Slave Narrative Research Paper

From Slave Narratives to LIteracy Programs: Writer’s Programs of the Works Progress Administration

The Works Progress Administration employed millions of people for public work projects. Some of the jobs included construction for buildings and roads. On May 6, 1935, the administration was founded under Franklin D Roosevelt’s New Deal. The Works Progress Administration was also called Works Projects Administration. The program was created to provide work for victims of the Great Depression. A few programs under the WPA were The Federal Arts Project, Federal Writer’s Project, and The Federal Theater Project. Itt gave jobs to many musicians, artist, writers, and actors. IN 1943, the WPA was terminated. From 1935 until later in 1939, the Federal
Writers Project was directed by Henry Alsberg who was a lawyer that liked theater and wrote and directed Broadway productions. The main duty of FWP was to gather comprehensive geographical portrait of the states and cities to the U.S. The program became established in its efforts to go beyond the guidelines and the activities associated with them. John Lomax was hired on as a figure to develope American folklore. John Lomax identified the important African American folk information that in the pas was ignored. Lomax wasn’t long with the Writers’ Project, but he did make a statement along his journey, mainly with the Slave Narrative Collection. African American’s who participated in the WPA was only noticeable after there was lack of a black personnel. Sterling Brown insured that African Americans weren’t neglected from the publications written or those sponsored by Writers’ Project. Individuals that were African American that were hired on in some states lacked separated units by blacks. There was a “last hired, first fired” record recorded by the Federal Writer’s Project. On April of 1937, records revealed a number of ex-slave interviews were often conducted by a single black employee. Many employees ranged from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia.
The collection of narratives was inaugurated then. The slave narratives are a literary work made up of accounts written by enslaved Africans in Great Britain. Some including later the U.S, Canada, and the Caribbean nations. A slave narrative was an account of the life of a fugitive or a former slave. The narrative was written by the slave. It was an influential tradition of literature. Majority of the narratives were written by African Americans. In the 1930s, The Federal Writers’ Project gathered 2,500 former slaves in history. The Interesting Narrative of the LIfe of Olaudah Equiano: or, Gustavus Vassa, The African, Written by Himself was the first slave narrative to become the best seller. These documents were found in the 21st century. Frederick Douglass and many others claim many other readers as well. Frederick Douglass wrote the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself in 1845. In the 19th century, a known read novel was Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852. Frederick Douglass wrote, “My Bondage and My Freedom” in 1855 about Northern racism. Slave
narratives gave important meaning in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Slave narratives documented the slavery life. More known narrators were William Wells Brown and Harriet Jacobs. The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Black Boy are more modern day slave narratives. Others include first person writings like Margaret Walker’s Jubilee in 1966, and Ernest J Gaines the Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman in 1971. Slave narratives generally would follow a plot line that was common
to them. It would start from what their situation was, to what might the slave master’s home look like,