This is a slender volume whose simplicity belies the nature of the narrative within. Hurmence presents a carefully curated collection of the some 600 plus tales gathered during this Project. The only words that are her own is the introduction where she explains her criteria and editing choices. For the most part, she has maintained the voice of the speaker, keeping vernacular, vocabulary, exclamations, and descriptions. By doing this, she has preserved the authenticity of the voices, giving the reader a true glimpse into the life of these people.
One thing that surprised me what how well most of the narrators spoke about their masters. Given the horrors of slavery, I would have expected more to depict this travesty. And yet many did not. One speaker noted that owners in Virginia tended to treat slaves better become freedom was so close – merely a few hundred miles away. I wonder if this is accurate or if this is a product of the fact the people collecting the stories were white and sought out “white people aren’t so bad” stories. Perhaps reading this authors other works (collections from North and South Carolina) would help solve this question.
The language is simple enough for younger readers, but the subject matter may require adult guidance to process. Still, I would highly recommend for educational purposes. ( )

It is so important to remember history the way that it actually happened. The best way to do that is by collecting interviews, which is how this book came to be. I have no recollection of reading a more varied, honest-sounding compilation of accounts. This book is the result of the Federal Writers' Project, which was created to provide work for historians, teachers, writers, and others while creating a series of guide books. American life histories and the histories of slaves were collected in a series of interviews, which have been edited together here.

This is an invaluable resource that I stumbled upon in my local library and would not have known existed otherwise. As someone who loves actual history told by the people who lived it, I simply cherished every word that I read. It is a quick read that makes you want to track down every interview you can for the other states that are available. ( )

Oral histories of former (American negro) slaves, collected as a WPA assignment. Compact, concise, fascinating, and valuable. ( )

We Lived in a Little Cabin in the Yard is a compilation of slave narratives selected to illustrate experiences of slavery in Virginia. Why bother with this small selection of 21 narratives when a digital collection of more than 2,300 slave narratives is available in the Library of Congress’s American Memory collection? The value is in the selection and editing of the collection. Most of the selections are drawn from the 15 Virginia oral histories collected as part of the WPA’s Federal Writers’ Project and deposited in the Library of Congress. Rounding out the compilation are selections from other states whose interview subjects were born in Virginia and who described their experiences of slavery in Virginia in their interviews. The editor purposely included accounts only for those individuals who were over eighty years old at the time they were interviewed in the 1930s, reasoning that these accounts contain less hearsay than those of slightly younger interviewees. By looking at these accounts collectively, one forms an idea of what it was like to be a slave in Virginia just before and during the Civil War. This selection is well-suited for use with middle readers and above. Highly recommended. ( )