Slave Narrative Project
Aunt Winnie. Missouri Saint Louis United States, ca. 1938. Photograph.
The Slave Narrative: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States was a New Deal project carried out from 1936 until 1938. People from the Federal Writers Project were hired to interview former slaves and document their stories. While there may be some inaccuracies due to the nature of who was collecting the interviews, how they were recorded, and the advanced age of many of the people interviewed, they still provide valuable information that may have otherwise been lost to history. The entire collection is available in the Library of Congress for the public to access and read.
"Times don't change.
Just the merchandise."
Sarah Frances Shaw Graves was from Skidmore, Missouri, but she was born in Kentucky on March 23, 1850. She was brought to Missouri at the age of 5 when she and her mother Virginia Barber were purchased. As a child and teenager, she was forced to work long hours and was whipped by the owner as when she was blamed for something. When freed her mother only had 15 cents to her name, so the family struggled to survive. The only school that was available for Black students to attend was in Maryville, but Sarah could not attend a full term because she had to work.
When she was freed, she took the surname of her former owner, which was Shaw. Her future husband Joseph H. Graves followed the same practice. Sarah and Joseph had one son together, Arza Alexander Graves. The couple bought 40 acres of land for $10 when they married, and two years later they bought 80 for $15. They supported themselves on their growing farm in Skidmore, and Sarah also belonged to the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Maryville.
Images and transcript below courtesy of the Library of Congress
Identifying Sarah in the Records
It can be very difficult to even identify enslaved people by name because the official records rarely include these details. By using Sarah's interview above, along with census records of her and her family from 1870 to 1940 (the years after the end of slavery in Missouri), it is possible to begin to piece together who is who on the US census slave schedules, which only identify slave owners, not the enslaved people.
The document to the right was created by Abigail Cottingham. The names of Virginia, Julius, Daniel, Ellen, Sarah, and Joseph have been surmised from other existing materials. While we cannot be certain these individuals are correctly identified, this demonstrates how difficult this process can be.
Document from the US Census Slave Schedule; names added by Abigail Cottingham
