African American Life Before and After Emancipation Slavery was an intrinsic part of North American history from the founding of the Jamestown Colony in 1607 to the legal abolition of servitude in 1865. But our nation continues to grapple with the economic, political, social and cultural impacts of that peculiar institution to this day. More than seventy years after the end of the Civil War, the WPA Federal Writer's Project sought to understand the impact slavery had on the lives of African Americans who once lived under its yoke. In 1936-38, the Writer's Project sent unemployed writers to seventeen states to record the personal narratives of former slaves; the result was a collection of nearly 3,000 stories of men and women born into slavery and released into uncertain freedom early in their lives. The relatively small collection of 26 short stories collected in Mississippi during these years reveals the complexities of African American life before and after emancipation. While this sample should not be read as indicative of the memory and experience of former slaves in general, it raises important questions about the meaning of freedom, the failures of Reconstruction, and the quality of life perceived by Blacks during and after slavery. A close reading of Mississippi narratives reveals nostalgia for the security and stability of slavery and an overwhelming dissatisfaction with the failed promises of freedom: "turned...loose,...lak a passel o' cattle," the former slaves struggled to realize the concrete benefits of slavery. an abstract freedom longing for better days;[1] This tired nostalgia must be recognized not as a rejection of freedom, but as a denunciation of the powers, which declared them f...... middle of paper.... ..[ 30] Sam McCallum, 4. American Memory: Born into Slavery.[31] Foner, 159.[32] Charlie Davenport, 8 years old. American Memory: Born into Slavery.[33] Foner, 246.[34] James Lucas, 7-8. American Memory: Born into Slavery.[35] Foner, 376.[36] James Lucas, 7. American Memory: Born into Slavery.[37] Foner, 54-56.[38] Foner, 107.[39] James Cornelius, 3. American Memory: Born into Slavery.[40] Foner, 82.[41] Foner, 78.[42] Anna Baker, 5. American Memory: Born into Slavery.[43] Nettie Henry, 1-2. American Memory: Born into Slavery.[44] Jane Sutton, 5. American Memory: Born into Slavery.[45] Foner, 96; 366.[46] Wayne Holiday, 2. American Memory: Born into Slavery.[47] Isaac Stier, 5. American Memory: Born into Slavery.[48] Henri Necaise, 4. American Memory: Born into Slavery.[49] Dora Franks, 3. American Memory: Born into Slavery.