Portrait: artist's interpretation. No photograph of Unidentified former slaves from Virginia is known.
Unidentified former slaves from Virginia
Recorded in Petersburg, Virginia, ca. 1937-1940
Their Story
This brief group recording was made in Petersburg, Virginia, around 1937–1940 by Roscoe Lewis, with an unnamed woman interviewer also asking questions. The speakers are not clearly identified. The transcript tentatively gives the names Mrs. Jessie and Mrs. Annie Williams, and a man possibly named Mr. Saylor.
The surviving part of the recording begins in the middle of a story. The woman tentatively identified as Mrs. Jessie describes two enslaved women who were hanged before she was born, apparently for hiding or running away. She says the two women sang a song themselves just before they were hanged, and that one of them began to cry. Another woman says she cannot talk about it. The recording ends with the interviewer greeting the older man and asking whether he remembers her, but the audio is distorted and breaks off.
The Recordings & Transcripts
The recording Petersburg, Virginia, ca. 1937-1940
Transcript
[Mrs. Jessie (?)]: [long recording gap] That happened before I was born.
Unidentified Woman InterviewerMrs. Jessie what were they hung for?
[Mrs. Annie Williams (?)]: [utters something incomprehensible]
[Mrs. Jessie (?)]: They were hung for giving uhm, they were hiding. [possibly fugitive slaves]
[Mrs. Annie Williams: Running from they didn't take (?)] ??? .
[Mrs. Jessie (?)]: They hung them with bats. They tied sewed up. They hung them with—
Roscoe LewisAh, do you remember the song that they made up about them?
[Mrs. Jessie (?)]: Ah, the ah, the song, they sung it themselves.
Roscoe LewisMhmm. Those women?
Unidentified Woman InterviewerWho sung it? You mean the two women sang it?
[Mrs. Jessie (?)]: These two women.
[Mrs. Annie Williams: Don't ask me (?)].
Unidentified Woman InterviewerJust before they were hung? [just before they (?)]—
[Mrs. Jessie (?)]: They, they sung that two women [before they hanged them (?)]. They ??? hang them soon as they done.
[Mrs. Annie Williams (?)]: I can't talk about that.
[Mrs. Jessie (?)]: And one began one women began, began crying—
Unidentified Woman InterviewerWere they ah slaves?
[Mrs. Jessie (?)]: Yeah ma'am, they was before I was born.
Unidentified Woman Interviewer[distortions and recording repeats: “Were they slaves?”]
[Mr. Saylor (?)]: [grumbles]
Unidentified Woman InterviewerHow are you Mr. [Saylor (?)] [repeats: Mr. Saylor. Mr. Saylor.] How are you today? You remember me? [echoes: Remember me? Remember me?] Hmm? You remember me? You remember me? You remember me? Do you remember when I found? Do you remember when I found? When I found? Found? Found? Found? Found? F——?
END OF SIDE B
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Recorded by Roscoe Lewis, Petersburg, Virginia, ca., 1937-40. From Voices Remembering Slavery: Freed People Tell Their Stories. Bracketed notes and question marks in the transcripts mark sounds or words that are hard to hear.