Slave Narrative of Banana Williams

Person Interviewed: Banana Williams
Location: Dade County, Florida

Banana Williams, 1740 NW 5th Court, Miami, Florida was born in Grady County, Georgia near Cairo in the 16th district.

“The man what I belonged to was name Mr. Sacks. My mother and father lived there. I was only about three years old when peace came, but I remember when the paddle rollers came there and whipped a man and woman.
“I was awful ‘fraid, for that was somethin’ I nevah see before. We “stayed on” but we left before I was old enough to work, but I did work in the fields in Mitchell County.

“I came to Miami and raised 5 children. I’m staying with my daughter, but I’m not able to work much. I’m too done played out with old age.”


Surnames:
Sacks, Williams,

Collection:
Federal Writers' Project. WPA Slave Narratives. Web. 2007-2024. The WPA Slave Narratives must be used with care. There is, of course, the problem of confusion in memory resulting from (73+ years) of the participants. In addition, inexperienced interviewers sometimes pursued question lines related to their own interests and perspectives and attempted to capture the colloquialism of the informant's speech. The interviews provide fascinating insight and surprisingly candid information, however.

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