 |
| Mississippi Slave Narratives |
In the late 1930s, Federal Writers as part of the Works Project Administration (WPA) recorded the life stories of more than 10,000 men and women from a variety of regions, occupations and ethnic groups. An important part of this project was the interviews of the surviving ex-slaves. The MSGenWeb Project, a division of the USGenWeb Project, has attempted to collect as many of the interviews done of Mississippi residents who were born in slavery as we can. If you know of any we have missed, please feel free to contact us and we will be happy to include it. African-American Research is extremely difficult because of the lack of historical records before the Civil War. We hope this project will be of some help to researchers of those of African-American ancestry. While we are aware of what is and is not politically correct today, we are dealing with historical data and all data on this site is transcribed exactly as written and no offense is meant and none should be taken. The Index of ex-slaves includes the Mississippi County, if known, listed beside the name. NOTE: Remember many of the slave owner's names are mentioned in these narratives also! Use Your BACK button to return to this index! Search The Mississippi Slave Narratives You might also be interested in the following: Sankofa's African Slave Genealogy New!
SANKOFA is an Akan word meaning "go back and take." Good and useful things can be taken from the past to drive positive progress in the present through the benevolent use of knowledge.
Sankofa-gen Wiki is a growing collection of freely accessible genealogical and historical data pertaining to U.S.A. antebellum plantations, farms, factories, manors, etc. that used African slave labor. This site is a wiki which means that you, the slave genealogy researcher, can add and update information instantly. It currently has research helps in 18 States and a special page of plantations belonging to U.S. Presidents. Counties formed after 1865 are not included in the collection. This ongoing project is a collection of African American slave names that were printed in west Tennessee newspapers before 1865. These men, women and children were advertised as runaway slaves or listed as property for sale. All material on that website is transcribed from microfilm and errors may occur; the original microfilm is located at the Central branch of the Memphis & Shelby County Public Library. |
