Autobiographical accounts of former slaves compiled in the 1930s by the Federal Writers Project of the Works Progress Administration.

A collection of first-hand narratives of ex-slaves in Arkansas gathered by the Work Projects Administration between 1936 and 1938.

The Complete Arkansas Slave Narratives Collection. A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves. This volume consists of Parts 1 & 2 of Volume II of the Arkansas Slave Narratives and interviews conducted by the Works Progress Administration. These slave narratives/interviews represent some of the only sources of information from former slaves in the United States, as many slaves were not allowed to learn to read or write, therefore only a small number of former slaves were able to document their experiences while in bondage as a slave in America. Although, there are some criticisms of these interviews, they do offer some valuable insights into the daily lives of those who were slaves in America. Prepared by the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration for the State of Arkansas

The first edition of Bearing Witness brought together for the first time 176 slave narratives from the state of Arkansas. Now, this new edition adds ten previously undiscovered accounts. No one knew the truths of slavery better than the slaves themselves, but no one consulted them until the 1930s. Then, recognizing that this generation of unique witnesses would soon be lost to history, the Works Progress Administration's Federal Writers' Project acted to interview as many former slaves as possible. In a continuation of the project's interest in the life histories of ordinary people, writers interviewed over two thousand former slaves, more than a third of them in Arkansas. These oral histories were first published in the 1970s in a thirty-nine-volume series organized by state, and they transformed America's understanding of slavery. They have offered crucial evidence on a variety of other topics as well: the Civil War, Reconstruction, agricultural practices, everyday life, and oral history itself. But some former Arkansas slaves were interviewed in Texas, Oklahoma, and other states, so their narratives were published in those other collections. And more than half of the testimonies in the Arkansas volume were interviews with people who had moved to Arkansas after freedom. Folklorist George Lankford combed all of the state collections for the testimonies properly belonging to Arkansas and deleted from this state's collection the testimony of later migrants

The WPA Arkansas Slave Narratives Collection. Part VII: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves. The WPA Arkansas Slave Narratives Collection. Part VII contains over 80 slave interviews and narratives. In addition the title offers sections detailing African American and folklore based interviews with former slaves.

Slave Narratives. Arkansas Narratives. Volume ll - Part 1 Federal Writers' Project. A Folk History of Slavery in the United States. From Interviews with Former Slaves. WASHINGTON 1941. VOLUME I. Arkansas Narratives - Volume Two - Part One. Prepared by the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration for the State of Arkansas. Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States, also known as the WPA Slave Narrative Collection, was a monumental collection of slave narratives compiled by the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration between the years 1936 to 1938. The compete collection comprises more than 2000 interviews with ex-slaves or the relatives of slaves.