Antebellum Era, Social
Life of a slave: Charles Thompson
Slave narratives, stories of slavery told by slaves themselves, were an important way to help support the cause of ending slavery.
“In publishing this book I hope to do good not only to my own race, but to all who may read it. I am not a book-maker, and make no pretensions to literary attainments; and I have made no efforts to create for myself a place in the literary, book-making ranks. I claim for my book truthfulness and honesty of purpose, and upon that basis it must succeed or fail.”
Here is an example of a slave narrative of Charles Thompson, a former slave and preacher. Thompson often used his position as a preacher to gain respect of other slaves and organize meetings of all kinds against the wishes of his Masters.
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Biography of a slave : being the experiences of Rev. Charles Thompson, a preacher of the United Brethren Church, while a slave in the South : together with startling occurrences incidental to slave life.
Thompson, Charles, b. 1833.
NOTES
Covers the first half of Thompson's life as a slave. He intended to write another volume covering his life as a minister but this was never published.
Transcribed from photocopy of: Biography of a slave : being the experiences of Rev. Charles Thompson, a preacher of the United Brethren Church, while a slave in the South : together with startling occurrences incidental to slave life. Dayton, Ohio : United Brethren Pub. House, 1875. 111 p.
SUBJECTS
Thompson, Charles,--b. 1833.
African Americans--Mississippi--Biography.
African American clergy--Mississippi--Biography.
Church of the United Brethren in Christ (1800-1889)--Clergy--Biography.
Slaves--Mississippi--Biography.
Fugitive slaves--Mississippi--Biography.
Plantation life--Mississippi--History--19th century.
Slaves--Mississippi--Social life and customs.
African Americans--Mississippi--Religion.
Slavery--Mississippi--History.
Slaves' writings, American--Mississippi.
RELATED TITLES
North American slave narratives.
PART OF
The Church in the Southern Black Community, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
REPOSITORY: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Academic Affairs Library
DIGITAL ID: csbc http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/thompsch/menu.html
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/uncall:@field(DOCID+@lit(BEQ-8268%20%20%20))
On plantations, slaves were not given the same rights as regular people. Since they had been taken away from their original homes and were forbidden from leaving the plantation, they created new cultures on the very grounds of the plantation. By forming communities on the plantation, the slaves had a way to interact with people in a normal way. Even though they were enslaved and had few rights, they could fight back at their masters by creating a new, positive life for themselves. One way they accomplished this was by creating new versions of religion, particularly Christianity. While the slave masters forcibly kept the slaves on their plantations, the slaves had the ability organize themselves on their own.
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CALL NUMBER:DRWG/US - Waud, no. 241 (A size) [P&P]
REPRODUCTION NUMBER:LC-USZ62-21490 (b&w film copy neg.)
No known restrictions on publication.
MEDIUM:1 drawing on cream paper : pencil ; 10.3 x 16.4 cm. (sheet).
CREATED/PUBLISHED:[between 1860 and 1865]
CREATOR:
Waud, Alfred R. (Alfred Rudolph), 1828-1891, artist.
RELATED NAMES:
Waud, William, d. 1878, artist.
NOTES:
Title inscribed on verso.
Inscribed in black ink upper right: 14.
Possibly by William Waud.
Gift, J.P. Morgan, 1919 (DLC/PP-1919:R1.2.241)
Forms part of: Civil War drawing collection.
SUBJECTS:
Churches--1860-1870.
African Americans--Spiritual life--1860-1870.
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.
United States--South Carolina--Port Royal Island
FORMAT:
Drawings American 1860-1870.
PART OF:Civil War drawing collection
REPOSITORY:Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
DIGITAL ID:(b&w film copy neg.) cph 3a22593 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3a22593
CARD #:2004660756
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?pp/ils:@filreq(@field(NUMBER+@band(cph+3a22593))+@field(COLLID+drwg))
During the New Deal, the federal government created a project to record the lives’ of former slaves, told in their own voices. The “Federal Writers’ Project” was a collection of former slave narratives. In these narratives, slaves had a chance to describe their life experiences in their own words, such as the narratives here.
In this narrative, a former slave tells about meetings the slaves held on the plantation without their masters knowing. Slave masters did not allow such meetings to occur, because the meetings created an opportunity for slaves to talk with other slaves and possibly work against the wishes of the Master. However, as seen in this narrative, slaves often held these meeting anyway, defying their masters’ wishes. These meetings were an opportunity for slaves to express themselves, to celebrate their own culture, and experience a brief sense of freedom. Though they remained slaves during the day, these night meetings showed that slaves were willing to fight the wishes of their masters.
Story-telling also became an important act for slaves, as it allowed them a chance to express themselves in unique ways. After taking slaves away from their homes in Africa against their wishes, the slave masters forced them to end their cultures. In the place of African tradition, the slave masters forced the slaves to simply serve the plantation. In this act, the slaves had their culture stolen away. However, by creating stories that could passed down from person-to-person and generation-to-generation. This allowed the slaves a chance to re-create their culture, in opposition to what their masters had forced upon them.
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?pp/app:@field(NUMBER+@band(cph+3a04252))
/ PREVIOUS / NEXT / ITEM LIST / NEW SEARCHBorn in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938
South Carolina Narratives, Volume XIV, Part 1
Folk lore: folk tales (Negro).
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mesn&fileName=141/mesn141.db&recNum=3
“And we would run away, and wouldn't stay with them. Why then we'd just go and stay anywheres we could. Lay out a night in underwear. We had no home, you know. We was just turned out like a lot of cattle. You know how they turn cattle out in a pasture? Well after freedom, you know, colored people didn't have nothing. Colored people didn't have no beds when they was slaves. We always slept on the floor, pallet here, and a pallet there. Just like, uh, lot of, uh, wild people, we didn't, we didn't know nothing. Didn't allow you to look at no book. And then there was some free born colored people, why they had a little education, but there was very few of them, where we was. And they all had uh, what you call, I might call it now, uh, jail centers, was just the same as we was in jail.”
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/afcesn:@field(DOCID+@lit(afc9999001t9990a))
In this quotation, Fountain Hughes discusses the transition from being a slave to being a free person.
Voices From the Days of Slavery
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Voices From the Days of Slavery
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Item Title
Interview with Fountain Hughes, Baltimore, Maryland, June 11, 1949 (Transcription)
Call Number
master/afc/afc9999001/t9990A
Repository
Library of Congress, Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, Washington, D.C. 20540
Digital Id
afc9999001-t9990a
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/afc9999001.t9990a
Related Digital Items
Interview with Fountain Hughes, Baltimore, Maryland, June 11, 1949 (AFS 9990A)
Link to audio:
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/afcesnbib:@field(DOCID+@lit(afcesn000030))
This image shows slaves sifting through cotton on a plantation in South Carolina. Both Charles Thompson and Fountain Hughes would have performed similar work on plantations.
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[Port Royal Island, S.C. African Americans preparing cotton for the gin on Smith's plantation].
O'Sullivan, Timothy H., 1840-1882, photographer.
CREATED/PUBLISHED
1862.
SUMMARY
Photograph of the Federal Navy, and seaborne expeditions against the Atlantic Coast of the Confederacy, specifically of Port Royal, S.C., 1861-1862. Shows seven African Americans sitting in a pile of cotton in front of gin house.
NOTES
Reference: Civil War photographs, 1861-1865 / compiled by Hirst D. Milhollen and Donald H. Mugridge, Washington, D.C. : Library of Congress, 1977. No. 0587
Title from Milhollen and Mugridge.
Two plates form left (LC-B811-0159B) and right (LC-B811-0159A) halves of a stereograph pair.
Forms part of Selected Civil War photographs, 1861-1865 (Library of Congress)
SUBJECTS
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--African Americans.
Port Royal (S.C.)--Expedition, 1861.--Civil War, 1861-1865
Wet collodion negatives--1860-1870.
Stereographs--1860-1870.
United States--South Carolina--Port Royal Island.
MEDIUM
1 negative (2 plates) : glass, stereograph, wet collodion.
CALL NUMBER
LC-B811- 159
REPRODUCTION NUMBER
LC-DIG-cwpb-00747 DLC (digital file from original neg. of left half)
LC-DIG-cwpb-00746 DLC (digital file from original neg. of right half)
LC-B8171-0159 DLC (b&w film copy neg.)
SPECIAL TERMS OF USE
No known restrictions on publication.
PART OF
Selected Civil War photographs, 1861-1865 (Library of Congress)
REPOSITORY
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
DIGITAL ID
(digital file from original neg. of left half) cwpb 00747 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cwpb.00747
(digital file from original neg. of right half) cwpb 00746 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cwpb.00746
(digital file from b&w film neg.) ppmsc 00053
(digital file from intermediary roll copy film) cwp 4a39414