Library of Congress    [Detail] Bill and Ellen Thomas, Ages 88
and 81  Collection Overview   Special Features  These online
exhibits provide context and additional information about this
collection.  Historical Eras     • The Civil War and
Reconstruction, 1850-1877  Related Collections and Exhibits
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U.S. History  Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal
Writers' Project, 1936-1938 presents transcriptions of more than
2,000 interviews with former slaves conducted during the Great
Depression, along with 500 photographs of former slaves. From
1936-1938, the Federal Writers' Project (FWP), under the New
Deal's Works Progress Administration (WPA), sent out-of-work
writers to collect the life stories of ordinary people.  Writers
in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia focused on
interviewing people who had once been held in slavery.  John A.
Lomax, a folklore expert