Review: My Folks Don't Want Me to Talk about Slavery: Personal Accounts of Slavery in North Carolina

My Folks Don't Want Me to Talk about Slavery: Personal Accounts of Slavery in North Carolina by Belinda Hurmence
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Culled from the myriad pages of the Federal Writers' Project Slave Narratives, this slim volume focuses on oral history from ex-slaves interviewed in North Carolina. Done at the time of the Depression, some found speaking to the young, white government workers a time to recall slavery as days better or at least no worst than there then current suffering. One thing consistent when mentioned was how Wheeler's Cavalry, though Confederate, were rapacious, horse-borne criminals. Overall, this is a moving, very human recollection of life-long tragedy and travail and I am certain any sampling from that rich trove of oral history would be, so the No. Carolina connection is merely incidental.

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