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1My Experiences as an Executioner

By James Berry

From 1884 until 1891, James Berry was an executioner. In this time he carried out 131 hangings. In this memoir he writes about the methods he used, and the final moments of some of those he executed. - Summary by ashleighjane

April, 1865. The country was in turmoil. The U.S. Civil War had come to an end, thousands of Union prisoners of war had recently been released, and President Lincoln had just been assassinated. The steamship 'Sultana' left New Orleans on April 21st, traveled to Vicksburg, Mississippi where it took on 1,965 federal soldiers and 35 officers, all recently released prisoners of war, most of them held at the prison camps of Cahaba (or Cahawba, near Selma, Alabama) and Andersonville (in southwest Georgia), and now finally headed for their homes. The 'Sultana' arrived in Memphis, Tennessee on April 26th and headed north toward Cairo, Illinois carrying over 2,100 passengers, but designed for a capacity of only 376. At approximately 2:00 a.m. of the 27th, mere hours after the assassination of John Wilkes Booth, the 'Sultana' mysteriously exploded while steaming about 7 miles north of Memphis, killing over 1,500 on board (estimates vary). The sole reason this incident received such scant attention at the time, and ever since, is the fact that the country was understandably absorbed in the recent assassinations. Subsequent inquiry into the 'Sultana' disaster would uncover some startling revelations into its cause, some believe leading directly to the topmost levels of the U.S. Government. The loss of the 'Sultana' was the greatest maritime disaster in U.S. history, up until the bombing of Pearl Harbor. This book, composed by Chester Berry, one of the survivors, is unique in that it gives firsthand account from well over 100 of the survivors of the tragedy in their own words. Note - The online e-text (link provided) includes 3 lists for reference that are not included in this audio release: 1 - An official list of prisoners of war on the Sultana, including company served with 2 - Persons known to have been on board the Sultana, but not reported 3 - Name, Company, Regiment, and present (1892) residence of living survivors ( Roger Melin)

This book contains 13 Hausa folktales from Nigeria as retold and also illustrated by Erick Berry, the pen name of Evangel Alenna Champlin who lived in West Africa in the 1920s. While in Africa, she met and married Oswald Best, who was an official in the British Civil Service. They later moved to the United States, and Erick Berry went on to become a well known children's book illustrator as well as an author. Both she and her husband wrote books about Africa; in addition to this book of African folktales, Berry is also the author of Girls in Africa, and she did the illustrations for her husband's book, Garram the Hunter: A Boy of the Hill Tribes, a novel also set in Nigeria. - Summary by Laura Gibbs