I Knowed not i'sa free: African American live slave recordings before emancipation through death. - Hardcover

by Gregory G. Newson (Author)

Why I, Gregory Newson, I'm Uniquely Qualified To Speak On the WPA Project.

A very important change occurs when a person "comes to themselves". For me Gregory Newson artist, and writer who has chosen to take the road less traveled only after periods of a reckless lifestyle, I came to myself. But some people never come to themselves at all. But I'm glad I learned the hard way that changing your habits can change your life.

Does the past live recordings of former American slaves before they died matter to anyone? Nowadays, we are known for our acquirements, defects, and mannerisms in speech, but these peculiarities meant much more to a certain class of Americans during colonial times. The numerous classes of indentured servants, together with the Negro slaves, could be identified by their speech when they ran away. But in today's society, if we encountered someone that spoke like the interviewed WPA Federal Writers' Project formal slaves in this book, we would turn our back on the conversation and walk away. These are the same people that protest for legislation for more civil rights and political power.

After 10 years of participating in civil war reenactments and historical events; The subject of slavery and civil rights is always around me constantly, which encourages me to be ever so vigilant about others' civil rights too, But when I chose to listen to the recordings of former African Americans slaves I too became frustrated and felt no connection; But I realized my intolerance from one glance and quick-read of the transcripts and recordings was a contemporary rush to judgment; "I must make that connection to my ancestors". The re-read was constantly telling me "This is not what black America wants to hear." The forte of my ancestral negro orator is decidedly pathetic; he is most effective in the low tones. In his melancholic cast of speech, he has the habit of sometimes chanting or half-singing his words-what his race very characteristically knows as "moaning"; and it has occasionally the weirdest and touching effect. . . . "Speaking in parables," But I continue to read over and over, But the reread open that door back to my "Past Life Regression Experiment" in 2015.

I hope you do go to the Congress of library website; there was no single dialect the slaves spoke. They all struggle to speak English from their passing dialects like; Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa languages, all of which were from tribes in present-day Nigeria, which happened to be where most slaves going to the 13 colonies and the West Indies came from. Over time, these languages tended to merge together (with English), and in one particular case, a unique language evolved in South Carolina called Gullah.

The idiomatic expressions of the quarters filtered up to the big house with amazing rapidity. Because the slave found such a close congruence between African proverbs and those in the Bible, he was able to pass on to his master many African expressions. Antebellum Southerners frequently noted the Africanization of their children by the slaves.