884
Dr. Lee's great speech
Aunt Jane Lee finds her long-lost son
The reunion