The Negro Traditions

Book excerpt: This collection of previously unpublished tales is a major contribution to the annals of African-American folk narrative. Ranging from fables to historical narratives, these tales contain a rich variety of information on folk customs, speech, and songs, providing the reader with a deeper understanding of and appreciation for nineteenth-century African-American culture. Negro Traditions offers wonderful descriptions of all manner of rural African-American folk customs, including valuable insights into post-Civil War life in rural Middle Tennessee - from riddles to dances - and how former slaves and their children felt about their lives. At times the movement of these tales toward tragedy is reminiscent of Faulkner; their humor suggests Sut Lovingood; their occasional dark surrealism has overtones of Cormac McCarthy. But the overriding reality of these tales as a representation of a people and their culture gives them a power that moves the reader beyond fiction and into factuality. Here are no banjo-plunking renditions of "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah"; these tales are full of the realities of life: violence, work, the power of the supernatural, family life, racial tension, and an intense burning resentment against slavery.