Fountain Hughes, 101 when interviewed in 1949, talks with his nephew about what it was like, growing up as a slave. You can actually hear an audio recording of him!! My favorite part is when he’s talking about the music that he sang in church, and he “gets the spirit,” but he can’t sing because he’s “too hoarse.”

Tempe Herndon Durham, 103 when interviewed in 1937, says she was “real lucky” compared to other slaves. Not an audio recording, unfortunately, but you can get an idea of her speech patterns with the relatively phonetic transcription here. My favorite part is when she’s telling about jumping over the broom on her wedding day. Her husband trips, so her master teases her husband that her husband will be bossed by Tempe all his days. Dramatization of an excerpt here.