The Annotated African American Folktales

by Henry Louis Gates

Well, Ole John started on down de road. Well, Ole Massa said, “John, de children love yuh.”

  “Yassuh.”

  “John, I love yuh.”

  “Yassuh.”

  “And Missy like yuh!”

  “Yassuh.”

  “But ’member, John, youse a nigger.”

  “Yassuh.”

  Fur as John could hear ’im down the road he wuz hollerin’, “John, Oh John! De children loves you. And I love you. De Missy like you!”

  John would holler back, “Yassuh.”

  “But ’member youse a nigger, tho!”

  Ole Massa kept callin’ ’im and his voice was pitiful. But John kept right on steppin’ to Canada. He answered Old Massa every time he called ’im, but he consumed on wid his bag.

  SOURCE: Zora Neale Hurston, Mules and Men, 89–90.

  In this tale, John plays the role of what Zora Neale Hurston called the “Pet Negro,” a black man in whom the white man takes special “pride and pleasure.” And Ole Massa has good reason to treasure John, who not only saves his children but also brings in his crops. The contrast between John’s unwavering loyalty and Missy’s callousness as well as Ole Massa’s hypocrisy could not be more pointed. The deep ambivalence of plantation owners toward slaves emerges in Ole Massa’s alternating declarations of affection and arrogance.

  “’Member Youse A Nigger!,” from Zora Neale Hurston, Mules and Men. Copyright 1935 by Zora Neale Hurston; renewed © 1963 by John C. Hurston and Joel Hurston. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

  CATCHING JOHN

  He had one, do call him John, and it come a traveler and stayed all night. Old Master pointed out John and said, “He ain’t never told me a lie in his life.” The traveler bet Master a hundred dollars ’gainst four bits he’d catch John in a lie ’fore he left. Next morning at the table the mice was pretty bad, so the traveler caught one by the tail and put him inside a coverlid dish what was setting there on the table, and he told Old Master tell John he could eat something out of every dish after they got through but that coverlid one, and not to take the cover offen it. And John said, “No, sir, I won’t.” But John just naturally had to see what was in that dish, so he raise the lid and out hopped the mouse. Then here come Old Master and asked John iffen he done what he told him not to do, and John ’nied it. Then the traveler look in the dish and the mouse wasn’t there, and he said, “See there, John been lying to you all the time, you just ain’t knowed it.” And reckon he right, ’cause us had to lie.

  SOURCE: B. A. Botkin, Lay My Burden Down, 3.

  This story turns on a motif prominent in folktales from many cultures: a forbidden container, dish, pot, or door. The traveler’s hunch that John will succumb to the temptation to look at the forbidden dish comes true. What makes this tale unique is the generalization built into the ending, which does not warn about the perils of curiosity (at times snakes and scorpions inhabit the dish) but instead explains the need for deceptive practices. This particular story, another “true lie,” justifies John’s behavior, less because it represents human fallibility, than because he lives in a culture that requires disobeying orders and using deception.

  THE MOJO

  There was always the time when the white man been ahead of the colored man. In slavery times John had done got to a place where the Marster whipped him all the time. Someone told him, “Get you a mojo, it’ll get you out of the whipping, won’t nobody whip you then.”

  John went down to the corner of his Boss-man’s farm, where the mojo-man stayed, and asked him what he had. The mojo-man said, “I got a pretty good one and a very good one and a damn good one.” The colored fellow asked him, “What can the pretty good one do?” “I’ll tell you what it can do. It can turn you into a rabbit, and it can turn you to a quail, and after that it can turn you to a snake.” So John said he’d take it.

  Next morning John sleeps late. About nine o’clock the white man comes after him, calls him: “John, come on, get up there and go to work. Plow the taters and milk the cow and then you can go back home—it’s Sunday morning.” John says to him, “Get on out from my door, don’t say nothing to me. Ain’t gonna do nothing.” Boss-man says, “Don’t you know who this is? It’s your Boss.” “Yes, I know—I’m not working for you any more.” “All right, John, just wait till I go home; I’m coming back and whip you.”

  White man went back and got his pistol, and told his wife, “John is sassy, he won’t do nothing I tell him, I’m gonna whip him.” He goes back to John, and calls, “John, get up there.” John yells out, “Go on away from that door and quit worrying me. I told you once, I ain’t going to work.”

  Well, then the white man he falls against the door and broke it open. And John said to his mojo, “Skip-skip-skip-skip.” He turned to a rabbit, and run slap out the door by Old Marster. And he’s running son of a gun, that rabbit was. Boss-man say to his mojo, “I’ll turn to a greyhound.” You know that greyhound got running so fast his paws were just reaching the grass under the rabbit’s feet.

  Then John thinks, “I got to get away from here.” He turns to a quail. And he begins sailing fast through the air—he really thought he was going. But the Boss-man says, “I will turn to a chicken hawk.” That chicken hawk sails through the sky like a bullet, and catches right up to that quail.

  Then John says, “Well, I’m going to turn to a snake.” He hit the ground and begin to crawl; that old snake was natchally getting on his way. Boss-man says, “I’ll turn to a stick and I’ll beat your ass.”

  SOURCE: Richard Dorson, ed., American Negro Folktales, 141–42. Told by Abraham Taylor.

  A mojo is an amulet used in African American hoodoo practices. The amulet, also known as a “prayer in a bag,” is kept in a small flannel bag. The custom goes back to West African belief systems that used mojo to cast spells, bring good fortune, and to drive away evil spirits. In this tale, both John and the Boss-man use mojo in a story that is an adaptation of what folklorists call a “transformation combat” tale. The two antagonists use magic to shape-shift and gain an advantage over each other. In the end, John seems to have lost his bid to escape a whipping, for he will get an equally severe beating as a snake.

  HOW?

  It was said that this large plantation owner had many slaves, and for one reason or another the Devil appeared to him one day and said that he was going to take the man’s slave whose name was John.

  And the plantation owner said, “Why John?”

  He said, “Well, it’s just John’s time.”

  He said, “Please don’t take John.”

  And the Devil said, “Well, what’s so special about John?”

  He said, “Well, John is my record keeper.” Says, “I don’t keep any records. I keep no books whatsoever. John has a memory that’s fantastic, and he just doesn’t forget anything. I can ask him about my crops and what I made last year, and all I have to do is tell him and I call him back and ask him what I made and how many bushels of corn and what have you, and John has the answer just like that.”

  So say the Devil said, “That’s unbelievable. Are you sure about that?”

  He said, “I’m positive.”

  So the Devil said, “Well, will you call John up here? I want to talk to John—I want to test him out now. If he doesn’t prove you’re right, I’m going to have to take John.”

  So the Master called John up, and he said, “Now, Mr. Devil, you can ask him anything you want.”

  So the Devil said to John, say, “John, do you like eggs?”

  And John said, “Yes, sir,” and immediately the Devil disappeared.

  Well, it was two years to the day and John was in the cornfield plowing the corn, laying beside the corn, and it was a hot day. John had stopped the mule and sat under a tree. He had his old straw hat just fanning himself, you know. The Devil pops out of the ground, and he says one word to John; he says, “How?”

  John says, “Scrambled.”

  SOURCE: Daryl Cumber Dance, ed. Shuckin�
� and Jivin’: Folklore from Contemporary Black Americans, 203–4. Collected in 1974 in Charles City, Virginia.

  “Test of memory” is the folkloric motif on display in this tale. John not only works the fields but also keeps flawless records. Stories about the strength of memory were particularly important in a culture that did not keep written records, and John, as the keeper of memory, could serve not only his own master but also his community. As importantly, he is a man who will never forget.

  “How?,” from Daryl Cumber Dance, ed., Shuckin’ and Jivin’: Folklore from Contemporary Black Americans, 1978. Reprinted with permission of Indiana University Press.

  JOHN OUTWITS MR. BERKELEY

  This story begins with a very covetous man, Mr. Berkeley, who was a very rich and a very selfish man, too. Everything he saw, he wanted. One day, he met an old woman who had a fine cow she was taking to market. He knew it was worth about a hundred dollars, but he said to the woman, “You don’t want to take that cow all the way to the market. I will give you five dollars for it right here.” Not knowing much about the value of anything, the old woman thought that five dollars was a lot of money, so Mr. Berkeley got the cow.

  When she got home, she told her only son, whose name was John, what she had done, and he said, “Damn! Mommy, Mr. Berkeley really paid you nothing close to what that cow was worth. But I’m going to make Mr. Berkeley really do a flying dance for what he has done to us.” So he made a plan. His mother had a nice bucket in the house filled with some good-looking sugar. John went and got some cow manure and other shit and put it into the bottom of a pan, and then covered that over with the sugar. He carried it down that same road that his mother was taking the cow earlier, knowing that was where Mr. Berkeley passed all of the time.

  When Mr. Berkeley saw John and all that nice sugar, he asked him, “John, what do you have on your shoulder there?” John said, “Sugar, Mr. Berkeley, some nice sugar to sell at the market.” Mr. Berkeley came over to him and said, “Well, that’s pretty good-looking sugar. Why don’t you sell it to me instead of carrying it all the way to the market?” John said, “Well, I want five hundred dollars for it.” Well, Mr. Berkeley, when he saw something that he really liked, he just had to have it. So he paid him the five hundred dollars for the panful.

  He carried it on home and invited all his friends to come and have tea with him so they could taste this wonderful sugar that he had found. They came and thought the sugar was just wonderful in their tea. After using the sugar for a few days, though, Mr. Berkeley dipped in his spoon and it came up smelling awful! He said, “Good God, I’m going to beat that John when I catch up with him.” And he took off for John’s house right away.

  Well, John had thought out the whole plan. He had taken a large copper boiling pot that they use for making sugar, filled it with yams and potatoes and other provisions from the garden. He balanced the whole thing on three stones and built a large fire under the pot, and began to boil the whole thing down. But there was one spot where the fire was so hot it showed through the covering of ashes, which he covered over with fresh dirt.

  As soon as Mr. Berkeley got there, he called out to John, and John answered, “I’m in here, Mr. Berkeley.” And before Mr. Berkeley could say anything, John said, “Mr. Berkeley, Mr. Berkeley, come and see this pot that cooks food by itself.” He hit the kettle as hard as he could with a whip, and he said, “Mr. Berkeley, just listen to that.” Sure enough, the kettle was boiling. He hit it again, and the kettle seemed to boil even harder. Mr. Berkeley didn’t have to hear the third crack of the whip when he said, “You have to sell me that pot that cooks food by just lashing it.” John said, “Well, I have to have five hundred dollars for the pot and another five hundred for the special whip.” So Mr. Berkeley gave it to him, five hundred for the pot and five hundred for the whip.

  So he took it to this large field, put the pot on these stones, and brought lots of food to put into it. Then he invited all his friends to a great big cook-up, to show them how he was going to boil food without any fire. So all the friends came bright and early, before they had eaten their food at home, even, expecting to have a big feast at Mr. Berkeley’s. Well, when they got there, they saw Mr. Berkeley taking this whip and hitting the pot, Whop! He gave it a hard lash but nothing happened. He hit it a second time, but the food stayed just as cold as when he put it in. He gave the pot a hundred lashes, and still the water stayed as cold as before. He was disappointed and getting mad now. And all his friends left, hungry and laughing at the same time.

  Now, John went on to the next part of his plan. He killed a goat and took out its heart and had his mother put it inside of her dress, right on top of where her own heart was. He told her to play dead when he touched it with a knife. As soon as he saw Mr. Berkeley coming to him, as vexed as he could be, he took out a knife and he stabbed his mother right in the goat’s heart, and she fell over. Now Mr. Berkeley supposed she was dead. Mr. Berkeley said, “John, you have killed your mother.” He was scared, you know, with the knife in John’s hand and the blood all around. John said, “Oh, Mr. Berkeley, Mama will raise herself up once more, you’ll see.” So he took up this shell and he blew on it pouu-uu. His mother stirred a little. He blew it again, pouu-uu; his mother opened her eyes. The third time he blew she sat up, and the fourth time she got up and started to walk around.

  Mr. Berkeley was astonished. He asked, “John, what do you want for a knife that cuts like that? John said, “Well I have to have five hundred dollars.” So he gave John the money, and five hundred more for the shell.

  Now he went home, got all his servants, his wife and his children, and put them all in a row. Again he invited all his friends over to see how he was going to kill all these people and then bring them back to life again. He took the knife and stabbed his wife and she fell dead. He took all the servants and killed them, and the rest of his family. They were all dead on the ground in front of him, so he blew on the shell, pouu-uu, and nothing happened. He blew again and again, from morning to night, but nobody came back to life. He looked around and said, “All right, I am going to kill John with just one stab, too, for God’s sake.”

  This time, John had no other tricks, so Mr. Berkeley tied him up, wanting to shame John like John had shamed him in front of all his friends. He brought him up to the bay side, to the rum shop there, and started to have a drink with all his friends while they laughed at John, all tied up there. But another man, whose name was Wolf, passed by there. He saw John crying, and said to him, “Friend John, how did you get yourself in this fix?” John said, “I have discovered this huge gold field under the water on Mr. Berkeley’s property, and you know how he is, being so selfish, so he has tied me up until he can get all that gold and split it up between us.” Wolf said, “But it seems so cruel that you should be tied.” And John said, “It is, it is, but you know Mr. Berkeley. He must have his gold. Maybe, if I told you where the gold is, you would want to have my half of it.” Wolf said, “Would you do that?” And John said, “Yes, because he is making so much fun of me in front of his friends.” So Wolf unloosened the ropes, and they exchanged clothes, and John tied him up just as tightly as he had been tied. So John went away and left Wolf there in his place; and when Mr. Berkeley came out of the rum shop later, he just picked up Wolf without looking and carried him out to his boat and went out on the open sea and shoved Wolf over and drowned him.

  About three months later, Mr. Berkeley saw John coming toward him in the carriage he had taken when he changed places with Mr. Wolf. He said, “Is that you, John?” and John said, “Oh yes, Mr. Berkeley.” He asked, “Well, how did you come back to life and get such a fine carriage?” John said, “Well, you remember when you threw me into the sea? Well, I fell right into a gold field itself!” Mr. Berkeley said to John, “You have to show me where this gold field is. Will you do that for me?” John said, “Yes, but you must give me something in return.” Mr. Berkeley said he would give him anything he wanted. John said, “But you know it is deep in the
ocean, and you must put weights on your body so you can get down to it.” So John tied Mr. Berkeley as tightly as Mr. Berkeley had tied him, put some stones on his body and put him in the boat, went out on the open sea, and shoved him over. That’s the gold mine Mr. Berkeley wanted, but now John had all the things that Mr. Berkeley had, and John was alive, too.

  That’s the reason why an envious and covetous man always loses when he tries to get too much.

  SOURCE: Elsie Clews Parsons, Folk-Lore of the Antilles, French and English, III, 48–58. Told in Trinidad.

  The tale about John and Mr. Berkeley gives us a kaleidoscopic twist on John and Old Master stories, pitting a clever young man against a man who is “covetous,” “rich,” “envious,” and “selfish.” Although John and Mr. Berkeley are not in a master-slave relationship, their conflicts, with an escalating series of punishments, repeat what is seen in John and Old Master tales. The scenes of revenge are, in this case, not at all realistic and recall some of the antics of Brer Rabbit as well as of European tricksters and swindlers. The tale’s origins can be traced to “fatal deception” tales in Africa, as well as to stories about two farmers, one rich and dim-witted, the other poor and resourceful.

  “John Outwits Mr. Berkeley,” from Elsie Clews Parsons. Folk-Lore of the Antilles, French and English, 1933–43. Reprinted with permission of Indiana University Press.

  OLD BOSS AND JOHN AT THE PRAYING TREE

  This also happened back in the old days too. It was one year on a plantation when the crops were bad. There wasn’t enough food for all the slave hands, no flour at all, all they had to eat was fatback and cornbread. John and his buddy was the only slickers on the farm. They would have two kinds of meat in the house, all the lard they could use, plenty flour and plenty sugar, biscuits every morning for breakfast. (They was rogues.) The Boss kept a-missing meat, but they was too slick for him to catch ’em at it.