Pieces of a Life: Jim Baker, Memory, and Meaning Making

• In Event: Profiles in Courage, Leadership, and Inspiration

Abstract

This paper describes a long-term effort to uncover the truth of a slave narrative that was published in 1898. James Baker was the subject of a story told to a Quaker minister while both attended a multiracial manual labor boarding school in Indiana during the 1840s. The presentation will include a description of the uses of slave narratives and why they are culturally and historically relevant to current biographies and life historians.

Authors

• Jayne R. Beilke, Ball State University

• Gilbert C. Park, Ball State University