Every Tongue Got to Confess: Negro Folk-Tales From the Gulf States
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Why de nigger been working hard
The devil and the daughter
Why mules have no colts
Why all animals look down
The Snake and the Gum Mallimie Tree
Why the dog has a small waist
“After all it was only a mouse”
Adam and Eve
The Solomon Cycle
Queen of Sheba, Solomon, and thirst
′ ′ ′ and theft of water
How Man got his moustache
Devil in Cat Island; God in Bahamas
The Old Woman and Her Child
The Cane Field
The Farmyard
Brer Bookie and Brer Rabbit
The Devil And a Horse And Goat
The Sperrit House
Dog and Brer Goat
[number skipped in the original manuscript]
Why Women Talk So Much
The Three Sons
Why de Porpoise’s Tail is on Crosswise
Why the Cat Has Nine Lives
How we got tobacco
Rooster and Fox
The Flies and God
Man and de Boy
Woman Smarter Than Devil
Cat, man, and ham (bacon)
How the storm came to Miami
“It’ll take us all night long, baby”
Why we say “Unh Hunh”
De Lying Mule
The Four Story Lost Lot
Ole fortune-teller woman and Brer Ishum
High Walker and Bloody Bones
High Walker and Bloody Bones
De Witch Woman
“I could drink uh quart uh dat—”
“I bet I go Higher than you” (Bapt and Meth.)
Baptizing preacher and deck of cards
The Frog and the Mole
Farmer Courtin’ a Girl
Why the Dog Hates the Cat
“Come round, Bill”
Why the Waves have White Caps
* Kossula, or Cudjo Lewis, one of the last surviving slaves of the ship Chlotilde, about whom Hurston wrote in “Cudjo’s Own Story of the Last African Slaves,” Journal of Negro History, 12 (Oct. 1927) and in her unpublished biography, Barracoon. Some of these tales seem to be included here, but Hurston’s listing may be to establish cross-reference and, through Kossula, something of the age of the tales.
E-Book Extra
The Oral Tradition: A Reading Group Guide
Every Tongue Got to Confess by Zora Neale Hurston
Introduction
Storytelling is an essential element of many cultural traditions—especially those that have had to carve their identities in an unfriendly setting and struggle to hold their communities together. The African American storytelling tradition is one of the strongest, yet this astonishing collection of African American folk tales has lingered in archival obscurity for decades—until now.
In the late 1920s, with the support of Franz Boas of Columbia University, a circle of friends that included members of the Harlem Renaissance, and a wealthy patron named Charlotte Osgood Mason, Zora Neale Hurston set out to collect the folk tales of the rural south. Traveling from Florida, to Alabama, to Georgia, and Louisiana, Hurston spoke with men and women, young and old, domestics and mine workers, housewives and jailbirds, and collected their tales word for word. She wanted to preserve a language that was unique, pure, and lasting. “I have tried to be as exact as possible. Keep to the exact dialect as closely as I could, having the story teller to tell it to me word for word as I write. This after it has been told to me off hand until I know it myself. But the writing down from the lips is to insure the correct dialect and wording so that I shall not let myself creep in unconsciously.”
The result of Hurston’s travels is this unique and extensive volume of nearly five hundred African American folk tales grouped in categories ranging from God to the Devil, from John to Massa, and from school to heaven. The stories poignantly capture the colorful, pain-filled, and sometimes magical world that surrounded them, revealing attitudes about faith, love, family, slavery, race, and community. Yet the tales are laced with humor from which no one is spared. In one story God is accused of mistaking a white man for a Negro; in another, a watermelon is so large that when it bursts it floods the river and drowns the townsfolk; and in yet another, the devil tries to make a field of cabbage like God has done, but he can’t quite get it right and ends up with a field of tobacco.
Hurston’s determination to capture the authentic language of “the Negro farthest down” is a vital contribution to African American letters. These folktales were not just Zora Neale Hurston’s first love; they paved the way for generations of African American writers.
Questions for Discussion
The oral tradition is extremely important—in fact, for many cultures it is the only way of passing on traditions, beliefs, stories, etc. How has modern life infringed upon or altered this tradition? In the media age, does oral tradition have a place in literature?
Many contemporary African American authors found inspiration in Zora Neale Hurston’s work. In reading these folktales, are you able to recognize their influence? And if so, can you think of any particular authors whose style recalls Hurston’s?
What does the oral tradition lose in the translation to the written word? Do you think that Hurston succeeds in being true to the stories and storytellers in her rendering of these tales? What sort of images do you conjure about the tellers themselves?
Do you agree with John Edgar Wideman that “translation destroys and displaces as much as it restores and renders available”? Discuss how this premise manifests itself in this collection.
In the Foreword, John Edgar Wideman draws a connection between African American oral tradition, jazz, and hip hop. Do you agree with him that Zora Neale Hurston began a trend the cultural impact of which even she could not foresee?
In a letter to Langston Hughes, Hurston writes, “I am leaving the story material almost untouched. I have only tampered with it where the storyteller was not clear. I know it is going to read different, but that is the glory of the thing, don’t you think?” Discuss the balancing act Hurston had to negotiate between the free flowing storytelling tradition of the rural south and her more formal academic training.
In her introduction, Carla Kaplan suggests that if Hurston had published this volume of folktales during her lifetime it may have “derailed” her career as a novelist. Do you agree? How do you think it would have affected her career? How would it have affected our perception of African American literature?
Do you feel that the exactness of the dialect in Hurston’s transcriptions—a dialect that can often be difficult to read—contributes to the value of these folktales as a historical document? Discuss the pros and cons of reading the folktales in the dialect they were spoken.
The title of this collection—Every Tongue Got to Confess—came from one of the folktales, but Hurston didn’t choose it. Do you think it sums up the essence of the collection? If so, how? And if not, what are some of the other titles you would propose?
Discuss your favorite tales in this collection. What is it about these particular stories that you especially liked?
About the Author
Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960) is a novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist whose fictional and factual accounts of Black heritage are unparalleled. She is the author of many books, including Jonah’s Gourd Vine; Mules and Men; Seraph on the Suwanee; Moses, Man of the Mountain; Every Tongue Got to Confess; and Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Praise for Every Tongue Got to Confess
“An extraordinary treasure.”—
—Boston Globe
“A real song of the South.”—
—Elle magazine
“Splendidly vivid and true…. A sharp immediacy and a fine supply of down-to-earth humor. In stories that are variously jokey, angry, bawdy, [and] wildly fanciful…the speakers present a world in which anything is possible and
human nature is crystal clear.”
—New York Times
“A vivid portrait of the turn-of-the-century South.”
—Washington Post
“Quite funny, and profoundly emblematic.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“Vibrant, evocative, heartwarming, and sometimes hilarious.”
—Philadelphia Inquirer
“Fascinating, funny…priceless.”
—Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Invaluable tales of mischief and wisdom, spirit and hope. Mordantly clever and quintessentially human stories about God and the creation of the black race, the devil, the battle between the sexes, and slaves who outsmart their masters.”—
—Booklist
“[An] entertaining collection…. A rich harvest of native storytelling.”—
—Kirkus Reviews
“Stories rich in insight [and] humor.”—
—Rocky Mountain News
“[A] delightful collection of authentic African-American folklore.”
—Library Journal
“Entertaining and thought-provoking.”—
—Vibe
By Zora Neale Hurston
Jonah’s Gourd Vine
Mules and Men
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Tell My Horse
Moses, Man of the Mountain
Dust Tracks on a Road
Seraph on the Suwanee
Every Tongue Got to Confess
Mule Bone
(with Langston Hughes)
Credits
Designed by Elliott Beard
A hardcover edition of this book was published in 2001 by HarperCollins Publishers.
EVERY TONGUE GOT TO CONFESS. Copyright © 2001 by Vivian Hurston Bowden; Clifford J. Hurston, Jr.; Edgar Hurston, Sr.; Winifred Hurston Clark; Lois Hurston Gaston; Lucy Anne Hurston; and Barbara Hurston Lewis. Foreword copyright © 2001 by John Edgar Wideman. Introduction copyright © 2001 by Carla Kaplan. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books™.
ePub edition January 2004 eISBN 9780061741807
First Perennial edition published 2002.
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