WPA Slave Narrative Project

Georgia Johnson - Ex slave - age 74

This account offers the recollections of one Georgia Johnson whom was born into slavery. She, unlike most, was moved around a good deal and so experienced many different versions of the slave society in which she was raised.

An interesting facet of the account is how normal, ordinary, the idea of ownership of a human being was to a member of such a society, especially a slave. 

Georgia says, 'My pa, he was Charlie Allen; he belonged to Master Duncan Allen too.', 'Master...give my ma to his gal' and most shockingly, 'Master give em my pa for a wedding present'. The latter of the quotes highlights the degree to which slaves, humans, were looked upon as nothing more than commodities - like silver or gold. The 'master' address shows the submissiveness of the relationship of slave and slave-owner too revealing one of the most disturbing features of the society; that one human could degrade another to such an extent.

Georgia was, 'born in the last year of the war so I don't have no sure enough recollections about them hard times what old folks say they had them days.', so examining her experience shows how slaves still struggled after the war. 'Master wouldn't have no settlement with him. He just wouldn't give my pa no money. Master said that us youngens still belonged to him...'.

This quote indicates how hard America struggled to up root the slave society in which it had become so entrenched. The account being taken from the Georgia narratives does reveal some of the reasons for Georgia's father's difficulties. 

Georgian whites being some of the most ironically enslaved to the system which their society and economy was entirely dependent on meant that despite being 'freed', ex-slaves still had very basic rights if any.

The presence and acceptance of death is also startling in all of the slave accounts and interviews from the WPA narratives, this one included. Georgia exclaims, 'whilst we was out there our little sister died...they put a little white dress on her and laid her out on the bed until they could make up a coffin...then they buried her away in the ground.'. The fact that slaves had to live through the constant fatalities of their family and friends, reduced to burying their own younger siblings, suggests how emotionally and morally damaging the experience must have been. Reaffirming the strength of the legacy it left behind.