Bullwhip Days

by James Mellon

Book Overview

In the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration commissioned an oral history of the remaining former slaves. Bullwhip Days is a remarkable compendium of selections from these extraordinary interviews,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0380708841
• ISBN13: 9780380708840
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: Quill
• Length: 460 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

True History

Enjoyed this book very much. History from the mouth of people who experienced it. Glad someone took the time to talk with these people and record their lives and history . A book I will keep on my shelf and reread again later. Recieved it a few days after I ordered it, and got it at a good price.

History as True As It Gets!

The Federal Writers Project allowed out-of-work journalists in the Depression to interview the Last 1,200 remaining living slaves! In their own words! These accounts are magnificent and reveal a peek into another world unknown to us today. The recipe for dye to color the butternut linens of the Confederate uniform. How meat jerky was dried in the sun on a hot tin roof. Things they don’t put in history books. Sadly, please remember as you read these incredible tales— most survivors were in their 80’s. Only the lucky and best-treated ones survived. And these tales were told to white people in the Jim Crow South. That, alone, tells the reader that these survivors—even telling the ugliest of the war—may have omitted or softened many details. Also read “12 Years A Slave.” All are chilling first accounts and should be on every American’s book shelf.

The Bad, The Sad, And The Extremely Ugly

This is the real deal. Ex-slaves telling their own experiences; a few not-so-bad, many extremely heartbreaking. This is one of the best insights into what slavery was really like during the 19th Century. This is the story, in there own words, of how a people were totally dehumanized during America's most shameful period. A country claiming "liberty and justice for all" while denying that freedom to millions of fellow human beings. And many still ask the question, "why do African-Americans still lag behind in so many areas, while other ethnic groups had to struggle as immigrants also?" This book is a reminder that blacks were forcibly brought here, and denied-for-years even the simplest education. Maybe the reading of this book, will help some realize the continual uphill struggle, blacks have tried to achieve in a few short decades since the Civil Rights Movement. Trying to make-up for Centuries of bondage, and inequality. Just as we can never forget the evils of the Holocaust, so it should be equaly true with the era of slavery.

Powerful & Moving

Wow...That's all I can say. This is a wonderful book and a must read for everyone. I read this as part of a book club discussion for Black History Month. What a way to open my eyes to a part of American history. Very moving.

WHAT A BOOK

FOR SO LONG, I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT SLAVERY WAS LIKE. I'VE READ ABOUT IT IN BOOKS BUT THERE REALLY WAS NO DETAILED INFORMATION ON THE ACTUAL SLAVES. THIS BOOK REALLY HELPED ME TO FEEL THE DEVASTATION AND HUMILIATION OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE. IT HAS ALSO GIVEN ME A DIFFERENT OUTLOOK ON WHO I AM AND WHERE MY PEOPLE HAVE COME FROM. LONG BEFORE THIS BOOK I HAD DOUBTS ABOUT BEING AFRICAN. I DON'T MEAN AFRICAN AMERICAN. AFRICAN! FROM THE TRAUMATIC STRUGGLE MY PEOPLE HAVE ENDURED HAS MADE ME REALIZE THAT I WOULD BE SO IGNORANT TO CHANGE WHAT THEY HAVE GIVEN ME. I WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE AUTHOR OF THIS BOOK FOR NOT CHANGING EVEN THE DIALECT OF THE EX-SLAVES. IT REMINDS ME HOW FAR WE HAVE COME AND HOW FAR WE HAVEN'T. THERE IS SO MUCH HEALING THAT HAS TO COME TO THE SO CALLED AFRICAN AMERICANS. READING THIS BOOK, I REALIZE THAT I HAVE FRIENDS AND FAMILY MEMBERS WHO ARE STILL IN THE SAME STATE OF MIND. -MENTALLY ENSLAVED-

A MUST READ for EVERYBODY!!!

This is a fat book which you don't have to read cover to cover. You can skip around and read what real slaves said about raising children, their white masters, their work, what they ate, how they celebrated, how they worshiped, etc. This really tells what life was really like on plantations. If you like this book I recommend I WAS BORN A SLAVE which is similar. Two novels I recommend are THE DIARY OF A SLAVE GIRL, RUBY JO which tells about pirates and how runaways sometimes joined pirate ships where they were treated equally. Also, THE JOURNAL OF LEROY JONES, A FUGITIVE SLAVE.

The Most Neglected Period in U.S. History Comes Alive

You wouldn't believe my excitement upon discovering this book at the local library. These are the voices of real slaves, their histories recorded in the 1930's through a government project to collect this data. What a true American gem. All the voices are transcribed in the "native" language - Black English as spoken by ex-slaves, many of them at the time of their stories being recorded nearly a hundred years old. The accounts are fascinating, and non-biased. Some slaves speak frankly of wishing once again for slavery, and they recount the generosity and attention of the "Old Marse". Others tell horrific and moving stories of truly brutal and savage masters and wouldn't want to return to "slave times" under any circumstance. Most of the stories include first-hand accounts of their experiences through the Civil War and Reconstruction, although the primary goal was to record their experiences while slaves. Reconstruction of this country had enormous impact, and what the slaves did to build the nation during it's early years has been such a neglected historical topic. This is by far one of the most important books in my collection. As a white 31-year old middle-class woman, this is a must-read for anyone who might call themselves an American, regardless of race.