Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves, Volume VI, Kansas Narratives

The collection brings together recorded testimonies of former enslaved people gathered by the Federal Writers’ Project in the late 1930s. Each interview preserves a distinct voice, offering a rare glimpse into everyday life on Southern plantations and the journeys that led many to places like Kansas. Listeners will hear ordinary names—Clayton Holbert, Belle Williams, Bill Simms—telling their own histories in their own words.

In these narratives, the rhythms of work, food, and family emerge with startling clarity: corn‑planting lessons for boys, home‑spun clothing, communal hog butchering, and even homemade brandy shared with children. The accounts reveal how enslaved families built their own support networks, cared for one another’s children, and navigated the fragile promises of freedom after the war. The honest, unvarnished recollections paint a portrait of resilience and humanity that still resonates today.