Special Collections: African American Studies Research Guide (OLD)

Federal Writers' Project (WPA)

Background: The Federal Writer’s Project was part of the larger Work Projects Administration’s (WPA) economic stimulus efforts of Franklin D. Roosevelt's American New Deal. To alleviate mass unemployment caused by the Great Depression, the WPA provided a variety of jobs and income for approximately 3 million unemployed Americans, who were hired to carry out public work projects. These projects included the construction of public buildings, roads, and parks. The program also employed artists, musicians, writer’s, and actors, as well as directors in film, drama, and media. 

The Federal Writers' Project was established in 1935 and worked in collaboration with state and local governments and employed writers who compiled local histories, oral histories, and ethnographies, as well as demographic, economic, agricultural and geographic information and statistics for all 48 states. The most well-known publications to come out of this project were the American Guide Series Books and the Slave Narrative Collection. However, today the Slave Narrative Collection is considered the most enduring and noteworthy accomplishments of the WPA, which collected over 2,300 interviews and first person accounts of slavery by formerly enslaved people. The Slave Narrative Collection recorded and preserved the narratives of the last living generation of former slaves and essentially sought to record a history of slavery as well as to record and preserve African American folk culture. 

The Delaware Federal Writer’s Project Collection offers a guide to the first state and details historical, economic, agricultural, sociological, and cultural commentaries relating to Delaware and its residents. It also provides insightful and informative perspectives on race, racial segregation, and its impact on African Americans residents, and captures stories that discuss African American folk culture in Delaware. The Delaware Federal Writer's Project includes notes, investigations, photos and research on these topics and comprises of over 48 bound volumes and an index. The list below is just a small sampling of information contained in these volumes that relates to African Americans residents. In utilizing these materials, however, researchers should be mindful and consider how explicit and implicit racial prejudice and racial segregation of the 1930s Jim Crow era likely influenced how influenced how writers framed black people and represented their culture. Therefore, it is important to historically and culturally situate these texts, in particular understanding the larger framework of race/racism within a 1930's historical context.

Paul Cuffee in vol. 29, p.199-200; vol. 47, p. 41-42
Whipping Post in vol. 1, p. 319; vol. 9, p. 200-201
Negro in Delaware subject of kidnapping in vol. 28, p. 287-289
Last sale of convicts in New Castle County in vol. 39, p. 409-410
Delaware Industrial School for Colored Girls in vol. 32, p. 326 and 352-354
Industrial Schools for Colored Girls in vol. 29, p. 307-308
Dover Negro in vol. 29, p. 214
The beginning of education in Delaware in vol. 15, p. 136-137 and 184-185
Free Schools in Delaware 1792-1830 in vol. 5, 141-177.
Negro Voodoo in vol. 48, p. 95-100
Survey of Sub-standard Negroes in vol. 22, p. 115-121
*See Slavery in the series index for more information*
Advertisement of sale of Negro Children, v. 11, p. 195; vol. 12, p. 227.
Beginning of slavery in vol. 28, p. 300-302
Cannon vs. Stuart in vol. 29, p. 104-105
Deed of manumission in vol. 3, p. 328-329; 330-331; vol. 12, p. 163-164
Deed of sale for four Negroes (1805) in vol. 12, p. 214-215;
Delaware slave's lament in vol. 28, p. 307-308.
Does slavery yet exist in Delaware, 1868 in vol. 28, p. 286
Early black and white slaves in vol. 21m p. 300-305
Evidence of abolitionist and public school sentiment in vol. 2, p. 373-374
Exporting slaves prohibited in vol. 48, p. 353-353
Extracts from the Underground Railroad by William Still in vol. 20, p. 359-396
Objections to slavery in vol. 28, p. 156-162
The underground railroad in Delaware in vol. 28, 318-395
Social aspects-slavery in vol. 28, 152-153
William Spencer Anderson a Negro in vol. 47, p. 27
Old Negro Cemetery vol. 46, p. 202.
St. Michael's Day Nursery for Negroes in vol. 6, p. 341
Negro and the courts in vol. 22, p. 122-128
The Negro in Delaware Legal Status in vol. 29, p. 169-177
Delaware Whipping Post in vol. 17, p. 250-258