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About the Book
ECHOES of SLAVERY - Volume I
During the Depression years between 1936 and 1938, the WPA Federal Writers' Project (FWP) sent out-of-work writers in seventeen states to interview ordinary people in order to document their life stories. Initially, only four states involved in the project (Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia) focused on collecting the stories of people who had once been held in slavery. In 1937 the WPA directed the remaining states involved in the project to conduct interviews with former slaves as well. Federal field workers were given instructions regarding the kinds of questions to ask their informants and how to capture their dialects, the result of which may occasionally be offensive to contemporary readers. The field workers often visited the people they interviewed twice in order to gather as many recollections as possible. Sometimes they took photographs of the informants and their dwellings. The completed narratives were then turned over to their state's FWP director for editing and eventual transfer to Washington, D.C.
The former slave narratives presented in Volume I - ECHOES of SLAVERY represent a small segment of more than two thousand first-person accounts of actual slave experiences, transcribed in their own words by the FWP and recorded for posterity. These first-person testimonials open a window into the past, enabling contemporary readers a rare opportunity to share the trials, fears, frustrations, hopes, and visions of those individuals caught up in the maelstrom that was 1800’s America.
Walk alongside these resolute men and women in ECHOES of SLAVERY - Volume I as they portray the real world in which they struggled and endured. Experience the harsh and often brutal reality of slavery as it really was!
About the Author
Cotter Bass is an 84 year-old retired architect/writer/photographer. Cotter and his wife Violet have been married for more than 60 years and currently reside in Greenwood, Indiana. Having raised two sons and one daughter, they and are proud grandparents of eight grandchildren. Cotter enjoys the outdoors, especially fishing and golf. In addition to writing, much of Cotter's time is spent in the pursuit of trout and bass, playing golf, and photography.
Cotter has been writing for more than 50 years. The majority of his early work targeted fishing and related outdoor subjects. Cotter penned angling columns for several regional newspapers and eventually secured a monthly trout column with the angling publication FishingPA.
KILLING FIELDS OF WORLD WAR I, ECHOES of SLAVERY - Volume I, ECHOES of SLAVERY - Volume II, FUDGE!, IDENTITY THEFT, How To Start Your Own Profitable HOME-BASED BUSINESS, ANTI-CRIME MEASURES, BEST GOLF TIP EVER, FRAUD PROTECTION FOR SENIORS, THE BARLOW BOYS MEET THE ALLAGASH GHOST, and The Treasure Hunter's Field Guide To INDIANA'S LOST & BURIED TREASURE are some of Cotter’s published works. In addition to Volumes I and III of the KILLING FIELDS TRILOGY, Cotter is presently working on a collection of Civil War soldier's letters entitled DEAR MOTHER. His latest book, REMEMBERING SLAVERY, is complete and available for review and purchase.
Visit Cotter's blog at https://cotterbass.home.blog