From Publishers Weekly
Set to air February 10, the HBO documentary chronicled by this book (and sharing its title) is narrated by Whoopi Goldberg and features dramatic readings by Samuel L. Jackson, Ossie Davis, Oprah Winfrey and others, while a traveling exhibition has been organized by the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, and an expanded DVD is set for release the same day. Yet the testimony and 60 duotones here still speak for themselves. Bringing together more than 40 recollections from the more than 2,000 interviews conducted by the Depression-era WPA, this book acts as a small-scale, superlative introduction to the huge memory repository to be found in libraries and in the recent book-and-audio collection Remembering Slavery, which presents actual WPA slave narrative recordings along with much longer transcriptions. (The WPA's 17-volume set, archived as the Slave Narratives collection, remains available.) After short introductions from Harvard eminence Gates, and Crew and Goodman of the Freedom Center, the editors divide the book into eight chapters ( "Slave Auctions," "Work," "Family," "Living Conditions," "Abuse," "Special Occasions," "The Runaway," "Emancipation"), each with an explanatory introduction, that juxtapose slavery-era photos with the recollections of former slaves, sometimes shown in photos from the time of the interview. With its featured selection by Black Expressions, the BOMC and the History Book Club, this title should do exactly as intended: raise individual awareness of the terrible legacy every citizen a former slave-holding country must carry. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
This book is based on an HBO documentary film (narrated by actor Whoopi Goldberg), that carries the same title and will be released in February 2003. Both the book and the film are, in turn, based on a collection of first-person slave accounts gathered in the late 1930s by interviewers working for the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration. With a foreword by esteemed black-studies scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., this new selection culled from that vast compilation of testimonies brings to contemporary readers an "unequaled portrayal of the slave era" and puts a "human face" on the whole deplorable institution. The narratives themselves, set down in the dialect in which they were spoken, are brief but piquant and sometimes reveal faint glimmers of light in an otherwise dreary if not dangerous existence. The narratives are accompanied by photographs of interviewees taken at the time of the interviews. This is a meaningful book for general readers as well as students and scholars. Be prepared for demand once the HBO show airs. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
An adaptation of HBO's documentary special for 2003, UNCHAINED MEMORIES is a riveting compilation of more than 40 narratives drawn from interviews with former slaves conducted in the 1930s by the Works Progress Administration. From slave auctions to emancipation, the narratives trace the extraordinary experience of life in perhaps the darkest period of our nation's history. Readers will shudder at the vivid accounts--told in the dialect of the former slaves--of the painstaking labor and abuse to which slaves were subjected, and they will be moved by the recollections of family life, slave weddings, and other special occasions. Resonant with the deep-seated feeling that marks the institution of American slavery, UNCHAINED MEMORIES is an accessible and compelling volume that is certain to be talked about for years to come.


About the Author
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., has written numerous books and is director of the Afro-American Studies department at Harvard. Spencer Crew is director of the National Underground Freedom Center.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

An adaptation of the HBO documentary of the same name, Unchained Memories is a compilation of more than forty narratives and photographs drawn from interviews with former slaves conducted in the 1930s by the government's Works Progress Administration. From slave auctions to emancipation, the narratives trace the extraordinary experiences of life in perhaps the darkest period of our nation's history. Readers will shudder at the at the vivid accounts - told in the dialect of the former slaves - of the painstaking labor and abuse to which the slaves were subjected, and they will be moved by the recollections of family life, slave weddings, and other special occasions.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Set to air February 10, the HBO documentary chronicled by this book (and sharing its title) is narrated by Whoopi Goldberg and features dramatic readings by Samuel L. Jackson, Ossie Davis, Oprah Winfrey and others, while a traveling exhibition has been organized by the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, and an expanded DVD is set for release the same day. Yet the testimony and 60 duotones here still speak for themselves. Bringing together more than 40 recollections from the more than 2,000 interviews conducted by the Depression-era WPA, this book acts as a small-scale, superlative introduction to the huge memory repository to be found in libraries and in the recent book-and-audio collection Remembering Slavery, which presents actual WPA slave narrative recordings along with much longer transcriptions. (The WPA's 17-volume set, archived as the Slave Narratives collection, remains available.) After short introductions from Harvard eminence Gates, and Crew and Goodman of the Freedom Center, the editors divide the book into eight chapters ( "Slave Auctions," "Work," "Family," "Living Conditions," "Abuse," "Special Occasions," "The Runaway," "Emancipation"), each with an explanatory introduction, that juxtapose slavery-era photos with the recollections of former slaves, sometimes shown in photos from the time of the interview. With its featured selection by Black Expressions, the BOMC and the History Book Club, this title should do exactly as intended: raise individual awareness of the terrible legacy every citizen a former slave-holding country must carry. (Feb.) Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

VOYA - Lisa Paluszkiewicz, Teen Reviewer