Ellen Betts

I'm really interested in exploring the slave narratives from the WPA collection of narratives of formerly enslaved people. One narrative that I am particularly interested in researching more thoroughly is Ellen Betts' narrative. It is pretty strange in that she boasts throughout the entire narrative that she had one of the best masters a slave could have. She talks about him and his wife treating their slaves so well because they were not physically abusive. However, they did dehumanize their slaves by often treating them like animals in the way they "rewarded good behavior." She worked her entire life nursing children. At the end of the interview, Ellen Betts almost sounds like she wishes she could go back to enslaved times. I wonder if this account was heavily doctored.