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| | [[United States]][[Image:Gotoarrow.png|go to]][[African American Research]] [[Image:Gotoarrow.png|go to]] Oral history |
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| | == Benefits of Oral history == |
| | {{TOC left}}[[Image:African American Image.jpg|border|right|350px|African American Image.jpg]]
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| <div id="fsButtons"><span class="online_records_button">[[African American Online Genealogy Records]]</span></div>
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| ==Online Resources== | |
| *See [[African American Compiled Genealogies]] for more resources.
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| *[https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1944/ U.S., Interviews with Formerly Enslaved People, 1936-1938] at Ancestry - index & images ($)
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| *[http://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/slave.htm The Slave, Freedom, or Liberation Narrative] - Narratives of slavery recounted the personal experiences of ante-bellum African Americans who had escaped from slavery and found their way to safety in the North.
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| *[https://www.loc.gov/collections/slave-narratives-from-the-federal-writers-project-1936-to-1938/about-this-collection/ Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 to 1938] at Library of Congress - transcription of interviews of formerly enslaved peoples
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| == Benefits of Oral Histories ==
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| Oral history plays a vital part in African American genealogical research. This article lists some collections and projects available to researches. While the use of oral history falls outside the mainstream of genealogical research, African American oral histories plays a vital part in African American genealogical research. With fewer ways to document African American ancestors going back in time, oral histories or documented narratives can be used to extract important facts which may give clues or point to existing historical documentation.
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| Even though the researcher may not find oral history on an ancestor, oral history may exist for an ancestor's contemporary who may have mentioned:
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| *former slaveholder
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| *neighbors or family members
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| *names of churches
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| *whereabouts before slavery
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| Small clues can open up avenues of research that did not exist previously, and even a study of the history of the slaveholding family can lead to other topics to research or historical records that actually document an ancestor. The slave narratives compiled by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) between 1936-1938 consist of 2,300 first person accounts of formerly enslaved people. A study of the interviewees who were from an ancestor's locality can shed further light on the life of an ancestor and can identify other research avenues based on people, places, and events mentioned in the interview. This article will help to identify repositories containing collections of oral histories or narratives.<br>
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| == Collections == | | == Collections == |
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| *[http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/ "First-Person Narratives of the American South"] is a collection of diaries, autobiographies, memoirs, travel accounts, and narratives of formerly enslaved individuals written by Southerners. The majority of materials in this collection are written by those Southerners whose voices were less prominent in their time, including African Americans, women, enlisted men, laborers, and Native Americans (Documenting the American South). | | *[http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/ "First-Person Narratives of the American South"] is a collection of diaries, autobiographies, memoirs, travel accounts, and ex-slave narratives written by Southerners. The majority of materials in this collection are written by those Southerners whose voices were less prominent in their time, including African Americans, women, enlisted men, laborers, and Native Americans (Documenting the American South) |
| *[http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/ "North American Slave Narratives"] collects books and articles that document the individual and collective story of African Americans struggling for freedom and human rights in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries. This collection includes all the existing autobiographical narratives of fugitive and formerly enslaved persons published as broadsides, pamphlets, or books in English up to 1920. Also included are many of the biographies of fugitive and formerly enslaved persons and some significant fictionalized narratives published in English before 1920 (Documenting the American South). | | *[http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/ "North American Slave Narratives"] collects books and articles that document the individual and collective story of African Americans struggling for freedom and human rights in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries. This collection includes all the existing autobiographical narratives of fugitive and former slaves published as broadsides, pamphlets, or books in English up to 1920. Also included are many of the biographies of fugitive and former slaves and some significant fictionalized slave narratives published in English before 1920. (Documenting the American South) |
| *[https://specialcollections.unca.edu/collections/oral-histories/ The Special Collections] oral histories contain a wealth of local history and cultural information on Asheville and the Western North Carolina region. Beginning with two major oral history collections, the Southern Highlands Research Center Oral History collection and the Voices of Asheville Project. These first two collections cover a broad range of topics on the general history of Asheville and the surrounding area from the early twentieth century up until the brink of the twenty-first century. Recurrent themes involve city and county development issues, segregation and integration of Asheville schools, private education in the region, the diversity of religions throughout the area, changes in farming and subsistence strategies, and the histories of various families and organizations that impacted western North Carolina (University of North Carolina).
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| *[http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/voices/ Voices from the Days of Slavery] The almost seven hours of recorded interviews presented here took place between 1932 and 1975 in nine Southern states. Twenty-three interviewees born between 1823 and the early 1860s discuss how they felt about slavery, slaveholders, coercion of enslaved people, their families, and freedom. Several individuals sing songs, many of which were learned during the time of their enslavement. It is important to note that all of the interviewees spoke sixty or more years after the end of their enslavement, and it is their full lives that are reflected in these recordings. The individuals documented in this presentation have much to say about living as African Americans from the 1870s to the 1930s, and beyond (Library of Congress).
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| == Oral History Projects == | | == Oral History Projects == |
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| === WPA Slave Narratives ===
| | WPA Slave Narratives |
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| *[http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/ 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 formerly enslaved persons.
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| *In the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration sponsored a Federal Writers' Project dedicated to chronicling the experience of slavery as remembered by formerly enslaved persons. African American men and women born into slavery were interviewed. Their stories were recorded and transcribed. See [http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/resources/wpa.html WPA Slave Narratives] (PBS)
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| *[https://www.archives.gov/files/research/african-americans/slave-narratives.pdf ''NARA: Slave Narratives Compiled by the Federal Writer's Project (FWP), 1936-1938.'']
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| *''Work Projects Administration Slave Narratives: A Biographical Resource for Both Slaves and Masters,'' by Charles Vincent, 1988, Journal of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society 9, No. 2 (Summer, 1988): 51-57. {{FSC|1398282|item|disp=FS Catalog 973 D25j}}; '''''Online at''''' {{FSDL|119222}}
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| === Additional Slave Narratives - FamilySearch Catalog ===
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| *''The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography,'' By George P. Rawick, ed.. Thirty volumes. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1971- {{FSC|61226|item|disp=FS Catalog Book 973 F2aa}}
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| *''Slavery Remembered : a Record of Twentieth-Century Slave Narratives,'' By Paul D. Escott. Chapel Hill, North Carolina : Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1979 {{FSC|3520469|item|disp=FS Catalog book 973 H6ep}}
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| *'' The Slave's Narrative,'' by Charles T. Davis and Henry Louis Gates. New York, New York: Oxford University Press,1985. {{FSC|618230|item|disp=FS Catalog book 973 U3dc}}
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| *''Kentucky Slave Narratives : a Folk History of Slavery in Kentucky from Interviews with Former Slaves,'' By the Federal Writer's Project. Bedford, Massachusetts : Applewood Books, 2009. {{FSC|1725766|item|disp=FS Catalog book 976.9 H6f}}
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| *''Mother Wit : the Ex-Slave Narratives of the Louisiana Writers' Project,'' by Ronnie W. Clayton. New York, New York : Peter Lang, 1990. {{FSC|509531|item|disp=FS Catalog book 976.3 U3c}}
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| *''From Bondage to Belonging : the Worcester Slave Narratives,'' by B. Eugene McCarthy and Thomas L. Doughton, eds. Amherst, Massachusetts : University of Massachusetts Press, 2007. {{FSC|1532409|item|disp= FS Catalog book 974.43/W2 H6m}}
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| *'' The WPA Oklahoma Slave Narratives,'' by T. Lindsay and Julie P. Baker. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996. {{FSC|820485|item|disp= FS Catalog book 976.6 F29b}}
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| *'' The Slave Narrative of Texas,'' by Ronnie C. Tyler. Austin, Texas: Encino Press, 1974. {{FSC|611237|item|disp=FS Library 976.4 D3sL}}
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| ''' CD-ROM'''
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| *''Slave Narratives.'' Federal Writer's Project. {{FSC|978049|item|disp=FS Library CD-ROM}}
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| *''Generations: the WPA ex-slave narrative genealogical resource database,'' by James M. Rose. {{FSC|2208862|item|disp=FS Library CD-ROM}}
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| *''Eyewitnesses to American History: the Virginia connection to WPA,'' by James Rose. {{FSC|1419463|item|disp=FS Library CD-ROM}}
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| '''State Archives & Historical Societies'''
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| *''Alabama, WPA life histories, stories, ex-slave tales, and short stories,'' Salt Lake City Utah, Genealogical Society of Utah, Alabama Department of Archives and History, 2006. {{FSC|1447234|item|disp=FS Catalog Digital images 4165061}}
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| *''Mississippi, ex-slave narratives: NARA, RG 60, 1936-1942,'' Salt Lake City Utah, FamilySearch International, Mississippi Department of Archives and History {{FSC|1923904|item|disp=FS Catalog Digital images 4813417-48113421}}
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| *''Slave narratives: 1937, interviews with ex-slaves in Ohio,'' Columbus, Ohio, Ohio Historical Society, 1974. {{FSC|335438|item|disp=FS Catalog Film 1009035 (digital)}}
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| === Oral Histories and Genealogies in Africa ===
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| * Video example of Oral History [https://youtu.be/Qex2HQX4QZc captured in Africa]
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| {{African American|African American}}
| | *[http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/ 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 |
| | *In the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration sponsored a Federal Writers' Project dedicated to chronicling the experience of slavery as remembered by former slaves. African-American men and women born into slavery were interviewed. Their stories were recorded and transcribed. See [http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/resources/wpa.html WPA Slave Narratives] (PBS) |
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| [[Category:African_American_Records]] | | == Websites == |
African American Research