Harris 1 Dionte Harris Dr.

Leigh Ryan ENGL348P 29 March 2014 Free At Last My folks dont want me to talk about slavery. Theys shame niggers ever was slaves. Through the oral histories of twenty-one former North Carolina slaves, Belinda Hurmences My Folks Dont Want Me to Talk About Slavery presents its readers with the voice of the voiceless on a topic that is too often never uttered above a whisper. The once slaves talk bluntly about slavery, thereby dispelling any common misconceptions about the institution. Written to maintain the conversational, southern-slave dialect, the oral histories are some of our lasthonest and intimateslave narratives. But My Folks does not limit the conversation to the obvious, and often times extreme, topics that one imagines when they think of slaverycruel mistresses and slave beatingsrather it includes many middle-ground accounts of slave life. My Folks discredits the notions of slavery being black-and-white for it was real life, and, therefore there were many shades of gray. It is not about enumerating the beatings and cruelties, nor is it about depicting slaves as free people. My Folks is about the realities of slave life. As a result, My Folks strikes a bone-chilling chord with its readers leaving them empathetic, furious, and, ultimately, heartbroken. If there ever was a piece of literature to be used to teach American slavery, Hurmences My Folks, without a doubt, is it. My Folks came into existence due to the Federal Writers Project employment of field workers to interview over two thousand North Carolina ex-slaves in the 1930s. Editor Belinda Hurmence carefully selected twenty-one of these oral histories and assembled them to comprise

Harris 2 the collection: My Folks. With the intent to inform the new post-slavery generation about the cruelties of slavery, African-American life post-slavery, and what it means to be black in America, the surprising truths in Hurmences My Folks provide instances in which you get more than what you asked for. In slave narratives in which the slave write their own story, we traditionally get accounts majorly comprised of the cruelties enacted towards them; however, with the interview style of My Folks we are provided with a more amiable depiction of slavery. The differences in accounts may be due to interviewer bias: the ex-slaves may have been uncomfortable being brutally honest to white interviewers. Or did the interviewers purposely exclude certain details from the oral histories? Are the self-written slave narratives overly dramatized to spark their audience to take action? We have to question are there discrepancies in the recording of interview narratives? And more importantly, can we push through the conflicts to receive the powerful message that these histories provide us? In the case of My Folks, it is refreshing and would be a mistake to not allow ourselves to be soak up the knowledge encoded in the uncommonly told viewpoints of slavery. A compelling instance in which My Folks portrays the gray area within slavery is through Samuel Riddicks story. He notes, My white folks were fine peoplethey did not whup their slaves[and] I only saw one slave sold. Contrary to popular belief, many slaves considered their relationships with white people to be genial and familial, referencing the masters and mistresses as my white people. Conversely, many white-southerners held similar feelings towards their slaves. Living together and having daily interactions with each other, it is almost impossible for feelings to form between the slaves and their masters. Therefore, it is not surprising that there was a familial sense of loyalty among the slaves and the white citizens; they

Harris 3 cared about each other. Yet in todays society, it is easy to see all of the awfulness in situation and call it so. However, these ex-slaves provide a view of slavery that is underrepresented: in many instances they were adequately fed, clothed, housed, and most importantly, they felt secure in their situations. Riddick says, I havent anything to say against slavery. My old folks put clothes on megave me shoes and stockingsI loved them, and I cant go against them. I was treated good. Yet Riddick is not willfully blind to some of the more inhumane aspects of slavery, for he notes there were things [he] did not like about slavery on some plantations, whippings and selling parents and children from each other but never having to endure those situations, Riddick admits that he cannot speak on them. Just with this story, Hurmence has already dispelled two misconceptions about slavery, that all slaves were treated horribly and more importantly that there was a sense of unbreakable unity among the slaves. In some instances, however uncommon, slaves lived in the family house and were even taught to read. On the other hand, the stigma that all slaves were united, that they all wanted the same thing, is a common misconception held today that does not hold to be true. By Riddick explicitly saying that he could not identify with nor speak on certain aspects of slavery, he is showing us that he has the ability to sympathize with his fellow ex-slaves, however, he can not empathize with them. Riddick argues that it is easy to sympathize for someone, because you just acknowledge that they have gone through hardships. But in order to empathize, or feel with someone, you have to have be able to put yourself in the mindset of going through a similar situation. Which in turn allows you to acknowledge how you would feel and react in a closely related position and bond to how that person is feeling, which is one of the hardest things to do. It is through moments like this when we receive the gift of this literature: a

Harris 4 truly sophisticated argument, complimented with efficient reasoning, coming from someone who was perceived as being ignorant and dumb. Educational, eye opening, and inspiring, Belinda Hurmences My Folks is one of the best slave narratives. A short, quick, and interesting read, she reminds us that slaves, like Samuel Riddick, are real people, they are American history, and their stories should not be forgotten. At the end of the oral histories you are not sure if you should feel empathetic, furious, or heartbroken, but you certainly feel something and isnt that what good literature should do?

Harris 5 Works Cited Hurmence, Belinda. My Folks Don't Want Me to Talk about Slavery: Twenty-one Oral Histories of Former North Carolina Slaves. Winston-Salem, NC: J.F. Blair, 1984. Print.