African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Mules and Men

Last month, I wrote about Zora Neale Hurston's lost-and-found-again manuscript of African American folktales, Every Tongue Got to Confess, which was first published in 2001. Today I want to feature the remarkable book of African American folktales that Hurston published in her lifetime: Mules and Men, which was first published in 1935.

There's really no other book of American folktales quite like this one, where Hurston contextualizes all the stories, retelling her journey as a collector of stories as a story of its own, introducing us to the storytellers and the storytelling scenes. If you've never read anything by Hurston, I think this is absolutely the best book to start with. 

The first half of the book includes 70 folktales and songs, and then the second half of the book is about "hoodoo" and conjuring. Here is a list of the story titles, linked to their page at the Internet Archive's edition of the book: John and the Frog / Witness of the Johnstown Flood in Heaven / How the Brother Was Called to Preach / How the Preacher Made Them Bow Down / Pa Henry's Prayer / How the Church Came to Be Split Up / Why Negroes Are Black / Why Women Always Take Advantage of Men / Sue, Sal, and That Pretty Johnson Gal / The Quickest Trick / How to Write a Letter / A Fast Horse / Ah'll Beatcher Makin' Money / The Workinest Pill You Ever Seen / How Jack Beat the Devil / John Henry / Ole Massa and John Who Wanted to Go to Heaven / Massa and the Bear / Why the Sister in Black Works Hardest / De Reason Niggers Is Working So Hard / Deer Hunting Story / Big Talk / The First Colored Man in Massa' House / What Smelled Worse / The Fortune Teller / How the Negroes Got Their Freedom / The Turtle-watch / From Pine to Pine Mr. Pinkney / God an' De Devil in De Cemetery / Praying for Rain / Kill the White Folks / Member Youse a Nigger / You Think I'm Gointer Pay You but I Ain't / Why the Mocking Bird Is Away on Friday / Man and the Catfish / How the Snake Got Poison / How the Woodpecker Nearly Drowned the Whole World / How the Possum Lost the Hair Off His Tail / How the Gator Got His Mouth / How Brer Gator Got His Tongue Worn Out / How the Gator Got Black / How Brer Dog Lost His Beautiful Voice / What the Rabbit Learned / The Goat That Flagged a Train / Shooting Up Hill / Tall Hunting Story / The Hawk and the Buzzard / Why They Always Use Rawhide on a Mule / Why We Have Gophers / How God Made Butterflies / How the Cat Got Nine Lives / The Son Who Went to College / Why the Waves Have Whitecaps / How the Lion Met the King of the World / Sermon by Traveling Preacher / Card Game / Ella Wall / Ah'm Gointer Loose Dis Right-hand Shackle From Round My Leg / Strength Test Between Jack and the Devil / Why the Porpoise Has His Tail on Crossways / Why the Dog Hates the Cat / How the Devil Coined a Word / How Jack O'lanterns Came to Be / Why the East Coast Has Mosquitoes and Storms / How a Loving Couple Was Parted / All These Are Mine / How the Squinch Owl Came to Be / The Talking Mule / High Walker and Bloody Bones / Fight at Pine Mill.

This is the original cover of the book with the jacket blurb (click on the image for a larger view):

Other works by and about Hurston await you at the Internet Archive also, all just a click away, thanks to the power of Controlled Digital Lending! 

Mules and Men

by Zora Neale Hurston