Slavery in America - True Stories. American Slave Interviews - Volume I: Alabama Narratives From Interviews with 129 Former US Slaves. Typewritten records prepared by the THE FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT 1936-1938. Assembled by the Library of Congress Project. Work Projects Administration for the District of Columbia. Sponsored by the Library of Congress Illustrated with Photographs originally published WASHINGTON 1941
Author Biography
Chattel slavery, also called traditional slavery, is so named because people are treated as the chattel (personal property) of an owner and are bought and sold as if they were commodities. It is the least prevalent form of slavery in the world today. An estimated 12 million Africans arrived in the Americas from the 16th to the 19th centuries. Of these, an estimated 645,000 were brought to what is now the United States. The usual estimate is that about 15% of slaves died during the voyage, with mortality rates considerably higher in Africa itself in the process of capturing and transporting indigenous peoples to the ships.
