American Biography Book

This is a compilation of interviews done by the WPA with now-elderly former slaves living in Oklahoma during the Depression. Some of them endured slavery in Oklahoma, as slaves of one of the tribes living there before the Civil War. Others migrated to Oklahoma between emancipation and the writing of the book.

It's silly to "review" a primary historical source. It is what it is.

As for my impressions of reading it — it is a surprisingly enjoyable and compelling read. It is done (with one exception) entirely in the first person, in the voice of the subject. Not all of the Slave Narratives were written in this style. I started reading the Florida volume, but it was mostly in the third person, and considerably more distancing. The reader is really given a personal view of each subject.

The stories themselves are not as depressing as one would expect, given the subject matter. After all, the tellers are those who lived through slavery and had long lives afterwards. The narratives are clearly mixtures of actual reminiscence and tall tales, and sometimes the line between the two blurs.

There are unexpected revelations, not just about slaves and slavery, but about all aspects of life in the antebellum south (and in the Oklahoma Indian Territory). It is pretty clear from this book that the experiences of slaves, slaveholders, and others were widely varied and nuanced.

Anyone who is interested in American history should read this.