Oklahoma Slave Narratives

Ethel Mae Wolfe Garrison was the daughter of Mitchell and Inez Wolfe. She was born in 1900 and lived to the age of 103 years. Born in the Manard Community, she lived quietly in the Muskogee and Cherokee Counties all of her life.

The Great Depression, however, forced many Americans into occupations or situations removed from their normal lives. Such was the case for Ethel's experiences.

During the mid-1930's, the Federal Writers' Project undertook the goal of recording the recollections of elderly Americans. Stories of peoples' lives from every station of life made it into over ten thousand sketches. These sketches were the first systematic recording of oral history.

Interviewing former slaves was only a part of a much larger project to demonstrate that Americans were a diverse people. In Oklahoma, the general stories make up the famed Indian-Pioneer Papers. These interviews preserved much of Oklahoma's early history.

The Oklahoma Historical Society filed the "slave narratives" separately from the Indian-Pioneer interviews. They remained filed with the papers of the Federal Writers' Project in Oklahoma City for administrative reasons. They first appeared in print only eleven years ago. Altogether, one hundred and thirty Oklahomans recounted their experiences as slaves for FWP "reporters," today called interviewers.

Ethel Garrison became one of these interviewers in 1937. She was the lone Native American out of the ten people assigned to conduct interviews of former slaves in Oklahoma. Her industriousness resulted in the preservation of thirty-two sketches, a fourth of the total recorded.

She traveled only a short distance for most of her interviews. Ethel conducted seventeen interviews in Muskogee. She found another ten of the former slaves in Fort Gibson. The remaining homes she visited were in Hulbert, Gibson Station and Colbert.

Project managers instructed its reporters to make repeated visits in order to build up a sense of trust. The fact that Ethel worked for the Federal Writers' Project told everyone that she was struggling financially like most everyone else. That status helped her bond with her subjects.

When she began making notes for the sketches, her bosses wanted her to get the story the way it was told. The stories were to be recorded as nearly as "word-for-word" as possible.

Sweetie Ivery Wagoner of Muskogee was the youngest ex-slave Ethel interviewed. Sweetie was born the year the Civil War ended. This was the "year of freedom." Sweetie thought she was born that year or the year before. Her mother was not sure.

George Kye was the oldest interviewee Ethel visited. He was an adult when the conflict began between Northerners and the "Sesesh," as he called Southerners. His accounts of a slave's perspective are the strongest despite his claim of being a hundred and ten years old.

A decade ago, I talked with Ethel about interviewing her. I wanted to learn more about her experiences. I hoped she could recall something from that time. The first time I called, she was feeling ill.

Months later, I called once more. Again, I was unable to schedule a time for us to meet. However, she sent a copy of a transcript of an ex-slave's interview for me to pass on to the Three Rivers Museum. It is now a treasured artifact from the Federal Writers' Project effort.

If you would like to read all of the Oklahoma's ex-slave narratives, a published version is in the Muskogee Public Library under the title of "The WPA Oklahoma Slave Narratives." It is fascinating reading.