Homeless, friendless, and penniless: the WPA interviews with former slaves living in Indiana

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Homeless, Friendless, and Penniless The WPA Interviews with Former Slaves Living in Indiana Ronald L. Baker Lives of former slaves in their own words, published for the first time. Based on a collection of interviews conducted in the late 1930s, Homeless, Friendless, and Penniless is an invaluable record of the lives and thoughts of former slaves who moved to Indiana after the Civil War and made significant contributions to the evolving patchwork of Hoosier culture. The Indiana slave narratives provide a glimpse of slavery as remembered by those who experienced it, preserving insiders' views of a tragic chapter in American history. Though they were living in Indiana at the time of the interviews, these African Americans been enslaved in 11 different states from the Carolinas to Louisiana. The interviews deal with life and work on the plantation; the treatment of slaves; escaping from slavery; education, religion, and slave folklore; and recollections of... ContentsPart One: A Folk History of Slavery Part Two: The WPA Interviews with Former SlavesAppendicesAppendix I: InformantsAppendix II: Slave States of InformantsAppendix III: Indiana Towns of Residence of InformantsAppendix IV: Indiana Counties of Residence of InformantsAppendix V: Unaltered Versions of Previously Unpublished Indiana Interviews with Former Slaves Appendix VI: Thematic Index Living and Working on the Plantation The Treatment of Slaves Escaping from Slavery Education Religion Folklore Recollections of the Civil War Living and Working after the Civil WarWorks ConsultedIndex