American History through American Lives

Annotated Bibliography

Anderson, Melissa. “What Kids Are Really Learning About Slavery?” The Atlantic, February 1, 2018. https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/02/what-kids-are-really-learning-about-slavery/552098/ Anderson discusses the challenges of teaching about slavery in general terms. For this unit her thoughts on primary sources are especially useful.

Blassingame, John W. “Using the Testimony of Ex-Slaves: Approaches and Problems.” The Journal of Southern History 41, no. 4 (1975): 473-492 The author lays out the challenges of using biography. His discussion includes issues associated with 19^th century autobiography as well as discussing in some detail the drawbacks associated with the WPA narratives.

Blassingame, John W. Slave Testimony: Two Centuries of Letters, Speeches, Interviews, and Autobiographies, (Baton Rouge: University of Louisiana Press, 1976). In his introduction to this book Blassingame discusses the unique opportunity to compare and contrast the stories of Peter Bruner (one written by Peter himself and one written by the WPA interviewer).

“Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writer’s Project, 1936 to 1938.” Library of Congress. Accessed July 7, 2020.

Bruner, Peter. A Slave’s Adventures Toward Freedom. San Antonio: Historic Publishing, 2017. Bruner’s account of his own life (1^st published in 1918) provides a useful counterpoint to the story told about him through the WPA interviews.

Escott, Paul D. “Reflections on “Slavery Remembered.” The North Carolina Historical Review 57, no. 2 (1980): 178-185. In this paper Escott discusses his reasons for relying on the WPA interviews when writing his own book. In doing so he creates useful information for students to review that allows them to see both sides of the debate about their usefulness in the classroom.

Hill, Lynda M. “Ex-Slave Narratives: The WPA Federal Writers Project Reappraised.” Oral History 26, no. 1 (1998): 64-72. This discussion of the narratives focuses on the paperwork that the editors completed as they evaluated each of the narratives submitted.

Horton, Paul. “The WPA Slave Narratives: Teaching with Oral Histories.” Social Education 66, no. 1 (2002): S3+. Gale Academic OneFile (accessed May 1, 2020). https://go.gale.com/ps/anonymous?id=GALE%7CA83139487&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=00377724&p=AONE&sw=w. Horton offers his own thoughts and plan for using the WPA Narratives in the classroom, discussing positive and negative aspects and offering a preview of some of the methods/activities that he would use with students.

Lyerly, Cynthia Lynn. “Using the WPA Slave Narratives in the Classroom.” In Understanding and Teaching American Slavery, edited by Bethany Jay & Cynthia Lynn Lyerly, 207-215. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2016. Lyerly presents a step-by-step outline of the uses and issues with the narratives, offering both information about their shortcomings and strategies for the classroom in using them as primary sources.

Shaw, Stephanie J. "Using the WPA ex-slave narratives to study the impact of the Great Depression." Journal of Southern History 69, no. 3 (2003): 623+. Gale In Context: U.S. History (accessed July 9, 2020). https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A107834863/UHIC?u=29002&sid=UHIC&xid=8ecde6e1. Shaw offers a unique perspective on the Narratives. While she does not neglect to discuss their drawbacks, she moves beyond them by suggesting that they can and should be used to study the Great Depression and its impact on any number of groups including but not limited to the formerly enslaved persons. This alternate perspective supports the idea that any source can be useful regardless of its challenges.

Stewart, Catherine A. Long Past Slavery, Representing Race in the Federal Writers’ Project. Chapel Hill, The University of North Carolina Press, 2016. The Stewart book is an incredibly detailed look into the narratives, the people involved in preparing them, and the issues associated with their validity and use. Although too detailed in many cases to be useful for the Middle School classroom, this work was essential in absorbing the overall arguments about this source and worth reading.

Swindel, Donna J. “Assessing Memory: Twentieth-Century Slave Narratives Reconsidered.” The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 27, no. 2 (1996): 247-261. Swindel surveys multiple studies about the function of memory and how it degrades in old age and applies this scholarship to not only the WPA Narratives but other writings of formerly enslaved persons from the 19^th and 20^th Centuries.

Swogger, Michael J. “Race and the WPA Slave Narratives: A lesson in Historiography.” Social Education 81, no. 6 (2017): 383-388. Swogger outlines his own strategies for using the narratives in his classroom and provides some additional detail about possible classroom activities for teachers interested in more.

Yetman, Norman R. “Ex-Slave Interviews and the Historiography of Slavery.” American Quarterly 36, no. 2 (1984): 181-210. Yetman presents one of the more positive interpretations of the narratives and creates some useful excerpting for presenting to students both sides of the use or don’t use debate. He also contributes several essays on the Library of Congress website, which can also be used to demonstrate different perspectives about these sources to students. Those three essays are included below.

Yetman, Norman R. “WPA and the Slave Narrative Collection.” Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 to 1938. Library of Congress. Accessed July 7, 2020. https://www.loc.gov/collections/slave-narratives-from-the-federal-writers-project-1936-to-1938/articles-and-essays/introduction-to-the-wpa-slave-narratives/wpa-and-the-slave-narrative-collection/.

Yetman, Norman R. “Importance of the Slave Narratives Collection.” Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 to 1938. Library of Congress. Accessed July 7, 2020. https://www.loc.gov/collections/slave-narratives-from-the-federal-writers-project-1936-to-1938/articles-and-essays/introduction-to-the-wpa-slave-narratives/importance-of-the-slave-narratives-collection/.

Yetman, Norman R. “Limitations of the Slave Narratives Collection.” Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 to 1938. Library of Congress. Accessed July 7, 2020. https://www.loc.gov/collections/slave-narratives-from-the-federal-writers-project-1936-to-1938/articles-and-essays/introduction-to-the-wpa-slave-narratives/limitations-of-the-slave-narrative-collection/.