I had no idea of these recordings. Forget books, these should be shown in schools everywhere around the world. I wonder if this was done anywhere else in the world. It's pretty disturbing, upsetting and incredible at the same time to hear their voices. As somebody said in the comments, we can hear them because it is so close to our time.
"And when the break came..."
It makes you think more about what they don't or can't tell. People also in the comments discuss about them liking their masters. I mean what's there to discuss. And I don't mean fear. They don't know anything else. This has been thought and discussed countless times through history. Being freed on paper doesn't make people free just like that. How could it?
E: This is a better video.
We have done a lot work for the National Park Service at the Tuskegee Institute including digitizing hundreds of oral history audio tapes. Most of the tapes were recorded in the 60's and 70's and as far as I know none of them were recordings of former slaves, but I know some of them were the children of former slaves.
A lot of them were people talking about what they knew of Booker T Washington and George Washington Carver. Two people we learned a lot about growing up in Alabama.