African-American folktales
African Americans created folktales that spoke about the hardships of slavery, telling stories of folk spirits that could outwit their slaveholders and defeat their enemies.
[8] In the present, the impact of African American folklore is apparent in Hip-Hop music, where themes like gangsters and pimps draw heavily from the “badman” and “trickster” archetypes.
[9] Black slaves frequently crafted stories featuring animals like rabbits, foxes, bears, wolves, turtles, snakes, and possums, imbuing them with the traits of the individuals they encountered in the unfamiliar setting of the plantation.
[4][5] Most African-American folktales fall into one of eight categories of tales: origin stories; trickery and trouble; triumph over natural or supernatural evils; comic or heartwarming; God and the devil; life lessons; ghosts and spirits; slaves and their slave-owners.
[8] Tricksters in folk stories are commonly amoral characters, whether they are human or non-human animals, that “succeed” through deception and exploiting the weaknesses of others.
[14][15] However, since Yawarri is starving, he eats at the inside of the elephant until it is dead, and as the sun rises, the king finds him in the beast’s belly and kills him.
[17] "Rabbit Rides Wolf" is a story that represents the amalgamation of African and Creek descent where a hero emerges during a time of conflict.
[18] These anthropomorphic animals made the stories compelling to the young children and included singing and dancing or themes such as greediness, honesty, and loyalty.
[21] The story "Possessed of Two Spirits" is recounts a personal experience in conjuring magic powers in both the living and the spiritual world, a common trope in African-American folklore.
"Married to a Boar Hog" is passed down from British Caribbean slaves in reference to their African origin and the hardships they endured.
[17] Although many slaves during this time could not read or write, they could recite folktales as a method of relaying information to each other, sharing vital knowledge that would aid in their survival.
[11][23] In African-American tales, the depiction of slavery often employs a rhetoric that may appear unconventional by modern standards, as the language transmitted across generations deviates from the typical racial narrative.
This collection of short stories, written by African-American author Charles W. Chestnutt, deals with the theme of racial identity from the perspective of a freed slave.
[24] Chesnutt's tales depict the challenges encountered by freed slaves in the post-war South, offering a reflective view on the difficulties of those who were marginalized during this period.
It then describes how the devil opposes God and, in Genesis, ultimately manifests himself as a serpent to trick Adam and Eve who reside in the Garden.
This tells the story of the fall of man through Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit when tempted by the serpent, and how women now have to have pain in childbirth and men have to work for survival.
[27][28] In African-American folk stories, High John de Conqueror was an African prince who was kidnapped from Africa and enslaved in the United States.
Zora Neale Hurston documented some history about High John de Conqueror from her discussions with African Americans in the South in her book, ‘‘The Sanctified Church’’.
Some African Americans believed High John de Conqueror freed the slaves, and that President Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War did not bring freedom for Black people.
In consonance with Sutton’s statement, it had been the teachings by High John de Conqueror that assisted in the freedom of slaves, as opposed to the efforts by Lincoln and the actions taken during the Civil War.
By the end of the book, Milkman learns he comes from a family of African medicine people and gained his ancestral powers and his soul flew back to Africa after he died.
In 1803, a slave ship landed on the coast of Georgia in St. Simons Island with captive Africans from Nigeria with a cargo of Igbo people.
Among the Gullah Geechee people in the Carolina Lowcountry and Sea Islands is a children’s story called ‘‘Sukey and the Mermaid’’ written by Robert D. San Souci.
[30][31][32] In African-American folklore, Uncle Monday was a conjurer, medicine man, and shapeshifter from Africa enslaved in the Southern United States.
He and other minstrel artists utilized songs, dances, and characteristics of African-American folklore to solidify negative ideologies about African Americans.
Some academic journals have appeared to challenge this rhetoric, as these authors displayed bias and utilized stories that showed negative stereotypes.
[9] In the badman trope existed a sub-genre called Stagolee, which was based on a pimp named Lee Shelton, who killed a man after gambling and losing his hat.
Common themes in hip-hop, such as hyper-sexuality, vulgarity, hyper-masculinity, and revenge, are seen through lyrics of rap artists like Da Brat to Juvenile (rapper) and heavily used in Tricker-related folklore like Anansi.
[35] The 1946 Film Song of the South was an adaptation of the well-known African-American Folktale book Uncle Remus and His Tales of Br'er Rabbit by Joel Chandler Harris.
[37] Despite the Criticism, Song of the South won an Academy Award, "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" and James Baskett, the actor who portrayed Uncle Remus, received an honorary Oscar for the film.
