Voices of the Owned: What They Lived Through

They were owned-bought, sold, and controlled as property. But they remembered. They spoke. And their voices remain.

Voices of the Owned draws on more than 2,000 firsthand accounts of former slaves collected by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the 1930s. Most collections of these narratives focus on what is typical. This book takes a different approach.

Here, the emphasis is on the individual: distinctive lives, unexpected moments, vivid scenes, and unforgettable turns of phrase. Som...