Conclusion

The Ex-Slave Narratives offered insight about how American culture was shaped. Not only did the Narratives offer pieces of American culture such as folk songs and daily lives, the interviews themselves revealed pieces of American Culture as well. The interviewers sole purpose was to find out about the lives of the ex-slaves and in doing so, they were giving them a voice. Although slavery had been abolished way before the 1930's, racism was still very prevalent in America. Time were changing, but the voices of African Americans were still silenced which is why the ex-slave narratives are so important. They shed light on a huge portion of American history and culture that was not revealed until the Narratives and it just comes to show how American culture is a mixture of different cultures. Life was experienced very differently for all different ethnicities in the America, but traditional household ideals and folk songs seemed to bring some unison into the blend of racial indentities.