African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Negro Tales from the South

Since I wrote about the Harlem Renaissance in yesterday's post, I am excited to write about Arthur Huff Fauset today, a remarkable African American folklorist; you can read all about his life and career, including his work with Alain Locke, at Wikipedia. There is also a detailed biography accompanying the records for his papers deposited with the University of Pennsylvania, and you can find Fauset featured here in Seeking Better Representations in Anthropology, documenting the accomplishments of 28 Black anthropologists, which is the source for this photo:

In this article published in the Journal of American Folklore in 1927 (which means it is about to enter the public domain!), Fauset reports 80 folktales from Alabama, Missisippi, and Louisiana, plus riddles too: Negro Folk Tales from the South.

Fauset collected the stories during the summer of 1925, and here is a list of the stories you will find here: T'appin's Magic Dipper and Whip ~ Rabbit Fools Buzzard ~ Where They Throw Away the Oranges ~ Buzzard Trapes Rabbit in a Hollow Stump ~ Mock Beheading ~ No Tracks Coming Back ~ T'appin Fooled by Billy Goat's Eyes ~ Lion Hunt ~ Rabbit Gets Hung ~ Rabbit Ties Fox's Tail to the Dead Horse ~ Promised Feast ~ Rabbit Rides Elephant across the Stream ~ Rabbit Counts Alligator's Family ~ Rabbit Kills Bear's Child for Land ~ Rabbit Teaches Bear a Song ~ Rabbit Shames Before Ladies ~ Rabbit at the Party ~ Fox Boils Rabbit in the Pot ~ In the Well ~ Tar Baby ~ Hunting Muscadines ~ Magic Formula: The Cotton Hoe ~ B'rer Rabbit's Laughing Place ~ Rabbit Plays Possum ~ The Watcher Blinded ~ Frog Suitor ~ Fire Catches Rabbit ~ Playing Godfather ~ Rooster and Fox ~ Br'er Deer Marries Sun's Daughter ~ Picking Peaches: Down the Chimney into the Boiling Pot ~ Why Alligator Can't Talk ~ Why Dogs Jump on Each Other's Heads ~ Try Him! Try Him! ~ In the Cow's Belly ~ La Pain's Mother Sold as Codfish ~ La Pain and the Turtle ~ Are You Man? ~ Catskin ~ The Son Who Sought His Fortune ~ The Magic Water ~ The Friendly Demon ~ The Wicked Mother ~ The Strong One ~ Three Fools ~ Three More Fools ~ Little Claus ~ The Seventh Son ~ The Three Golden Apples ~ The Homeless Animals ~ The Haunted House ~ The Three Questions ~ The Marvelous Potato ~ Catching the Gallinipper ~ The Bird Dog ~ Voices in the Frying Pan ~ The Three Suitors ~ Running with His Shoes Off ~ Too Much Tongue ~ Lazy John ~ Master Gone to Philanewyork ~ Shooting Grasshoppers ~ Fooling God ~ Darkening the Hole ~ All Dressed Up and No Place to Go ~ Mare's Eggs ~ Knee Deep ~ Lighting is Hell ~ The Guilty Lover ~ The Ghost Walks ~ Live Bear Catch ~ Sagacious Jew ~ Coming with the Dogs ~ Dog Dinner ~ The Man Who Invented Fire ~ Bible and Swimming ~ Ten-Mile Boots ~ Horse Stay Outside ~ Nothing for the Negro ~ Catch Hell Just the Same.

There are some tunes recorded in the stories too!

So, this article will enter the public domain next year, in 2023, and I am thinking that I would like to build a book around this, re-publishing Fauset's stories, while adding commentary and parallels to supplement his own notes to the stories. What do you think? I think that would be a fabulous project, and also a way to honor Fauset's groundbreaking work as an American folklorist. And the papers held at the University of Pennsylvania look like an amazing resource; perhaps I could find a way to go there and take a look!

Meanwhile, you can also find another book by Fauset at the Archive: Black Gods of the Metropolis; Negro Religious Cults of the Urban North. 

The Archive does not have a copy of Fauset's important book, Folklore from Nova Scotia (yes, stories from Black storytellers in Canada), but you can read that online at Hathi Trust. That book will be entering the public domain in just a few years; it was published in 1931. Yay for books in the public domain... and for the holiday we get to celebrate every year on January 1, Public Domain Day, as new books enter the public domain on that day.