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Summary Of The Interview Of General Washington Dukes

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This paper will examine the interview of General Washington Dukes, or his nickname Wash Dukes. This interview took place in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. This paper will also describe his as a slave and the difficulties he faced. His story will explain the hardships slaves endured before and after the Civil war. This paper argues that slaves were not free before and after the civil war as a result they could not make their own decisions and vote during the early 1900’s.
First, during the years 1936-1938, 2,300 people, who were former slaves in the United States, had been interviewed about their own experience of slavery by the Federal Writer’s Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The WPA was able to interview people in over seventeen states to preserve the ex-slaves life for people who did not live in those times of slavery. These sources are responses of the ex-slaves feelings about this “peculiar institution”. These interviews were documented to ensure an accurate history of the ex-slaves experiences before they died of old age or disease. Since these interviews were performed during 1936-1938, they were able to interview the ex-slaves lives before and after the Civil War. A perspective not seen is the ex-master’s point of view. Each interview is a …show more content…

He was the oldest of eight children. He was a poor man when he was born and in his adult years he did not make much money. When Dukes spoke of his ex-master, he said “Old master and mistis was good to us."2 Dukes was very fortunate to have polite owners, but not every slave had masters that were good to them. As a result of being born a slave, his perspective of being an African American during 1855 and onward is different than being a free African American. A free African American man in the northern states did not need permission to leave their home, but if the person was a slave, they would need a

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