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

These oral histories bring listeners face‑to‑face with the everyday realities of enslaved people in Kentucky before emancipation. The interviews, recorded by the Federal Writers’ Project in the late 1930s, preserve the voices of former slaves like Dan Bogie, Harriet Mason and Belle Robinson, who recount birth dates, family ties, and the cramped cabins where they lived. Their vivid recollections of low‑bedded lofts, cradles tied to wood, and the rhythms of work—spinning wool, making shingles, and tending sugar trees—paint an intimate portrait of a world often reduced to statistics.

Beyond the material details, the testimonies capture a cultural texture: the songs a mother sang while carding wool, the taste of baked possum and sorghum‑sweetened corn bread, and the brief moments of kindness such as a master’s winter shoes. Listeners will hear the language, humor, and endurance that shaped these lives, offering a rare, human glimpse into a chapter of American history that is both personal and collective.