Homeless And Penniless

In the late 1930s, the Work Projects Administration, a resulting program from President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal project, began interviewing former slaves living in Indiana. These interviews attempt to “preserve the personal experience stories of formal slaves” and convey them to the general public (Baker, 4). Adhering to an issued set of suggestions and inquisitions, the interviews share stylistic and written features, yet many stories still portray various insights to what life had in store for an enslaved individual. The Chairperson and Professor of English at Indiana State University, Robert L. Baker acted as the editor of Homeless, Friendless, and Penniless and brought to life the informative and astute stories of the once enslaved inhabitants of Indiana. This collection of slave narratives told through the pages of Homeless, Friendless, and Penniless attempts to convey the varying aspects of slavery, from the excruciating pain of being whipped to the close affection that some slaves held for their owners. Reoccurring topics, such as plantation life, slave treatment, escape, the Civil War, religion, and education, present themselves throughout the slaves’ historical accounts. In reference to life on a plantation, the informants expressed extremely contrasting opinions and recounts of …show more content…
Throughout Homeless, Friendless, and Penniless, multitudes of slaves reveal that they had acquired little to no education due to the fact that their owners did not want them to gain knowledge. Looking back on her time in enslavement, Rosa Barber shares that “traditional rhymes and tales were forbidden if they were thought to…enlighten or uplift the spirits of the slaves” and even “any toys considered educational (were) forbidden” (65). An abundance of slaves disclose their disappointment and regret of not having the opportunity to obtain a formal