Folklore of the black south
Welcome to Black American Folklore
Zora believed the people of the black south were a unique culture because they blended their memories of Africa with what they now knew here in America. It was important to Zora to study this because she knew it was unique and different from just being African or just being American. The people who had been freed here as slaves were making a new culture, language, traditions, and life for themselves. She wanted to share this with the world and for people to understand the special and uniqueness of this way of life and it's culture.
Folklore of the Black South
BARRACOON
STORY TELLING
BARRACOON
Zora did an ethnography on many people in the south but in particular she spent much time with Cudjo Lewis in Alabama he was known as the last African that was brought over in the slave trade who remembered it.
LANGUAGE
STORY TELLING
BARRACOON
A mix of English and west African languages. The black south had created a dialect all its own. In Zoras writings she never wrote different then this dialect because she felt this was all part of understanding the folklore of the black south.
STORY TELLING
STORY TELLING
STORY TELLING
Story telling kept customs, culture and family history alive. Telling stories was a way of passing on history in Africa. The slaves kept this tradition, and it became a very important part of the black south.
About Zora Neale Hurston
CULTURE
SOUTHERN FOLKLORE
CULTURE
Zora wanted Black America to be free to express their culture. Folklore and religion became a way that African Americans found solace after their forced relocation.
MUSIC
SOUTHERN FOLKLORE
CULTURE
African American Folk Music preserved African history. The music told stories of the history. They also used a call and response form of music to spread information and news between to slaves on a plantation. This was called the field holler.
https://youtu.be/rDYIDYJuhVo
SOUTHERN FOLKLORE
SOUTHERN FOLKLORE
SOUTHERN FOLKLORE
The picture above is a collogue of Six African folklore figures that survived coming across the Atlantic during the slave trade. There were many folktales in the African American south. They had made their way from Africa and continued to be passed down to generations here in the States.
Cited Sources
Zora Neale Hurston, April 1950. “What White Publishers Wont Print.” Negro Digest
file:///C:/Users/13606/Downloads/Hurston-What-White-Publishers-Wont-Print.pdf
Young, Jason R. 2022. “The Last African: Zora Neale Hurston and Making of Africa in America.” Palimpsest Journal Volume 11 Issue 2 page: 51-79 https://access.library.oregonstate.edu/pdf/1328756.pdf
Dance, Daryl. 1979. “Following in Zora Neale Hurston’s “Dust Tracks.” Indian University Press Vol. 16, No. ½
Hurston, Zora Neale. May 2018. Barracoon: The last story of the Last “Black Cargo”. Amistad Press
New York Historical society web Life Story: Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) https://wams.nyhistory.org/confidence-and-crises/jazz-age/zora-neale-hurston/
BOOK
Sims, Martha C., 1963-; Stephens, Martine, 1959-