JSTOR Daily interviews Head Archivist Angela Proctor at Southern University about John B. Cade's project to document and preserve the stories of formerly enslaved people. These pre-date those collected by the WPA in 1940. The handwritten transcripts of the interviews are available for free on JSTOR.

https://www.jstor.org/site/southern-university/opinions-regarding-slavery-slave-narratives/

Read more about this project here:

https://daily.jstor.org/john-b-cades-project-to-document-the-stories-of-the-formerly-enslaved/

https://daily.jstor.org/angela-proctor-on-the-opinions-regarding-slavery-slave-narratives-collection/