Known as American Negroes in 1888 when the American Folklore Society (AFS) identified those American ethnic groups whose unique cultural traditions should be documented and preserved. Much debate ensued over the label attached to this group, which presently comprises between 11 and 12 percent of the total U.S. population. As was customary during the late 19th century, the founders of the AFS used the Spanish- derived title “Negro.” However, pejoratives such as “darky,” “nigger,” and “coon” were not uncommon vernacular labels during that era and were often used unashamedly. Turn of the century activist Ida B.Wells-Barnett and her colleagues made the case that “Afro- American” ought to be adopted by the American population. For many, the designation “colored” was considered a polite and acceptable label until the 1960s. In the heyday of the modern civil rights movement, the label “Black” became the one accepted by many members of the group. This name appealed to those who felt that peoples of African descent should embrace their dark complexions and African physical features. Of course, several centuries of mixing between the various ethnic groups of the United States meant that a wide range of skin tones, facial features, and body types were evident in this population. By the 1980s, many began to prefer a designation that specified the country of origin. Since then, “African American” has been the preferred label. The founders of the American Folklore Society connected Negro folklore with the institution of slavery. They rationalized that efforts to collect Negro folklore must be undertaken before all of those who had experienced slavery died. The presumption seems to have been that traces of slave tradition would not be evident in the repertoires of the descendents of slaves. But even before the formation of the American Folklore Society, African American folklore had aroused the interest of a few talented persons. In particular, the musical traditions of the slaves had triggered the curiosity of individuals such as Lucy McKim Garrison and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, who published collections containing Negro folk music in the 1860s. Journalist Joel Chandler Harris’ fascination with the folktales he had heard as a child led him to publish seven volumes of folktales featuring the exploits of Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, Brer Alligator, and numerous other animal characters. Three additional volumes were published after Harris’ death in 1908. Known as trickster tales, these narratives suggest that the slaves identified with ostensibly powerless heroes who used their verbal dexterity, cunning, and verve to outwit larger, more obviously powerful opponents. Such tales served to educate and entertain African Americans of all ages. Trickster tales and other folk narratives continued to be important to African Americans long after the demise of slavery. Most late 19th- and early 20th-century folklore research took place in Southern environs. In particular, a chain of islands along the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina known as the Sea Islands proved to be a rich region for fieldwork. Once a popular destination point for slave ships, these islands were inhabited by large numbers of Blacks whose connections with Africa were stronger than those of Blacks elsewhere in the United States. Until well into the 20th century, residents of the Sea Islands spoke distinctive dialects—gullah and geechee—clearly derived from West African language
systems. In addition their verbal traditions, their material culture—house types, gardens, textiles, and like artifacts—reflect strong Caribbean and African influences. In the first decades of the 20th century, the field of folklore began to attract a few trained African American folklorists. Because Black informants were more apt to reveal provocative texts to other blacks, this was a particularly welcome development. The works of Thomas Washington Talley and Arthur Huff Fauset laid significant groundwork for future Black folklorists. However, of the early 20th-century Black folklorists, Zora Neale Hurston emerges as the most significant innovator. In her landmark text Mules and Men (1935), she included contextual information as well as the actual tales recited by her rural Black informants. During the folk-belief phase of research for this volume, she underwent the rituals necessary to become a voodoo priestess in New Orleans. Although her creative output was not limited to folklore per se, all of her literary endeavors reflected her appreciation for folklore. Starting with the Harlem Renaissance, several African American literary figures dabbled in folklore collecting and research. Celebrated poet Langston Hughes published a lengthy volume on Negro folklore. His collection of short stories on the trials and tribulations of Jesse B.Semple contains prodigious quantities of Black folk speech. Most important African American novelists have expressed a profound debt to folklore. Literary giant Ralph Ellison relied heavily on African American folklore in his masterpiece Invisible Man, and later in the 20th century, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and Terry McMillan acknowledged their reliance on folklore materials for their short stories and novels. In the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) created jobs for unemployed writers and teachers that entailed fieldwork collecting folklore and life histories from elderly ex-slaves. Coordinated by Benjamin A.Botkin, the project was an enormous one, yielding thousands of interviews. Many of the collectors had no formal training and were unaccustomed to thinking of Black traditions as worthy of respect. Rather than quoting the informants word for word, the untrained collectors summarized the tales in their own words. Still, the narratives contain a wealth of information unduplicated in other sources. Responsible folklorists are careful to acknowledge the collecting irregularities when using this data. From spirituals to gospel, from field hollers to rap, the wide range of African American sacred and secular musical expression has long intrigued folklorists and ethno- musicologists. Like their African ancestors, African Americans considered music an essential component of everyday life. In most African communities, composing and performing music appropriate for each activity was an integral part of spiritual expression. The African impulse to produce and perform music survived the horrendous strains of the Middle Passage and became a mainstay of New World African Americans, who wove their own musical styles with those they heard from the masters. During the slavery era, the slaes’ musical aptitude was duly noted by the master class. Thus was born the still pervasive stereotype that holds that Blacks are born musicians who possess “natural rhythm.” Slaves are credited with introducing percussion instruments and a forerunner of the banjo with them to the New World. Polyrhythms, frequent use of percussion instruments and antiphonal or call-and-response patterns are distinctive features of African American folk musical expression.
Few academic debates proved more resilient than the one over “survivals” in African American folklore. Whether it is the rhythm of the music, the arrangement of blocks in a quilt, the personality of a hero in a narrative, the first question asked is often, “Where did it come from—Afirica or Europe?” In the first decades of folklore research, it was widely assumed that.
the Middle Passage—the brutal interim spent aboard slave ships between Africa and the Americas—combined with the devastating impact of the seasoning years, had eradicated all traces of African culture from the psyches of slaves, rendering them cultural blank slates. Advocates of this position maintained that slave lore was derived from inept, clumsy imitations of the European forms to which the slaves were exposed. However, as researchers began to scrutinize West African cultures, common denominators between African and African American folklore became increasingly apparent. Africanist William R.Bascom noted numerous motifs and tale types common to West African folktales. Folk-speech specialists such as Lorenzo D.Turner identified many African words and idioms within the English spoken by both White and Black Americans. For folk-music authorities, the emphasis on call-and-response structure and the polyrhythmic organization of African American musical expression signaled its connection to West African types.
Of course, European influences on African American folklore are undeniable. English
is the first language of African Americans and, like their African ancestors, African
Americans enjoy and value imitation. By the same token, the folklore traditions of
Americans of European descent reflect borrowings from Black traditions. Most
folklorists agree that African American folk traditions are syncretized. Blacks have
retained many West African aesthetic principles and wedded them to those from other
cultures to which they have been exposed. The songs, narratives, jokes, rituals, beliefs,
and so forth that result are intrinsically African American.
Throughout the late 19th century and well into the 20th, African Americans migrated
from rural Southern roads to urban Northern streets. Folklore continued to function as an
essential expression of everyday Black life. Older genres were modified to fit city
environments. Bluesmen frequently replaced acoustic instruments with electric ones, and
lyrics focused on the challenges posed by urban industrial life. Quilters modified their
techniques to include sewing machines. Worship services took place in storefront
churches rather than in pine-board ones. Thus, urban life altered but did not diminish the
importance of folklore.
African Americans celebrate verbal versatility and have employed a variety of modes
of verbal communication to express themselves. Children are urged to hone their
oratorical abilities. Girls often begin by chanting the intricate rhymes that accompany
“Double-Dutch” jump-roping sessions. Boys and many girls develop their skills by
participating in ritual insult-swapping sessions known as “playing the dozens.” In some
circles, sophisticated verbal artistry is conveyed in toasts—lengthy epic poems featuring
the escapades of unlikely Black heroes. Other familiar genres of African American folk
speech include signifyin’, capping, rapping, loud-talking, and marking. Friendly
competition is often the hallmark of these forms as individuals vie for respect by showing
off their verbal prowess.
Contemporary legends and rumors are as common among African Americans as they
are within the dominant culture. Some cycles, like the Kentucky Fried Rat and the mouse
in the Coke bottle, are well known by both Blacks and Whites. But cycles specific to the
concerns of African Americans have evolved and are well contained within the group.
Businesses that have unorthodox advertising practices and symbolically charged products
are often identified in these legends. The notion that “the government” constructs
elaborate anti-Black conspiracies is often promoted.
Not all scrutiny of African American folklore has been on verbal forms. In the past
several decades, many folklorists have turned their attention to material culture, in
particular house types and quilts. Throughout African American rural communities,
shotgun houses have been cataloged. The floor plans for these houses line up a back exit
behind a front entrance with no wall or structural interference between the two doors.
Thus, it is said that if a shot was fired from either the front or rear of the house, the bullet
would go straight through, without lodging in the home. These houses are remarkably
similar to structures found in many West African communities. There the folk
explanation for the floor plan maintains that if the spirit of an ancestor wanders into the
home, it will wander out the other side without getting trapped within. Many quilts made
by African American women and men vary a great deal from other American quilts. Like
many kinds of West African textiles, long, rectangular strips dominate many of the quilts.
Conventional symmetry in which a shape or a color is balanced on one side by the same
shape or color on the other seems to be less important to African American quilters than
to other quilters. Many Black quilters prefer to fool the eye by knowingly constructing
asymmetrical arrangements. Synthetic fabrics are used more often in African American
quilts than in mainstream quilts, and red is the most frequently used color. Academic
attention to African American material culture has triggered interest in the art world.
African American quilts, baskets, sculpture, and other artifacts are found and sold in the
finest museums and galleries.
African American spiritual life has always been a rich source of folklore. During the
slavery era, African Americans combined West African and Caribbean folk-belief
practices with Christian beliefs. A system of folk belief known as conjure or hoodoo
evolved in many Southern locales. Believers presumed that conjure doctors understood
how to use powers contained in nature, and some conjure doctors were accorded the same
respect as preachers. Conjure or hoodoo are sometimes confused with voodoo, which is
akin to vaudou in Haiti. These belief systems stem from Dahomean (present-day Nigeria)
sacred practices. Dahomeans traded into slavery were transported to Haiti. Some of these
slaves were then traded to New Orleans. Voodoo is an enormously complex system
centered on root work and snake worship. In voodoo as well as santeria (Cuba and the
United States), candomble (Brazil and the United States), and shango (Trinidad and the
United States), African religious principles are syncretized with Christian principles.
More conventional Christian worship is also common in African American
communities. Folklorists have been particularly interested in the delivery styles of
African American preachers and the status afforded the congregation. African American
congregations actively participate in all aspects of the worship service. Preachers
frequently chant their sermons, all the while soliciting affirmation and testimony from
their listeners. A lively, vocal congregation is the sign of a successful preacher.
Young African Americans often complain about the speed at which the population at
large appropriates appealing Black folk expression. Music, clothing, dance styles, and art
forms shaped by African Americans are soon adopted by the dominant culture. However,
the impulse to transform and invent folk expression is a strong one, and African
Americans, like all folk groups, will continue to enjoy an exciting folk culture.