African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Arkansas and Michigan

After spending last week looking at Caribbean stories, I wanted to shift back to the African American storytelling traditions of the U.S., and I'll start with this great book by Richard Dorson which includes storytellers from the South and also from the North, following the Great Migration: Negro Tales from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and Calvin, Michigan, published in 1958.

You'll find 197 stories here, divided into two sections, with an introduction to each section, Arkansas and Michigan, where Dorson explains just how he collected the stories and who the storytellers were, along with a general introduction to the book as a whole. The stories are organized into categories: Animal and Bird Stories - Old Marster and John - Spirits and the Supernatural - Jocular Tales - Protest Tales - Scriptural Tales - Tall Tales - Riddles, etc. There is an index of motif and tale types and, even better, specific commentary about each story. For example, here is Dorson's commentary on one of the stories told by an Arkansas storyteller, Tobe Courtney:

You might remember Dorson from earlier posts at this blog. He was one of the great American folklorists of the 20th century, and he had a special interest in African traditions, as evidenced in this book that he edited: African Folklore. (Yep, that's the trickster rabbit there on the cover.)

The Internet Archive has MANY of his books available: Richard Dorson.

So, take a minute to browse and see what you find; Dorson's interests were wide-ranging, and his contributions to American folklore studies were immense. I was so glad to see lots of his books available at the Archive, and I'll have more from Dorson again tomorrow.

Negro Tales from Pine Bluff, Arkansas

and Calvin, Michigan,

by Richard Dorson