African American Folktales

by Roger Abrahams

  The Woman Who Was a Bird (this page). Bahamas; Parsons, Andros, 39–43.

  The Word the Devil Made Up (this page). Florida; Hurston, 204–5.

  Words Without End (this page). Tobago; recorded by Abrahams. This type of story without an end is given a catchall number, 1199, in the Aarne-Thompson Index. This version is closest to 1199B, “The Long Song,” which involves singing a never-ending song as a respite from death. Flowers includes no West Indian stories under this number. Motif K551, “Respite from Death Granted until Particular Act Is Performed,” is embedded in a number of other, more complex tale types.

  You Never Know What Trouble Is until It Finds You (this page). South Carolina; Stoney and Shelby, 87–97. This is one of the most common Uncle Remus stories, included not only in Harris’s Nights, no. 26, but also in Jones and Dorson. The latter gives one text (79–80) and refers to another he has collected. Baer (71–72, 77–78), discussing this Uncle Remus story and the related “Mr. Fox Figures as an Incendiary” (Harris, Nights, no. 17), suggests that Motif K1055, “Dupe Persuaded to Get into Grass … Grass Is Set on Fire,” which is usually assigned to these stories is not really appropriate. She suggests *K1055 “Dupe Asleep in Field of Grass Finds ‘Trouble’ (‘Devil’) When Grass Is Set on Fire.”

  You Talk Too Much, Anyhow (this page). Alabama; Fauset, 277. Bascom treats this African tale in his initial article on “African Folktales in America,” RAL (1977): 267–91. He gives 43 versions of the story: 24 from Africa, 19 from the New World.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Aarne, Antti, and Stith Thompson, eds. The Types of the Folktale: A Classification and Bibliography. Translated and enlarged by Stith Thompson. Folklore Fellows Communications, no. 184. Helsinki: Finnish Scientific Academy, 1961.

  Abrahams, Roger D. African Folktales. New York: Pantheon Books, 1983.

  Abrahams, Roger D. Between the Living and the Dead: Riddies Which Tell Stories. Folklore Fellows Communications no. 225. Helsinki: Finnish Scientific Academy, 1980.

  Abrahams, Roger D. Deep Down in the Jungle: Negro Narratives from the Streets of Philadelphia. Chicago: Aldine, 1970.

  Abrahams, Roger D. The Man-of-Words in the West Indies. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983.

  Abrahams, Roger D. Positively Black. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1970.

  Abrahams, Roger D., and John Szwed, eds. After Africa. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983.

  Abrahams, Roger D. and John Szwed, eds. Discovering Afro-America, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1975.

  Aswell, James, et al. God Bless the Devil: Liar’s Bench Tales. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1940.

  Baer, Florence C. Sources and Analogues of the Uncle Remus Tales. Folklore Fellows Communications, no. 228. Helsinki: Finnish Scientific Academy, 1981.

  Beckwith, Martha Warren. Jamaica Anansi Stories. Memoirs of the American Folklore Society, vol, 17. New York: American Folklore Society, 1924.

  Ben-Amos, Dan, ed. Forms of Folklore in Africa. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1977. (The articles are reprinted from Research in African Literatures; that of Denise Paulme is translated into English.)

  Bennett, Louise. Anansi and Miss Lou. Kingston: Sangster’s Book Stores, 1979.

  Branner, John C. How and Why Stories. New York: Henry Holt, 1921.

  Brasch, Walter M. Black English and the Mass Media. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1981.

  Brewer, Mason J. Worser Days and Better Times. Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1965.

  Brown, Virginia Pounds, and Laurella Owens. Toting the Lead Row: Ruby Pickens Tart, Alabama Folklorist. University: University of Alabama Press, 1981.

  Brown, William Wells. My Southern Home. Boston: A. G. Brown, 1980.

  Carmer, Carl. Stars Fell on Alabama. New York: Doubleday, 1934.

  Cobbs, Lucy A., and Mary Hicks. Animal Tales of the Old North State. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1938.

  Coleman-Smith, Pamela. “Two Negro Stories from Jamaica.” Journal of American Folklore 9 (1896): 278.

  Comhaire-Sylvaine, Suzanne. “Creole Tales from Haiti.” Journal of American Folklore 50 (1937) : 207–306; 51 (1938) : 219–346.

  Courlander, Harold. Afro-American Folklore. New York: Crown, 1976.

  Crowley, Daniel C. I Could Talk Old-Story Good. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966.

  Dance, C. D. Chapters from a Guianese Log-Book. Demara, 1881. Pp. 85–90.

  Dance, Daryl Cumber. Shuckin’ and Jivin’: Folklore from Contemporary Black Americans. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978.

  Dillard, J. L. Black English: Its History and Usage in the United States. New York: Random House, 1972.

  Dorson, Richard M. American Negro Folktales. Greenwich, Conn.: Fawcett, 1967.

  Dorson, Richard M. Negro Tales from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and Calvin, Michigan. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1958.

  Dundes, Alan. “African and Afro-American Tales.” In Daniel J. Crowley, ed., African Folklore in the New World, 181–99. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1977.

  Fauset, Arthur Huff. “Negro Folktales from the South (Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana).” Journal of American Folklore 40 (1927) : 211–78.

  Flowers, Helen H. A Classification of Folktales of the West Indies by Types and Motifs. New York: Arno Press, 1980.

  Fortier, Alcee. Louisiana Folk-Tales. Boston and New York: G. E. Steckert, 1895.

  Gates, Henry-Louis. “On ‘The Blackness of Blackness’: A Critique of the Sign and the Signifying Monkey.” Critical Inquiry 9 (1983): 685–723.

  Harmon, Marion F. Negro Wit and Humor. Louisville, Ky.: Harmon, 1914.

  Harris, Joel Chandler. Nights with Uncle Remus. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1881.

  Harris, Joel Chandler. Uncle Remus and His Friends: Old Plantation Stones, Songs and Ballads, with Sketches of Negro Character. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1882.

  Harris, Joel Chandler. Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings. New York: D. Appleton, 1880.

  Herskovits, Melville J. The Myth of the Negro Past. New York: Harper’s, 1941.

  Herskovits, Melville J. and Frances S. Herskovits. Suriname Folk-Lore. New York: Columbia University Press, 1936.

  Hughes, Langston, and Arna Bontemps. The Book of Negro Folklore. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1949.

  Hurston, Zora Neale. Mules and Men. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1935.

  Jeckyll, Walter. Jamaican Song and Story. London: David Nutt, 1907.

  Johnson, John H. “Folklore from Antigua, British West Indies.” Journal of American Folklore 34 (1921): 40–83.

  Jones, Charles Colcock. Negro Myths from the Georgia Coast, Told in the Vernacular. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1888.

  Klipple, May Augusta. “African Folktales with Foreign Analogues.” Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University, 1938.

  Laws, G. Malcolm. American Ballads from British Broadsides. Philadelphia: American Folklore Society, 1957.

  Levine, Lawrence W. Black Culture and Black Consciousness. New York: Oxford University Press, 1977.

  McCloud, Velma. Laughter in Chains. New York: Lenox Press, 1901.

  Mofokeng, Sophonia Machabe. “The Development of Leading Figures in Animal Tales in Africa.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, 1954.

  Morgan, Kathryn L. Children of Strangers: The Stories of a Black Family. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1980.

  Murray, Henry. Manners and Customs in the Country a Generation Ago: Tom Kittle’s Wake. Kingston: E. Jordan, 1877.

  Ong, Walter, J. Orality and Literacy. London and New York: Methuen, 1982.

  Owens, William A. “Folklore of the Southern Negroes.” Lippincott’s Magazine 20 (1877): 748–55.

  Parsons, Elsie Clews. Folk-Lore of the Antilles, French and English. 3 vols. Memoirs of the American Folk-lore Society, vol. 26. New York: American Folklore Society, 1933, 1936, 1943.

  Parsons, Elsie Clews. Folklore of the Sea Islands, South Carolina. Memoirs of the American Folk-lore Society, vol. 16. Cambridge, Mass.,
and New York: American Folk-lore Society, 1923.

  Parsons, Elsie Clews. Folk-Tales of Andros Island, Bahamas. Lancaster, Pa., and New York: American Folk-lore Society, 1918.

  Parsons, Elsie Clews. “Folklore from Aiken, South Carolina.” Journal of American Folklore 34 (1921) : 1–39.

  Parsons, Elsie Clews. “Tales from Guilford County, North Carolina.” Journal of American Folklore 30 (1917) : 168–200.

  Penard, A. P., and T. E. Penard. “Suriname Folk-Tales.” Journal of American Folklore 30 (1917) : 239–50.

  Peterkin, Julia. Roll Jordan, Roll. New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1933.

  Price, Richard. First Time: the Historical Vision of An Afro-American People. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983.

  Price, Richard, and Sally Price. Afro-American Arts of the Suriname Bain Forest. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1980.

  Puckett, Newbell Niles. Folk Beliefs of Southern Negroes. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1926.

  Pyrnelle, Louise-Clark. Diddie, Dumps and Tot, or Plantation Child Life. New York: Harper & Bros., 1898.

  Rampini, Charles. Letters from Jamaica. Edinburgh, 1873.

  Rawick, George. From Sun-Down to Sun-Up: The Making of the Black Community. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1972.

  Sale, John B. The Tree Named John. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1929.

  Stoney, Samuel Gaillard, and Gertrude Mathews Shelby. Blaek Genesis, A Chronicle. New York: Macmillan, 1930.

  Thompson, Stith. Motif-Index of Folk Literature. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1955–58.

  Trowbridge, Ada Wilson. “Negro Customs and Folk-Stories of Jamaica.” Journal of American Folklore 9 (1896): 279–87.

  Washabaugh, Bill and Cathy. The Folkways of Old Providence. Providencia, mimeographed, n.d.

  Werner, Alice. “Introduction.” In Walter Jeckyll, Jamaican Song and Story, ix-xxxvii. London: David Nutt, 1907.

  PERMISSIONS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  We are grateful to the following for permission to reprint or adapt from previously published material. In the ease of adaptation, the author may have retitled some of the tales. JAF indicates Journal of American Folklore; MAFS, Memoirs of the American Folklore Society.

  “Animal Talk” and “Escaping, Slowly” from Jamaica Anansi Stories by Martha Warren Beckwith, MAFS, vol. 17: 178, 161–62 (1924). By permission of the American Folklore Society.

  “Assaulting All the Senses,” “The Feast on the Mountain and the Feast Under the Water,” “The Flying Contest,” “Golden Breasts, Diamond Navel, Chain of Gold,” “Hide Anger until Tomorrow,” “No Justice on Earth,” “Spreading Fingers for Friendship,” and “ ‘Trouble’ Coming Down the Road,” from Suriname Folk-Lore by Melville J. Herskovits and Frances S. Herskovits. Columbia University Contributions to Anthropology Series. Copyright 1936 by Columbia University Press. By permission of the publisher.

  “The Barn Is Burning” and “Making a Wagon from a Wheelbarrow” from Worser Days and Better Times by Mason J. Brewer. Copyright © 1965 by Mason J. Brewer. By permission of Times Books, a division of Random House, Inc.

  “Between the Fiddler and the Dancer,” “Big-Gut, Big-Head, Stringy-Leg,” “The Girl Made of Butter,” “A License to Steal,” “The Woman Who Was a Bird,” and “Fasting for the Hand of the Queen’s Daughter” from Folk-Tales of Andros Island, Bahamas by Elsie Clews Parsons. MAFS, vol. 13: 137–38, 147,125–26, 84–85, 39–43, 97–98 (1918). By permission of the American Folklore Society.

  “Black Jack and White Jack,” “The Cunning Cockroach” and “The Horned Animals’ Party” from “Folklore from Antigua, British West Indies” by John H. Johnson. JAF, vol. 34: 77–80, 66–67, 59–60 (1921). By permission of the American Folklore Society.

  “A Boarhog for a Husband,” “He Pays for the Provisions,” “Making the Stone Smoke,” and “The Old Bull and the Young One” from The Man-of-Words in the West Indies by Roger D. Abrahams. Copyright © 1983 by Johns Hopkins University Press. By permission of the publisher.

  “Brer Bear’s Grapevine” from Animal Tales of the Old North State. Copyright 1938, © 1966 by Lucy A. Cobbs and Mary A. Hicks. By permission of E. P. Dutton, Inc.

  “Bringing Men and Women Together” from Afro-American Arts of the Suriname Rain Forest by Richard and Sally Price. Copyright © 1980 by the UCLA Museum of Cultural History. By their permission and that of the authors.

  “A Chain of Won’ts,” “John Outwits Mr. Berkeley,” “The One-Legged Turkey,” “The Things That Talked,” and “Tricking All the Kings” from Folk-Lore of the Antilles, French and English by Elsie Clews Parsons. MAFS, vol. 26: (II) 305, (III) 48–58, (I) 156, (III) 350, (III) 97–100 (1933, 1936, 1943). By permission of the American Folklore Society.

  “Competition for Laziness,” “A Flying Fool,” and “Some Up and Some Down” from Positively Black by Roger D. Abrahams. Copyright © 1970 by Roger D. Abrahams. By permission of Prentice-Hall.

  “The Devil’s Doing,” “The Doings and Undoings of the Dogoshes,” “The Owl Never Sleeps at Night,” “Pig’s Long Nose and Greedy Mouth,” and “Tadpole Loses his Tail” from How and Why Stories by John C. Branner. Copyright 1921 by Holt, Rinehart & Winston and copyright 1949 by Susan Branner. By permission of the publisher.

  “Endings” and “Never Seen His Equal” from Negro Tales from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and Calvin, Michigan by Richard M. Dorson. Copyright © 1958 by Indiana University Press. By permission of the publisher.

  “A Foolish Mother” and “My Mother Killed Me, My Father Ate Me” from The Folkways of Old Providence, collected and edited by Bill and Cathy Washabaugh with special thanks to Ms. Vina Walters of Providence Island, Colombia. By permission of the authors.

  “Get Back, Get Back,” “Jack Beats the Devil,” “John Outruns the Lord,” “The Man Makes and the Woman Takes,” “Meeting the King of the World,” “They Both had Dead Horses,” “The Wind and the Water Fighting,” and “The Word the Devil Made Up,” with text adaptations, from Mules and Men by Zora Neale Hurston (J. B. Lippincott). Copyright 1935 by Zora Neale Hurston. Renewed 1963 by John C. Hurston and Joel Hurston. By permission of Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc.

  “Getting Comon Sense” from Anansi and Miss Lou by Louise Bennett. By permission of Sangster’s Book Stores Ltd., Kingston, Jamaica.

  “The Gifts of Dipper and Cowhide,” “Philanewyork,” and “You Talk Too Much, Anyhow” from “Negro Folktales from the South (Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana)” by Arthur Huff Fauset. JAF, vol. 40: 215–16, 267, 277 (1927). By permission of the American Folklore Society.

  “The Lion in the Well” from The Tree Named John by John B. Sale. Copyright 1929 by the University of North Carolina Press. By permission of the publisher.

  “The Little Bird Grows” from “Creole Tales from Haiti” by Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvaine, JAF, vol. 50: 242–45 (1937). By permission of the American Folklore Society.

  “Little Eight John” from God Bless the Devil: Liar’s Bench Tales by James E. Aswell and others of the Tennessee Writers’ Project. Copyright 1940 by the University of North Carolina Press. By permission of the publisher.

  “Testing the Good Lord” from Folk Beliefs of Southern Negroes by Newbell Niles Puckett. Copyright 1926 by the University of North Carolina Press. By permission of the publisher.

  “The Trouble with Helping Out” from “Suriname Folk-Tales” by A. P. and T. E. Penard. JAF, vol. 30: 248–50 (1917). By permission of the American Folklore Society.

  “Turning into Noúna—Nothing” from First Time: The Historical Vision of an Afro-American People by Richard Price. Copyright © 1983 by Johns Hopkins University Press. By permission of the publisher and the author.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Roger D. Abrahams is Professor of Folklore and Folklife at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He holds a B.A. from Swarthmore College, an M.A. from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. He is a past president of the American Fol
klore Society, a former chairman of the English Department at the University of Texas, and a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar.

  Professor Abrahams has done fieldwork in a range of African-American communities, from a ghetto neighborhood in Philadelphia to the Caribbean. He has also studied and written about Anglo-American folk songs and children’s lore. He has contributed widely to academic folklore journals as well as to such magazines as Smithsonian, and his most recent books include Singing the Master, After Africa (with John Szwed), and African Folktales, the companion volume to this book.

  The Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library

  African Folktales by Roger D. Abrahams 0394-72117-9

  African American Folktales by Roger D. Abrahams 0375-70539-2

  American Indian Myths and Legends by Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz 0394-74018-1

  Arab Folktales by Inea Bushnaq 0394-75179-5

  Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies by Moss Roberts 0394-73994-9

  The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm 0394-7093- 06

  An Encyclopedia of Fairies by Katharine Briggs 0394-73467-X

  Favorite Folktales from Around the World by Jane Yolen 0394-75188-4

  Folktales from India by A. K. Ramanujan 0679-74832-6

  French Folktales by Henri Pourrat 0679-74833-4

  Gods and Heroes by Gustav Schwab 0394-73402-5

  Irish Folktales by Henry Glassie 0679-77412-2

  Japanese Tales by Royall Tyler 0394-75656-8

  Legends and Tales of the American West by Richard Erdoes 0375-70266- 0

  The Norse Myths by Kevin Crossley-Holland 0394-74846-8

  Northern Tales by Howard Norman 0375-70267-9

  Norwegian Folk Tales by Peter Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe 0394-71054-1

  The Old Wives’ Fairy Tale Book by Angela Carter 0679-74037-6