Oral History and Its Issues

¶ … historians know about slave experience? African slavery in America is one of the most controversial subjects that still spark a debate among the people. The historians over the years have interpreted different stories but a lot of the viewpoints of the writers have not been successful as they have not considered the systematic documented records of the people of that time. The historians mostly have taken into consideration the opinions and views of different people but they have neglected the testimonies provided by the victims.

Narratives of the slaves are one important source of writing history that has been underestimated by the historians over the years. Many former slaves have written their autobiographies and recorded their narratives which have been an important source for the historians (Gibson 2015). What difficulties exist for historians in recreating the slave past? In American history, the act of freeing more than four million slaves is an important event, but it's also one of the events that cannot be told easily.

In order to understand the triumphs and trials of the slaves, the historians need to take into consideration their personal experiences and recreate them from their point-of-view. However the slaves at the time lived the lowest forms of life and a lot of them were not literate. The social reality of the slaves and the conditions that they lived in at that time has brought many difficulties to the historians in uncovering the point-of-view of the slaves (James and Mark n.d.).

What evidence is available? The slaves before the Civil War were not permitted to learn to write or read and a lot of laws were passed that forbade the African slaves to be literate; however all these laws were not effective. Some slaves who were drivers on the large plantations made way for themselves and they learned to read in hope that their bosses might send instructions to them. A lot of African preachers also knew how to read and write.

Although the slaves did not keep any diaries or any record of it, the historians found enough evidence from the white peers (James and Mark n.d.). How credible is that evidence? What are the issues presented by the evidence? The historians for many years have relied on written evidences of the salves to come up with a story to tell. The written evidence is authoritative because it can be compared and passed on to be discussed with other experts.

Written evidence provides a chance for the historians to open doors to other cultures and learn about their past. However the evidences were not only limited to texts (Ebron n.d.). As mentioned previously, the slaves were not literate and the ones who were, they did not have a habit of keeping records of writing diaries so the evidence found were the ones that were written by white people at that time.

The historians cannot totally reply on that material because of the psychological and social difference between the white and the black people at that time (James and Mark n.d.). What is Oral History? Oral history is a term used for a rehearsed and formal account of history; an informal conversation between the coworkers, neighbors or family members about the old days. These informal talks are recorded and compiled into stories to be presented as experiences (Making Sense of Oral History n.d.).

What are the issues involved with writing exclusively from Oral History? Oral history is not totally authentic because it is an informal talk between groups of people. It is recorded through interviews as well but this information has to be seen from a skeptic point-of-view as well. Timing in this regard matters a lot because the conversations can be biased under the time they were collected which might not lead to a right path (James and Mark n.d.).

Is it possible to produce "good" history from oral sources? Oral history has been very successful in constructing the stories of African slaves. In the past, the slaves were not literate and the stories collected today mostly are based on the interviews conducted which talk about the personal experiences of the slaves (Oral Traditions n.d.). Conclusion Gathering history is an important task but also the most difficult one.

In the past when people did not know how to read and write and there were less in their favor, telling the present generations about their stories is not an easy task. Considering the fact that there were only narratives present and the most authentic written documents present were from the white.