it’s a voice rarely heard the voice of a formerly enslaved person few know that in the decades following emancipation interviews were done in an effort to preserve their stories and in tonight’s Prime Focus you’ll hear some of what they said as part of our partnership with the 10 million names project ABC’s Alex pet brings us their stories in their words I want you to tell me how you got your name I got my name from president Jeff Davis the southern confer he own my grandfather and my father my grandfather was a blacksmith and my father had learned how to write a little bit in richm before he brought him down there you’re listening to the voice of a formerly enslaved American a man by the name of George Johnson this rare and historic audio interview was recorded in 1941 almost 80 years after Mr Johnson gained his freedom he and his family worked on a Plantation in Virginia owned by Confederate lead leader Jefferson Davis a staunch opponent of abolition in the interview Johnson recalls A Day in the Life as an enslaved person did they drive the uh slaves down there in Davis’s been very hard or did they work them reasonable re you know uh Mar je give Mar another boy and uh he D was boy was CH C come say audio tape interviews like this are striking and uncommon but are actually part of a long Legacy of black families communities and institutions including historically black colleges and universities that lead the way in collecting and preserving the oral histories of the formerly enslaved people in in the 19th and 20th centuries in the 1930s and Beyond technology allowed some of these interviews to be recorded as part of both Federal and independent projects the details are often difficult to hear but they remind us this history happened not too long ago with names faces and stories do we know roughly like how many of these recordings exist the recordings are relatively rare um but the recordings come from a much larger and really um important and in many ways un song uh collecting effort uh that took place in terms of audio technology most of it was not recorded by Audio because the technology didn’t exist at least in any kind of widespread accessible way when most of those were conducted so it’s really just a handful of audio recordings we have in 1974 a woman named Celia black at the age of 114 years old and shortly before her death recalled picking cotton in Texas as a child born into slavery didn’t have to pick cotton or I didn’t do [Music] nothing goodness my H out west go out west every year we this year out there picking cup one of the things that kind of struck me when you have an interview recorded in 1974 for some black Americans I mean they’re they’re one generation removed from from slavery in some ways we think of slavery as ancient history we think of it as something that happened a very long time ago to people we couldn’t possibly have known I was 6 seven years old in 1974 so it’s kind of amazing that we were alive at the same time I was alive at the same time was someone who had been born enslaved Alex Haley’s uh Roots premiered on ABC just three years after this interview with Celia black what’s your name count kin Alex hay came into his work Roots what became Roots really through through his grandmother’s stories so we’re really talking about often times great grandparents at this point in the 70s Dr KRA field Chief historian of the 10 million names project and Harvard Professor Vincent Brown explained how these recordings illustrate an enormous preservation effort the firsthand accounts shedding light on the darkest chapters in our American history yet also revealing incredible African-American strength and survival didn’t you have some entertainment doing a dance ing or anything oh I used to dance but I don’t do it now no I don’t B now I try my best to Ser my master I’m trying my best to Ser my head hit me far you hear these recordings what were the emotions when you when you hear you know the the Recollections of of of of aelia black first is just the miracle of her survival it’s just that I’m I’m actually hearing this person who had been enslaved it’s that’s kind of a miracle Celia black was alive when Abraham Lincoln was president and lived to see the resignation of President Richard Nixon oh man you remember Abraham they they gave him a good name oh Abraham linol they thought Abraham was this they F every body felt abam they F then they were in a similar effort to preserve this history and Legacy the 10 million names project is a moonshot Endeavor that aims to use the power of ancestry research to identify the names of the 10 million men women and children who were enslaved in the territory that became the United States the goal is to put names and faces on this vital history not only to give the enslaved the dignity they deserve but to connect those living today with their family story with the help of the 10 million names genealogist we were able to find the direct descendants of Celia black in Rhode Island we met 68-year-old Curtis Royal who spent time with her as a young man she’s my great grandmother on my mother’s side of the family do you remember any of the stories that that she would tell she told us about how difficult it was you know just being alive during that period and of course she would tell us a story about the big Ox that they had there two of them and uh how her father would put sit her right on the head of the ox and she would just hold on with the with the horns so those are you know as as a boy you know those are fascinating you know you say wow my grandfather had some big old o he had one little G white hor oh look like a house W hes and and I used to set up there and T them homes and then his name was Coy his name was Co the other one was named left was it ever difficult to talk about slavery yes and I think what made it uh so difficult is it just uh realizing you know how how emotional it was and what they went through you know you try to put yourself into their physical being and to understand what they went through and it it’s you know it it is scary you’ve heard the recording of of your great grandmother in 1974 it was very challenging for me to hear when they asked her the question about what it was like working in the fields the heat in Texas the humidity and you know sometimes 105 110 degrees and I I I just can’t fathom waking up sun up to sun down working in the fields how do they do it how did they do it you learn about slavery in America I think especially being a black American the initial emotion is is is anger there’s the history of slavery as an institution which was all about oppressing people and that’s a very dark history that I think should make us angry but then there’s an African-American history of survival through through and beyond that institution and that’s kind of amazing to hear people you know accepting that I live this life it was incredibly hard and I’m still here and that I’ve survived and I’ve got children and I’ve passed on some kind of Legacy how does who’s conducting these interviews and how they’re conducting these interviews how does that matter oh I mean it’s enormously important for the WPA interviews in general the vast majority are white interviewers some are the children of the former slave owners in fact um that are interviewing a former slave right of that same family but everywhere slavery was a system for allocating status and slaves and ex-slaves were supposed to be low status people and so when they were talking to people who they perceived to be of higher status they had to be very careful about what they said right because those people could determine their fate while many of the audio recordings don’t reflect it slaves were frequently subjected to heinous forms of abuse including beatings sexual assault and forms of torture the historic 10 million names project in which ABC News is the exclusive media partner is an ancestry database at the Publican access add information to and use as a research tool and because so little information about enslaved people was officially documented amassing this data is a huge task we encourage anyone that wants to get involved to to reach out to go to the website and um and and to be part of that project who stands the most to to gain from hearing these I mean is is is is it black folk is it younger black folk is it is it uh is is it White America is it is it is Americans as a whole if we’re going to understand anything about Freedom then we’re going to have to understand the people who were denied that freedom I mean the while very few of us will have the opportunity of hearing our ancestors voices on tape the 10 million names project hopes that one day all black black Americans will have the chance to know their ancestors names and stories the way that Curtis knows Celia you had the chance to know your great grandmother yes how powerful is it being able to connect that dot it’s extremely powerful you got to to hear it from her directly not something that was passed on but hear directly from her her pain our thanks to Alex pre for that and for more ancestry stories and information about the 10 million names project scan the QR code on the screen to visit our newly launched ABC News 10 million names Digital Landing Page you can learn more about how to personally contribute to the project access recommended reading lists and more hi everyone George Stephanopoulos here thanks for checking out the ABC News YouTube channel if you’d like to get more videos show highlights and watch live event coverage click on the right over here to subscribe to our Channel and don’t forget to download the ABC news app for breaking news alerts thanks for watching
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