Weren't No Good Times: Personal Accounts of Slavery in Alabama (Real Voices, Real History) (Real Voices, Real History Series)

From 1936 to 1938, the Federal Writers' Project (FWP), a part of the New Deal's Works Progress Administration, hired writers, editors, and researchers to interview as many former slaves as they could find and document their lives during slavery. More than 2,000 former slaves in 17 states were interviewed. With Weren't No Good Times, John F. Blair, Publisher, continues its Real Voices, Real History â„¢ series with selections from 44 of the 125 interviews now archived in the Library of Congress that were earmarked as interviews with Alabama slaves.

Alabama was a frontier state. From the beginning, its economy was built on cotton and slavery and its laws were fashioned to accommodate both, which becomes obvious when related through the experiences of Alabama's slaves. A year after it obtained statehood, Alabama had a slave population of 41,879, as compared to 85,451 whites and 571 free blacks. By 1860, the slave population had swelled to 435,080, while there were 536,271 whites and 2,690 free blacks. When emancipation came to the slaves, Alabama's slave owners lost an estimated $200 million of capital.

These narratives will help readers understand slavery by hearing the voices of the people who lived it.