United States History Student Edition

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“So I Jus’ Stayed On” In Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews With Former Slaves , Henry Banner gave this interview in which he describes his situation at the end of the war. Banner was born in Russell County, Virginia, in 1849. He was sold into slavery in 1864, when he was just 15 years old. PRIMARY SOURCE: INTERVIEW “ The Yankees fed the white people with hard tacks (at Liberty, Virginia).

Becoming a Blacksmith William Baltimore was 103 years old when he was interviewed by the federal government. Baltimore was born into slavery and worked on a plantation near Pine Bluff, Arkansas, with his mother, father, and grandparents. PRIMARY SOURCE: INTERVIEW “ When time come for breaking up the army I went back to Jefferson county and set to farmin’. I was free now. I didn’t do so well on the land as I didn’t have mules and money to live on. I went to Dersa County and opened up a blacksmith shop. I learned how to do this work when I was with Dr. Waters. He had me taught by a skilled man. I learned to build wagons too. I made my own tools. Who showed me how? Nobody. When I needed a hack saw I made it out of a file—that was all I had to make it of. I had to have it. Once I made a cotton scraper out of a piece of hardwood. I put a steel edge on it. O yes I made everything. Can I build a wagon—make all the parts? Every thing but the hubs for the wheels. ” — from Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews With Former Slaves EXAMINE THE SOURCE 1. Identifying How did Baltimore learn to do blacksmith work? How did he learn to make his own tools? 2. Evaluating Do you think Baltimore is an example of a success or a failure of Reconstruction? Explain your thinking.

All around the country, them that didn’t have nothin’ had to go to the commissary and get hard tacks. I started home, I went to town and rambled all around but there wasn’t nothin’ for me. I was set free in April. About nine

o’clock in the morning when we went to see what work we would do, ol’ man Wright called us all up and told us to come together. Then he told us we were free. I couldn’t get nothin’ to do; so I jus’ stayed on and made a crop. ” — from Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews With Former Slaves hard tack a hard biscuit made from flour and water commissary a store in the army that serves soldiers EXAMINE THE SOURCE 1. Identifying What does Banner say he did after he was emancipated? 2. Analyzing What does Banner’s personal narrative tell you about the relationship between many of the people who had been enslaved and their former slaveholders during Reconstruction? In what ways had the relationship between Banner and Wright, his former enslaver, changed?

(l)Federal Writer’s Project. Works Progress Administration. “Henry Banner.” Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves. Vol II, Arkansas Narratives, Pt. 1. Sponsored by the Library of Congress. Washington, 1941; (r)Federal Writer’s Project. Works Progress Administration. “William Baltimore.” Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves. Vol II, Arkansas Narratives, Pt. 1. Sponsored by the Library of Congress. Washington, 1941.

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