In 1972, Spinks along with another librarian, Phyllis Williams, went to Washington, D.C., and volunteered to help organize what’s known as the “Slave Narratives” in the Library of Congress.
(Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Her sons note that while Mrs. Spinks’ contribution to the “Slave Narratives” was indispensable, it accounts for a small part of her significant life.
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1938 contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves.
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The publication of the slave narratives helped provide an accurate account of slavery in America.
“Without the personal accounts of former slaves, any attempt to present an account of slavery or to comprehend the reality of slave culture, especially from the slave’s perspective, would have lacked a crucial ingredient,” the Library of Congress notes on its website.
