Recalling John Hope Franklin at Barton

The death Tuesday of historian John Hope Franklin was certainly an obituary worthy of the front page. Franklin was an extraordinary historian who blazed the trail for historians of African-American history and essentially created black history with his own hands and mind. His 1947 book, "From Slavery to Freedom," remains the gold standard in black history. He is rightly credited for making black history American history.

Franklin spoke at Barton College a few years ago. (Unfortunately, a search of the Wilson Times Web site did not turn up the article from his appearance at Barton, so I can't report the date when he spoke, but I think it was about five years ago.) In person, he was as I had expected him to be, the epitome of the gracious, dignified gentleman — lean, upright, knowledgeable, courtly and quiet-spoken. He could smile disarmingly or stare with piercing eyes, and he sprinkled his brief lecture to the Friends of Hackney Library with subtle and often poignant humor.

During his question-and-answer, I asked Franklin what he thought of the Depression-era slave narratives — the interviews conducted by writers working for the Works Progress Administration with aging former slaves. I had read a few books collecting these narratives and found them moving and astounding for their lack anger and bitterness. ("My Folks Don't Want Me to Talk About Slavery" is one collection of narratives from North Carolina residents who had endured slavery.) Several former slaves described the affection they felt for their former masters and mistresses and said that affection was fully returned. They described attending funerals of their former owners and of former owners attending former slaves' funerals.

Franklin said he didn't put much credence in these slave narratives, pointing out that the interviews were done with people who were quite old and were asked to recall events from 70 years before. The interviews were also conducted by white writers, he said, and Jim Crow-era blacks would likely have wanted to ingratiate themselves to their white interviewers with rosier memories of what slavery was like.

I certainly have to defer to Dr. Franklin's knowledge of African-American history and his judgment of the validity of these slave narratives, but I still find these memories from the 1930s touching and compelling stories.