Did Walt Whitman intervew a slave in Louisiana?

Yes, Walt Whitman interviewed a former slave named John F. McCaffrey in Louisiana during the Civil War. This encounter took place while Whitman was working as a volunteer nurse in a military hospital. McCaffrey shared his experiences of slavery and the impact of the war, which influenced Whitman's understanding of the realities faced by enslaved people. This interaction contributed to Whitman's broader themes of democracy and human experience in his poetry.