Customer Reviews

Remembering Slavery: African Americans Talk About Their Personal Experiences of Slavery and Emancipation

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I am currently a high school student that read part of this for a Civil War class and let me say this is one powerful book. With people who were the slaves themselves tell you their stories, you learn alot about the antebellum period. I would recommend this book for any mature person due to the fact that some of these stories show the true horror of slavery.

Heard REMEMBERING SLAVERY. a series of actual
interviews from the 1920s and 1930s with 124 former slaves . . . they
have been remastered and the quality is remarkably good.

All touched me, though in particular, I doubt that I'll ever forget this one
quote: "If I had to do it again, I'd take a gun and shoot myself 'cause
you're nothing but a dog."

No matter how much you think you know about slavery , you'll
gain a greater appreciation of the wrongs that were perpetuated
by listening to this program . . . while the narration by actors such as
James Earl Jones, Debbie Allen and Louis Gossett, Jr. was
quite professional, I actually enjoyed hearing the actual
voices of many of the slaves much more.

If you are interested in having history come alive or you want
get a child or grandchild excited in the subject, get the
CD version of REMEMBERING SLAVERY . . . there's also
a book version, edited by Ira Berlin, Marc Davneau and Steve
F. Miller.

This book and CD are a wealth of knowledge. As a person of African descent, hearing how these persons were treated in a county supposedly for freedom and equality, not only was a horrified but very angry.
I will NEVER forgive this coutry for the ill treatment and hardship that racism and bigotry ahs and still is causing.

This is a must have, must read, must hear book. With the sixty-nine minute recording of the actual slave interviews from the 1930s, we have the only known recording of the actual voices of actual slaves telling their story. Hearing their voices is like being tele-ported back in time. The book itself also examines those same interviews, primarily through "Weevils in the Wheat: Interviews with Virginia Ex-Slaves."

Teachers and speakers will want their students and audiences to hear these voices. They give voice to the voiceless and bring alive these heroic survivors.

Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction , Spiritual Friends, and Soul Physicians.