Slave Narratives

Slavery was more than a state of physical bondage and chains, it was a state of mind, because slavery not only made servants out of Africans, it also taught them how to be slaves in their mind, to accept this role, mentally, and to think themselves inferior. Black people are no longer in physical bondage, but continue to be slaves in their minds. These limitationsstill haunt us today. Many black people still doubt their self worth, still doubt their potential, and still doubt their ability to be successful in this life. Black people are free from the chains but not in their brains. As arace, we have been programmed bythe catas-trophic assault on our race, slavery; and by ancestors, though free, who continued to think and act like slaves, because this wasthe only thing they knew. As a whole, Black people have not progressed that much over the experiences of our ancestors, for we are only 130 years removed from slavery and the vestiges of this experience still remain. Andeventhough at the time most of the narratives were taken, the late 1930's, and these former slaves had been free for over 60 years, their testimonies still reflect they were still slaves in their minds. Hopefully, as a people we can glean from their experience and knowledge, to enable us to shed some light on our present day situation and the crises we still face as Black people in America. It is an African tradition of listening to the Griot or the elders, who pass down the oral traditions and history of their people. As African-Americans, we have failed to continue the tradition of listening to the orators or elders of our race. We no longer sit, as we use to, at the feet of the older black people in our community, and listen as they share their experiences and give us advice for life. Because of this, we have several generations of black people who no longer know what it means to be Black in America, who have failed to sit at the feet of their grandmothers and grandfathers, great aunts and great uncles, to learn of the trials and tribulations of slavery, the trials and tribulation of segregation and integration, of the KKK, the lynching of our people, the rape of our women, the murder of our children, the destruction of our people. Without this foundation, we wander lost in a world where we are often not wanted, affirmed or received. These are the foundations we must now try to instill in our children and young adults, or as a people we will see ourselves disappear into the smoke of assimilation, violence, self destruction and self hatred, that will eventually end in our demise.