Voices from the Days of Slavery: Former Slaves Tell Their Stories was created through the efforts of many individuals. Within the Library of Congress, John Barton served as Project Manager and coordinated all aspects of the online presentation. Peter Alyea and Larry Appelbaum digitized the audio portions of the collection. Domenico Sergi and Jade Curtis digitized several of the photographs of the ex-slaves and the interviewers. Qun Lai designed and created the Web pages. Jurretta Jordan Heckscher and Mark F. Hall edited all of the written materials. Programming was done by Barak Stussman. Laura Graham provided SGML support. In addition to photograph and song research, Myron Briggs transcribed most of the interviews, including all the American Dialect Society recordings. He also assisted in assigning subject headings and in quality control. Cathy Kerst generously made time to serve as the subject heading lead. Todd Harvey researched and identified many of the songs in the presentation.
Peggy Bulger, Judith Gray, Michael Taft, and Jim Hardin provided editorial support, helping to review the documents that are included in the Web site.
Laura Nelson provided advice on legal and copyright matters.
Thanks to Christa Maher and Timberly Wuester for their technical support throughout the project.
Maricia Battle and Phil Michel helped obtain and digitize one of the photographs used for the homepage.
Many individuals and institutions provided support outside the Library of Congress. In particular, thanks go to the following:
Joanna Williams, at Alcorn State University Special Collections, for providing a list of the first class of Alcorn State University, Mississippi, 1872, which included the name of interviewee George Johnson.
Darius Thieme, Professor of Musicology and Ethnomusicology, Fisk University, 1970-2001, and former Reference Librarian with the Music Division at the Library of Congress, 1957-1965, for confirming George Johnson's name and the participation of Charles Spurgeon Johnson, John Work, and Lewis Jones in Johnson's interview.
Deborah J. Clifton, Curator of Collections, Lafayette Natural History Museum and Planetarium and Adjunct Instructor of French, Department of Modern Languages, University of Louisiana, for providing the translation and scholarly explanation of the Creole passage spoken by George Johnson.
Milburne Crowe, the official historian of Mound Bayou, Mississippi.
Beth Howse, Special Collections Librarian at Fisk University.
The John Benjamins Publishing Company for generously allowing the Library the use of several interview transcriptions from The Emergence of Black English-Text and Commentary, edited by Guy Bailey, Natalie Maynor, and Patricia Cukor-Avila, 1991. The company also provided permission to use its photograph of Archibald A. Hill.
Peggy Kehoe, Managing Editor of the Polk County (Florida) Democrat, for permission to use the photograph of Charlie Smith.
The Wisconsin State Journal for permission to use the photograph of Guy S. Lowman.
Jane Posten, Communication Services Administrator for the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, for permission to use the photograph of Ruby Terrill Lomax.
James T. Struck, Reference Librarian at Roosevelt University, for permission to use the photograph of Lorenzo Dow Turner.
The Elmer Sparks family for permission to use the photograph of Elmer Sparks and his interviews with Charlie Smith and Celia Black.
The Towson, Maryland, The Jeffersonian for permission to use the photograph and newspaper article about Fountain Hughes.
