Bullwhip Days: The Slaves Remember [Hardcover]

James Mellon (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1988

In the mid-thirities, the Federal Writer's Project, an adjunct of the W.P.A., dispatched interviewers to capture the personal memories of the last few thousand survivors of American slavery. In Bullwhip Days, they tell, in their own voices, of the harsh realities of human bondage. The vivid and powerful images are a vital part of America's history and offer sobering insight into the roots of racism in today's society.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Twenty-nine oral histories and additional excerpts, selected from 2000 interviews with former slaves conducted in the 1930s for a WPA Federal Writers Project, document the conditions of slavery that, Mellon ( The Face of Lincoln ) maintains, lie at the root of today's racism. Chilling examples of brutality and degradation alternate with moving accounts of humane treatment and affectionate respect between master and slave. Despite the close bonds that developed between some whites and blacks, however, racial and cultural confrontation dominated most relationships, "timelessly freezing them in an attitude of mutual rejection" that today still defies the Jeffersonian promise of real equality. Grouped by subjectabuse of both adults and children, religion, education, Civil War and Reconstructionthese annals of everyday life recorded in flavorful vernacular portray the resourcefulness and faith with which slaves survived. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

As part of the Federal Writers' Project in the 1920s and 1930s, a rich oral history of slavery was compiled from interviews with thousands of former slaves. Selections were first published in 1945 in B.A. Botkin's Lay My Burden Down , and later in collections by Norman Yetman and Lester Julius, now all out of print. The complete set is still available (George P. Rawick, ed. The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography , 19 vols, 1972; Suppl. Series 1, 12 vols., 1978; Suppl. Series 2, 10 vols., 1980, Greenwood Pr.). Although this sample of 29 full narratives and several excerpts is excellent, recalling such varied experiences as religion, sexuality, and escape attempts, editor Mellon provides no historical context or setting. As a result, the larger meaning of a people's resilience in adversity is lost. Currently, libraries in need of a one-volume sampling of this fascinating body of work will have to be content with this faint echo. Randall M. Miller, St. Joseph's Univ., Philadelphia
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 460 pages
• Publisher: Grove Pr; 1st edition (December 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555842100
• ISBN-13: 978-1555842109
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.5 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #794,753 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Definitive Book, September 23, 2007

By 

Michael E. Hill "Major Rassendyll" (Neptune, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bullwhip Days: The Slaves Remember: An Oral History (Paperback)

"Bullwhip Days - The Slaves Remember, An Oral History" is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of slavery in America. It is edited by James Mellon. But with respect to Mr. Mellon, it is not his story.

During the Great Depression, the US government created work programs for a besieged economy. One of these was the Writer's Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Someone realized that the last generation of African Americans who had been slaves was dying. Writers were dispatched to interview these ex-slaves and record/write their stories.

This work is a selection of transcripts from these vital historical records.

It is suspected some of the slaves may have moderated their comments to appease the interviewers sensibilities. I really doubt that. Having read a number of personal memoirs of people in their later years, I find their candor amazing. Just because an ex-slave speaks fondly of their former owner does not mean they are lying or have skewed perceptions.

There's no definitive slave experience. We have the account of one woman owned by the Vice President of the Confederacy, Alexander Stephens on a plantation operating entirely by slaves (including the overseers). Another woman agrees to be bred only because her `kind' master had agreed to buy her in addition to her parents.

One elderly couple had diametrically opposite experiences. She had an idyllic family existence with gifts and new clothes for Christmas. He was separately from his parents as a child, starved and beaten. Decades later, he hears of a child abused like himself. Despite being elderly, he and his wife take the boy and raise him as their own.

There is one major theme through the interviews. How a slave was treated was entirely a function of their owner. They had no rights, no recourse to the law. If caught without a pass, you were fair game for the infamous "paddyrollers" (patrollers). Even after freedom, the Ku Klux Klan terrorized the fomer slave population.

Another thing that I found interesting was the mortality rate after slavery. In multiple interviews, these old people were alone with no children or grandchildren surviving. A lifetime of slavery did not equip them well for freedom.

This is the first book I would recommend to anyone interested in the subject.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars As a teaching aid, May 10, 2000

By 

Brian K Franklin - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bullwhip Days the Slaves Remember (Paperback)

This book would make a wonderful teaching aid. Its first hand accounts and lessons in perspective will draw in the reader while reminding them that these are memories that should not soon be forgotten. I have returned to this book several times and have recommended it ( with limited sucess ) to educators around the south and midwest. This book should be in every high school library.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I agree with the reviews below, September 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Bullwhip Days the Slaves Remember (Paperback)

I was astounded by this book. The interviews draw a clear, persuasive picture that no dry history book ever could, no matter how learned the author. I now feel as though I have an accurate view of what the lives of slaves were like.

I am pleased to see that not every slave owner was a monster and that not every slave lived a life of continuous misery. The institution was terrible, of course, and its continued existence so late in this country was a disgrace. Many slave owners were brutes. However, this book illustrates the terrific capacity of human beings to rise above their circumstances, especially of the oppressed, but also of the oppressors.

I agree with every statement in all of the previous reviews, and I recommend the book wholeheartedly.