In the 1930s, thousands of former American slaves were interviewed and their narratives were housed in archives. I WAS A SLAVE contains the ex-slaves' dictated words primarily in southern dialect along with photographs. Book 2: The Lives of Slave Men is composed of many ex-slaves’ accounts of their own experiences as enslaved men or recount tales of witnessed events of black men during slavery. Included are photographs, excerpts, and full-life stories.