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= African-American Folktales =

Tales of Origin
African-American tales of origin include the stories that center around beginnings and transformations whether it is focused on a character, event, and/or all the way to explaining how the world came to be. Some examples of tales of origin includes "How Jackal Became an Outcast" and "Terrapin's Magic Dipper and Whip".

"How Jackal Became an Outcast" was adapted from "The Jackal and the Lion", written by Joseph Cotter. It is told that this story was brought directly from Africa. In this tale, the Jackal takes the role of a trickster who tries to use their clever wit to outplay the Lion, which ends up backfiring because his lack of morality leads to disaster for both the Jackal and his future descendants.

"Terrapin's Magic Dipper and Whip" was adapted from "Negro Folk Tales from the South (Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana) by Arthur Huff Fauset. The storyteller of this tale(collected in the 1920s) is said to have been brought to Alabama as a slave after being born in West Africa. This folktale focuses on explaining the origin of a Tortoise named Terrapin's shell and its "furtive behavior" - it involves a plot "in which a magical object provides an apparently unlimited food supply and another object dispenses beatings [which] is likely to be of European in origin...[this tale] suggests the creative merging of two folk traditions: African and European".

Overall, a tale of origin is a very common theme found within African-American folktales and helps explain how events and characters came to be.

Tales of Trickery and Trouble
Tricksters in folk stories are commonly characters (people, animals, etc.) who 'succeed' off of deceiving others and taking advantage of their weaknesses. They usually don't think if their actions are right or wrong - they have been described as amoral. In stories, they tend to use their wits to get out of trouble and/or get what they want. Specifically in African-American folktales, two examples of common tricksters are Brer Rabbit and Anansi.

Tricksters in African American folktales tend to have a comedic approach. However, these stories also have an underlying important theme as well: inequality. The National Humanities Center says that, "they contain serious commentary on the inequities of existence in a country where the promises of democracy were denied to a large portion of the citizenry, a pattern that becomes even clearer in the literary adaptations of trickster figures". The trickster folktales reflect what was happening during that period of time.

These kinds of folktales didn't always have a literal 'trickster', but they had the overarching theme of using trickery tactics. For example, Charles Chesnutt's collected a series a stories and named it The Conjure Woman (1899). One of the stories found in this book includes a story of "how an enslaved man is spared being sent from one plantation to another by having his wife, who is a conjure woman, turn him into a tree...the trickery works until a local sawmill selects that particular tree to cut".

It was during these slavery times, "and for decades thereafter, trickster tales, with their subtly and indirection, were necessary because blacks could not risk a direct attack on white society".

Tales of Triumph over Natural or Supernatural Evils
Evil is a mainstay in folktales and it comes in many forms in African-American folktales. These folktales are a part of the second category of A-T classification, Ordinary Tales. The word ordinary is misleading, as there is no boundary to what is possible in these tales. The stories may include magic, supernatural creatures, and religion. Their main features include supernatural themes, an underdog story, and formularized language.

Evil is the main antagonist of these tales, whether they are real entities or creatures of legend. Good always wins in the end in these tales because when good wins over evil, the world is safe and secure in the eyes of the reader. There is hope against the evil that may arise. Readers can experience triumph when reading one of these tales and can understand that even though there may be malevolent forces in the world, they can overcome those forces and find peace and security.

Supernatural evils that are focused on in African-American folktales include a Boo Hag, which is a vampire-like entity that feeds off a person's breath by riding them, and the Shrouded Horseman.

When dealing with supernatural forces that are depicted in these tales of triumph over natural or supernatural evils, there is an African-American magical and spiritual tradition that is used to combat these evil forces called Hoodoo. A conjure man, someone who is well-versed in the art of hoodoo, can help steer away the evil supernatural beings that are depicted in many folktales. An example of using Hoodoo to defeat the supernatural includes the Boo Hag. A common practice to fend off Boo Hags includes setting a broom across the front door, in which in the event of a Boo Hag slips into a person's house, the Boo Hag has to stop and count every brush strand on the broom. By the time she had counted the strands, morning would have came and the Boo Hag would have to return to her skin.

Comical Heartwarming Tales
African-American Tales of comical and heartwarming are told to “stimulate the imagination with wonders, and are told to remind us of the perils and the possibilities”. The heartwarming tales are told to lighten and stay connected. The stories commonly told are about heroes, heroines, villains and fools. One story, The Red Feather, is a response to the amalgamation of intertwining cultures ending with heroes bringing forth gifts. Other lighthearted stories include many examples with heroes. Rabbit Rides Wolf is a story told representing the amalgamation of African and Creek descent where another hero is emerged during a bitter time.

Tales Teaching Life Lessons
African folklore and tales are means of handing down traditions and duties through generations. Tales are often passed through word of mouth through family or gatherings of people. It was not uncommon for the people in Africa to gather children in groups, sit them down, and share the jarring tales that were once told to them. This kind of gathering was known as Tales by Midnight.

Tales by Midnight was supposed to share stories that could potentially prepare children for their futures. These gatherings were lessons to the youth of African. The tales were representations of their culture. Diverse kinds of animals would often have human-like characteristics to make the story compelling to the young children. This could be physical acts like singing and dancing, or it would be portrayals of emotion like greediness, honesty, loyalty, ect.

There were several tales that were commonly told in this Tales by Midnight setting. One for example was the tale of The Midnight Goat Thief. This tale originated from Zimbabwe, and has passed through many generations of African children.

The Midnight Goat Thief is a tale of misplaced trust and betrayal between two friends, a baboon and a hare. The relationship is under water when a conflict between the two arises. The story is supposed to teach youth to be loyal and honest.

Tales of Ghosts and Spirits
African-American tales of ghosts and spirits were commonly told of spook or “haint”, in modern day known as “haunt,” a term referring to a repeated visits by ghosts or in tradition, tales of ghosts and spirits that keep one awake at night. Possessed of Two Spirits is a personal experience believing in the magic powers in conjuration with both the living and the spiritual world found commonly in African-American spirit folklore. Another story, Married to a Boar Hog emerged during the colonial Revolution against the British. The story is an example of a young woman who marries to a figure typically told as a supernatural being such as a boar and in the end her savior typically ends as her brother but with some form of disease [leprosy, club foot, or yaws]. In the midst of the revolution, "Married to a Boar Hog" is from slaves being carried to the British Caribbean but with reference to the African Origin about the hardships they endured.

Tales of Slaves and their Slave-Owners
African-American tales of slavery often uses rhetoric that can seem uncommon to the modern era. The language that is passed down through generations has deviated the standard for racial narrative. The Conjure Woman, a book of tales dealing with racial identity, was written by the first African-American author, Charles W. Chesnutt, in the perspective of a freed slave.

The folklore-styled tales within this book are a representation of the struggles that the slaves had to face during the post-war time period in the South. The author wrote them in order for readers to a gain perspective on the challenges of being left behind. Chestbutt’s stories were a pensive view of the times of slavery. The Conjure Woman tales were told by the freed slave from their owners who left the South after the war.

Chesnutt's language surrounding African American folklore derived from the standards of the racial narrative of his era. By using vernacular language, Chesnutt was able to deviate from the the racial norms and formulate a new, more valorized, message of folk heroes. “ Chesnutt writes "on the other side" of standard racial narratives, effectively refuting them by evoking a different kind of "racial project" in his fictional work.”