Abstract:
This essay examines how the former slaves of Choctaw Indians, and in Indian Territory more generally, discussed and imagined freedom within this context by exploring their memories of the era within the Works Progress Administration’s (WPA) slave narratives. These former slaves often described owners and overseers, and the announcement of emancipation in very similar language to those familiar with the accounts of ex-slaves from the Confederate states. Where their accounts differ markedly, however, is in terms of their access to land once the Civil War ended and the process of Reconstruction (1863-1877) began: the former slaves of native peoples in Indian Territory gained rights to land, while those from the Southern states did not.
Keywords:
United States American Indians; Slavery; Reconstruction