You are standing in front of a reader rail titled “Read a Firsthand Account of Slavery.” The reader rail includes a flip book and an audio component. Above the reader rail is a graphic panel titled “Separated by Slavery.” To your left is a graphic panel titled “Civil War: The Union.” To your right is a reader rail titled “Window on the Past: Agricultural Boom.” Behind you is an artifact case.

The reader rail in front of you includes text, a flip book on the left, and buttons playing audio clips on the right.

The text above the flip book on the left reads:

Read a Firsthand Account of Slavery
Dennis Simms was born into slavery at the neighboring Java plantation in 1841. In 1937, at the age of 96, he gave this account of what life was like for enslaved people there.

This account is illustrated with images of enslaved people from the period. These images reflect white stereotypes of Black people at the time. 

The text above the audio component on the right reads:

Songs of Hope
Dennis Simms’s account describes enslaved people gathering in secret to share songs and spirituals. These gatherings provided enslaved people with rare opportunities to socialize and practice their spiritual and cultural traditions.

Press the buttons below to listen to excerpts of some of the songs they may have sung.

Audio clips courtesy of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

There are four buttons on the right side of the rail.

The button at the top left plays:

“Wade in the Water”
The Fisk Jubilee Singers
From Wade in the Water, Vol. 1: African-American Spirituals: The Concert Tradition, 1994

The button at the top right plays:

“I Stood on the River”
Michel LaRue
From Songs of the American Negro Slaves, 1960

The button at the bottom left plays:

“Jubilee”
The McIntosh County Shouters
From Spirituals and Shout Songs from the Georgia Coast, 2017

The button at the bottom right plays:

“No More Auction Block”
Paul Robeson
From Every Tone a Testimony, 2001

The flip book on the left includes 13 pages of text and images. The content includes:

A Firsthand Account of Slavery
As told by Dennis Simms
The accompanying black-and-white print shows enslaved people working with tobacco in a barn.

Work
“We would work from sunrise to sunset every day except Sundays and on New Year’s Day. Christmas made little difference at Contee, except that we were given extra rations of food then.” The accompanying sepia-toned photo shows African American men and women working in a field.

Confinement
“We were never allowed to congregate after work, never went to church, and could not read or write for we were kept in ignorance. We were very unhappy.” The accompanying print shows two African American women digging with hoes as a white man, smoking a pipe, watches over them.

Punishment
“We had to toe the mark or be flogged with a rawhide whip, and almost every day there was from two to ten thrashings given on the plantations to disobedient Negro slaves.” The accompanying print shows white overseers whipping and punishing enslaved people. 

“When we behaved we were not whipped, but the overseer kept a pretty close eye on us. We all hated what they called the ‘nine ninety-nine,’ usually a flogging until [we] fell over unconscious or begged for mercy.”

“We stuck pretty close to the cabins after dark, for if we were caught roaming about we would be unmercifully whipped. If a slave was caught beyond the limits of the plantation where he was employed, without the company of a white person or without written permit of his master, any person who apprehended him was permitted to give him 20 lashes across the bare back.”

“If a slave went on another plantation without a written permit from his master, on lawful business, the owner of the plantation would usually give the offender 10 lashes.”

Runaways
“Sometimes Negro slave runaways who were apprehended by the patrollers, who kept a constant watch for escaped slaves, besides being flogged, would be branded with a hot iron on the cheek with the letter ‘R’.”

“We all thought of running off to Canada or to Washington, but feared the patrollers.” The accompanying print shows an escaped slave hiding in a swamp as men with horses and dogs hunt for him.

Housing
“We lived in rudely constructed log houses, one story in height, with huge stone chimneys, and slept on beds of straw.” The accompanying black-and-white photo shows an African American woman and children standing around an old log cabin.

Community
“Slaves were pretty tired after their long day’s work in the field. Sometimes we would, unbeknown to our master, assemble in a cabin and sing songs and spirituals. Our favorite spirituals were—Bringin’ in de sheaves, De Stars am shinin’ for us all, Hear de Angels callin’, and The Debil has no place here. The singing was usually to the accompaniment of a Jew’s [mouth] harp and fiddle, or banjo.” The accompanying black-and-white print shows African American men and women dancing and playing music.

Clothing
“In summer the slaves went without shoes and wore three-quarter checkered baggy pants, some wearing only a long shirt to cover their body. We wore ox-hide shoes, much too large. In winter time the shoes were stuffed with paper to keep out the cold. We called them ‘Program’ shoes. We had no money to spend, in fact did not know the value of money.” The accompanying black-and-white photo shows a multi-generational African American family posing in front of a log cabin.

Food
“Our food consisted of bread, hominy, black strap molasses and a red herring a day. Sometimes, by special permission from our master or overseer, we would go hunting and catch a coon or possum and a pot pie would be a real treat.” The accompanying black-and-white print shows a group of African American women and children gathered around a fireplace. The woman at the center appears to be cooking.