This holiday season my writing and research as led me to an exploration of slave narratives from the Federal Writer’s Project, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Documenting the American South, and listening to The Bondwoman’s Narrative by Hannah Crafts, and Harriet Wilson’s Our Nig on Audible. Call it serendipitous if you will, but the descriptions of the Christmas Holiday season has been a reoccurring theme through out my exploration of these narratives. I also have made personal connections to my own family history, through a discovery of a marriage license of my third great grandparents, who were married on Christmas Day in 1879. The importance of these narratives provides me with purpose and deference for those who came before me.
The Federal Writer’s Project
The Library of Congress has archived and made digitally available the Works Progress Administration Writing Project. The interview of former slaves was one of these writing projects. Hundreds of former slave were interviewed. The interviews were recorded and then transcribed. I recently read through some of these interviews and I learned so much about our ancestors. The narratives and stories gave me great insight into what they were thinking, how they felt, and how they survived one of the greatest crimes against humanity with creativity, resilience, and faith.
In one of its most famous projects, Federal Project Number One, the WPA employed musicians, artists, writers, actors and directors in arts, drama, media, and literacy projects.[1] The five projects dedicated to these were the Federal Writers’ Project (FWP), the Historical Records Survey (HRS), the Federal Theatre Project (FTP), the Federal Music Project (FMP), and the Federal Art Project (FAP). In the Historical Records Survey, for instance, many former slaves in the South were interviewed; these documents are of immense importance to American history. Theater and music groups toured throughout the United States and gave more than 225,000 performances. Archaeological investigations under the WPA were influential in the rediscovery of pre-Columbian Native American cultures, and the development of professional archaeology in the US.
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1938 contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. These narratives were collected in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers’ Project (FWP) of the Works Progress Administration, later renamed Work Projects Administration (WPA). At the conclusion of the Slave Narrative project, a set of edited transcripts was assembled and microfilmed in 1941 as the seventeen-volume Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves. In 2000-2001, with major support from the Citigroup Foundation, the Library digitized the narratives from the microfilm edition and scanned from the originals 500 photographs, including more than 200 that had never been microfilmed or made publicly available. This online collection is a joint presentation of the Manuscript and Prints and Photographs divisions of the Library of Congress.
Milly Henry Tells Her Story
It was during my research of my family’s genealogy that I discovered Volume 11, North Carolina of the Federal Writer’s Project: Slave Narrative. The earliest documented ancestors I have found were either born slaves in North Carolina or lived there as planters. One of the first slave narratives I read was an interview with Milly Henry. Her story was significant to my family’s history as slaves. Milly Henry was a slave of Buck Boylan, who was the youngest son of William Montford Boylan. William Boylan and several of his sons were considered large slave holders with Boylan owning more than one hundred slaves. Milly Henry’s interview discloses the temperament of slave holders during the height of the Civil War. It also is historical documentation of the Boylan’s in Mississippi and North Carolina.
(1936) Federal Writers’ Project: Slave Narrative Project, Vol. 11, North Carolina, Part 1, Adams-Hunter.[Manuscript/Mixed Material] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/mesn111/.
One of My Earliest Documented Ancestors
I cannot speak to the accuracy of Milly Henry’s account of that day but I try to imagine it. Five hundred slaves were forced to migrate from Mississippi to North Carolina by horse and carriage, and by foot. Even the birds of the air, governed by only nature and God, are free to migrate from north to south. Milly’s only family, her grandmother, is left behind to die. July Boyland, the mother of my third great grandfather was also documented as the property of the Boylan family . Weldon E. Boylan had already inherited July and her family a decade before the Civil War in Fayette County, Tennessee. July Boyland made her journey from North Carolina to Tennessee with one of William Montford Boylan’s two sons, Alexander McCulloch Boylan and James Boylan somewhere around the 1830’s. They would remain in Tennessee during the Civil War. I wonder if July like Milly, had to leave family behind because it wasn’t profitable for their enslaver to take them. I wonder where I would be, what dreams were deferred, what psychological and physical trauma would have been avoided if ancestors were free to build a family, a life, and to pursue happiness; if not for the legacy of slavery and white supremacy.
So many stories untold and lives thrown and tossed about like a bag of yield from a crop. Milly goes on to tell her story. In her recollection of this memory she says they reach North Carolina and would remain there working on the Crabtree Plantation for a year before North Carolina surrenders. She hears news from another slave from Mississippi that her grandmother had died. Milly would live to see her own liberation but her grandmother would die a slave.
Christmas and the Birth of Baby Jesus, A Time of Celebration and Liberation
The Slave Narratives give many insights into how they celebrated life, what they ate, the clothing they had, and how they chose to survive. I found several recurring themes throughout many of the narratives. These themes were Christmas and the Civil War. As I celebrate this Holiday Season and in remembrance of my ancestors I dedicate this post to Jim and Francis Boyland.
Fayette County, Tennessee, Marriage Certificate for Jim Boyland and Francis Coe.
Christmas was one of the few days many slaves did not have to work. They would use the opportunity to create their own celebrations and meaning out of the holiday. If the slaves were rewarded for their obedience they would receive candy, clothes, gifts, food, liquor, and be allowed to marry. This day was also a day used for escape. Since they didn’t have to report to work during this time and slave owners were preoccupied with their own celebrations, Christmas was an opportune time to escape.
The excerpt from Documenting the American Southdiscusses the significance of the Christmas holiday to the slave experience. It describes traditions like how slaves and children would capture individuals and hold them until they showered them with gifts. There is one account where a slaved saved enough money to purchase their freedom from these very gifts given on Christmas day. The use of Christmas as an opportunity to escape was also connected to Harriet Tubman’s rescue of her own family. Christmas represented physical and spiritual freedom and slaves drew inspiration from the story of the birth and life of Christ, as well as hope for a better future. Several historical accounts are provided to illustrate these points in the excerpt.
As We Close Out 2023 and the Last Day of Kwanzaa
As we close out the year and the last day of Kwanzaa let us collectively remember the self determination of our ancestors and that despite the circumstances in which they came to this country they found purpose and the will to survive. The Federal Writer’s Project and Documenting the American South provides access to the public to explore the history of slavery in the United States through first person accounts. Take some time to explore these stories and share your own family’s story.
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