Life on a Cotton Plantation:
The Cotton Gin and Lowell Cloth
Document 18

Document 18: “Slave Narrative” Excerpts, Works Progress Administration, 1936-1938

These interviews were primarily conducted by white writers employed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The interviewers wrote down the subjects’ words as they heard them, so they appear in a vernacular dialect that looks strange to us today. Keep in mind that most of the interview subjects had little or no formal schooling, as they had been enslaved as children prior to 1865. Most of the interview subjects were elderly at the time of their interviews and were recalling episodes that happened 60 or more years earlier.

Vocabulary

Works Progress Administration (WPA): The Works Progress Administration was a department of the US government established during the Great Depression to employ millions of out-of-work people to conduct public works projects. One of the departments of the WPA was the Federal Writers Project, and part of their work was to record oral histories to create archives like these Slave Narratives.
Vernacular dialect: Ordinary, informal, spoken form of language
Hide: Skin
Wait ‘roun’: “Waiting around,” referring to serving in the enslaving family’s house
Lindsey-woolsey: A linen and wool blend fabric
Stock: Short for “livestock,” farm animals like cows and pigs
Massa: Short for “master,” a term used by enslaved people to refer to the white men who held them in bondage
“put me in the dark”: Knocked unconscious
Slip: A simple dress made of cotton or linen worn underneath clothing
Brogan shoes: Leather boots with a wooden sole

Transcript

James Lucas (Mississippi)

When I was a little chap I used to wear coarse lowell cloth shirts on de week-a-days. Dey was long an' had big collars. When de seams ripped our hide would show through. When I got big enough to wait 'roun’ at de big house an’ go to town, I wore clean rough clothes. Da pants was white lindsey woolsey an’ my shirts was rough white cotton what was wove at de plantation.

Annie Osborne (Texas)

My mammy was scared of old Tom Bias [their enslaver] as if he was a bear. She worked in the field all day and came in at night and help with the stock. After supper they made her spin cloth. Massa fed well 'nough, but made us wear our old lowel clothes till they most fell off us. We was treated jus' like animals, but some owners treated they stock better’n old Tom Bias handed my folks. I still got a scar over my right eye where he put me in the dark two months.

Ben Lawson (Oklahoma)

At meal time dey [poor, white day-laborers] would give me what was left of de scraps off dey table in a plate, which I would eat most de time on de back porch in warm weather and in de kitchen in winter.

For summer I wore a lowell shirt and for winter I wore de same old lowell shirt only wid outing slips and a pair of brogan shoes or a pair of old shoes dat was thrown away by my Mistress’ son.

Text-Dependent Questions

How do these three quotes shed light on the institution of enslavement? What details do James, Annie, and Ben’s descriptions include that provide that us a more complete and truthful look at slavery from people who experienced it?

Discussion Questions

How do these three quotes help us better understand the lives of enslaved people who were forced to work on cotton plantations?
How might the fact that the interviewers were white have influenced what the African American interviewees said?
How might the fact that the interviewees were children during the time of slavery and are recounting their childhood experiences 60 years later have influenced what they said in the interviews?
How does the use of vernacular dialect influence your reading of the material? How might the use of vernacular dialect in the transcripts have perpetuated negative stereotypes about African Americans?

Print document and transcript

Citation“Born into Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1938"James Lucas, Natchez, MS, p. 91Annie Osborne, Marshall, TX, p.157Ben Lawson, Oklahoma City, OK, p.176Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/collections/slave-narratives-from-the-federal-writers-project-1936-to-1938/about-this-collection/

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