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The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography, George P. Rawick,
General Editor, with A Comprehensive Name Index for The American
Slave, compiled by Howard E. Potts and Subject Index, from Index
to The American Slave, edited by Donald M. Jacobs, assisted by
Steven Fershleiser
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Introduction to the Mississippi Narratives - Acknowledgments
The Deep South People's History Project, sponsor of the research
that uncovered the Mississippi narratives and prepared them for publication,
was generously supported by the Louis M. Rabinowitz Foundation; we
are extremely grateful for that support. We are also grateful for
the warm encouragement we have received from the many people whose
need for these materials is more urgent than our own; special thanks
here to Imari A. Obadele, president of the provisional government
of the Republic of New Afrika. Walter Collins’ occasional criticisms
have been timely and on the mark. Jim Loewen's sense of urgency
prodded us along.
Significant moral support was provided by many
faculty members at Tougaloo College, Millsaps College, Rust College,
the University of Mississippi, and Jackson State University who
invited an unlettered historian to speak to their students about
slavery and freedom, opportunities that furnished priceless critical
feedback. Similar help was provided by the congregation of the First
Unitarian Church in Jackson.
Our spirit was strengthened by the number of
black students and teachers who attended the University of Mississippi
symposium, “Slavery: A Bicentennial Perspective,” in October
1975 (addressed by Carl N. Degler, Eugene D. Genovese, David Brion
Davis, Stanley L. Engerman, William K. Scarborough, John W. Blassingame,
and Kenneth M. Stampp). They came to say that their history was
too important to be entrusted to the historians and to suggest that
white historians of slavery ought to develop a deeper concern for
freedom. The number of white people who came to challenge racist
interpretations of history was also encouraging.
We appreciate the help we have received from
the entire staff of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History,
always cheerfully given despite the disruptiveness of our project
to their routines. We particularly want to thank Carl Ray, former
director of the library division, for relaxing his rules about photocopying.
Caroline Allen, Clinton Bagley, JoAnn Bomar, Carrie Edmondson, Vernell
Forest, Dwight Harris, Harriet Heidelberg, Tom Henderson, Hank Holmes,
Michelle Hudson, Mamie Locke, Theresa Logue, Virginia (Mrs. Roy)
Sims, and Ron Tomlin assisted us day in and day out without complaining.
Despite our gratitude, however, we have been
grimly aware all along that the racism which has shaped every part
of Mississippi's government for the past century is responsible
for allowing a collection like this to deteriorate, unknown and
unprocessed, for thirty-five years—the same government which
has appropriated millions of dollars for the acquisition, processing,
care, and publication of materials that bolster the white-supremacist
past. Progress has been made during the past couple of years, particularly
after the Mississippi Council on Human Relations issued its report,
“Mississippi: Hardly an Equal Opportunity Employer,” in
1974: Patricia Carr Black, during her term as director of the Archives’
library division, initiated an affirmative action program both in
hiring and in acquisition; Vernell Forest has processed the ex-slave
narratives collected by the WPA with the loving attention they deserve.
No one should imagine that recent progress
fell from the sky. The freedom struggles waged by black Mississippians
and their allies during the 1960s were accompanied by a demand for
the truth about their past. Negroes in American History by
Bobbi and Frank Cieciorka was published by the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee for use in the movement's freedom schools.
Other histories, such as the Southern Conference Educational Fund's
Appalachian People's History Book, followed the example.
Without those beginnings, our work would not have been possible.
Thanks to the staff of the National Archives
in Washington, D.C., for uncovering the materials that so many people
thought had not survived.
We appreciate Joseph Borome's permission
to reprint his edited version of the autobiography of Hiram Rhoades
Revels, and the Daily World's permission to reprint
Elizabeth Lawson's interview with George Washington Albright.
When Bennie G. Thompson, the mayor of Bolton,
appointed me to direct the Bolton Bicentennial Project, “The
Heritage of Black Mississippi in the Fight for Freedom,” he
inadvertently helped spur this work to completion.
Throughout this essay, “I” means
Ken Lawrence and “we” means Jan Hillegas, Ken Lawrence,
and, by long distance, George Rawick. George has been a comrade
and friend since my teenage years and taught me the ways in which
the past shapes the future. Our friendship does not mean, however,
that he bears any responsibility for my departures from accepted
historical practice; I alone deserve the blame.
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