Remembering Slavery: African Americans Talk about Their Personal Experiences of Slavery and Emancipation

I am currently a high school student that read part of this for a Civil War class and let me say this is one powerful book. With people who were the slaves themselves tell you their stories, you learn alot about the antebellum period. I would recommend this book for any mature person due to the fact that some of these stories show the true horror of slavery.

the collection puts a face and voice to slavery. it answered any questions, while creating others. informative, letting the listeners know of the pride, courage and brillance of slaves. but in knowing more, the tapes clearly reveal that the whole, real truth died with the people of that era. we will never know the complete truth about that institution. it was a brutal mistake that still haunts all of civilization. the collection is an unbelievable experience.

This is a must read book! If you buy no other book this year this is the one to read and listen! I'm also saving this book and tape as a reference book for my children. It's not eveyday that one has a chance to listen to acual voices of slaves. It like the past comes alive as listen to their voices.

Ira Berlin brings life to a dead and dark time in our world history. The book and tape combination was prepared with the the utmost care and circumspection. The ominous voices of the ex-slaves are clear and well produced.The hardcover is a delight from inception to completion. Mr. Berlin is a concise, in-your-face author.

It's tough to tackle slavery and a work of such substance in a forum such as this, but here goes anyway...Ira Berlin does a magnificent job, especially with his introduction, which sets the tone of the work and explains the various shortcomings related to the primary sources for his material.This is not a compilation of slave narratives. This is a compilation of excerpts from interviews with elderly former slaves. It is a powerful look into the institution of slavery; while hardly exhaustive. it provides an excellent snapshot of slavery by the people who lived through and, indeed, suffered under it. You read about slaves: how they were born; where they lived; their relationship with the land, their masters, their drivers, and their fellow slaves; their religious expression; and several other aspects of their lives. I found that this work helped puncture the mythology of slavery on both sides -- the mythology of the apologists as well as the liberals. For me, ultimately, it reinforced a belief that I have developed a long time ago. There were "degrees" of slavery in practice across the US; there were good owners and bad ones; but one thing is for sure, all slave owners at some level knew of the humanity of their slaves. While for some this lead to leniency, for others this lead to denial-inspired harshness with their slaves. Either way, slave owners, whether "benevolent" or vicious, in the mere act of slaveowning performed a crime against humanity because they simply knew better...