African Diaspora at the Internet Archive: Spreadsheet (1)

Well, it's Friday (Happy Friday, everybody!), and readers of this blog may remember that during the African folktale weeks of this project, I was sharing a spreadsheet with individual story titles and links to the Internet Archive; you can find out more about the spreadsheet here: African Folktale Spreadsheet. I ended up with over 10,000 individual stories. 

I've now got a spreadsheet up and running for the African Diaspora folktales also; you can find that here: African Diaspora Folktale Spreadsheet. It already has over 2000 items from 28 different books so far. (As you can see, I've focused on indexing some of the big anthologies, which is how I ended up with so many stories from just a few sources indexed so far.)

As I've explained in previous spreadsheet posts, you can search, sort, and filter this public sheet using all the usual Google Sheet features, and you can also make a copy of the sheet if you want to add your own columns, etc. There's an overview sheet where I note the addition of new items (see bottom of the overview sheet for the updates from most recent to oldest), which allows you to copy over new items to your own new sheet if you are taking that approach.

Just like with the African spreadsheet, I have no idea right now just how far this will go, but I'm excited to find out. I think this might be especially useful because some of the most important early work in African American folktales appeared in articles for the Journal of American Folklore, but were not reprinted elsewhere after that. Anyway, I've got lots of Internet Archive items bookmarked and ready to go, and I'll keep providing spreadsheet updates now every Friday about how it is going. :-)

Also, if you have not read it yet, I highly recommend you take a look at Chris Freeland's great piece on Controlled Digital Lending and the publishers who are suing Internet Archive in order to shut this great service down, demanding that they actually destroy the scans of the books which people have generously donated to the Archive. As you can guess, the thought of that breaks my heart... yes, I have all these books on my own bookshelves at home, but my work as a scholar is so much more valuable now that I can share "my" bookshelf with the world thanks to the power of Controlled Digital Lending. Let's hope they win the suit and establish a legal precedent for Controlled Digital Lending that will allow other libraries to carry on this great project too!

Librarian's lament: Digital books are not fireproof

🔥🔥 Turns out there's more than one way to burn a book. In Texas they are banning them. But as librarian @ChrisFreeland explains, corporate publishers are suing the @InternetArchive to destroy 1.4 million digital books. https://t.co/mTW6ZJWP5M

— Internet Archive (@internetarchive) February 10, 2022

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Book of Negro Folklore

Last week I shared a wonderful anthology of African American folklore by John Mason Brewer, but his was not the first such anthology. For that, we can turn to the big beautiful anthology assembled by Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps: The Book of Negro Folklore, published in 1958.

You'll find the giant list of contents below and in addition to what you see there, the book also contains appx. 100 pages of songs, poetry, and prose "in the folk style" by authors such as Paul Laurence Dunbar, Robert Hayden, Melvin Tolson, and many others.

As you can see, unlike Zora Neale Hurston, Hughes and Bontemps follow the convention of animal tales coming first. The links below go directly to the book page at the Internet Archive:

Animal Tales. Tar Baby / Rabbit Teaches Bear a Song / Brer Rabbit and Sis Cow / Why Brer Rabbit Wears a 'Round-'bout / Playing Godfather / Why the Fox's Mouth is Sharp / The Watcher Blinded / Brer Fox and the Foobers / The Fox and the Goose / Ole Sis Goose / Sheer Crops / John and the Lion / The Animal Court / De Knee-High Man / Terrapin / Why Br' Gator's Hide is so Horny 

Animal Rhymes.  The Rooster and the Chicken / Little Rooster / Once Upon a Time / Greedy / He Is My Horse / Bedbug / Grasshopper / Buzzard / So It Happened / Miss Terrapin and Miss Toad / Frog Went A-Courting / The Frog / Persimmon Tree / Tails / Lucky Foot / Rabbit Soup / Rabbit Hash / Fox and Rabbit / Bat / Fish / Sheep and Goat / Goat and Sheep / Woodpecker / Little Dogs / Did You Feed My Cow? 

Memories of Slavery. Unwritten History / Big Sixteen / All God's Chillen Had Wings / Elijah's Leaving Time / Den to de Fiah / A Laugh That Meant Freedom / How Buck Won His Freedom / How Uncle Steve Interpreted Spanish / Swapping Dreams / Uncle Israel and the Law / Dey's Auganized / The Prophet Vindicated / Abraham Explains His Master's Shot / Uncle Pleas's Prayer / Lias' Revelation / Hold the Book up Higher, John / Bringing Home the Bear / Voices in the Graveyard / Uncle Bob's Voyage to New England / Bubber's 'Rithmetic / Uncle John's Prophetic Error / Pompey an de Lawd / Slave Song / Promises of Freedom / A Slave's Riddle / Memories of Slavery

Sometimes in the Mind. High John de Conquer / Conjuration / The Bury League / Big Swamps of the Congaree / An Escaped Convict / Falling Stars / Ugly / Tad's Advice to His Son / Old Sister's Advice to Her Daughters / Plantation Proverbs / Aphorisms 

God, Man, and the Devil. The Rock / The Word the Devil Made Up / Christmas Gift / Figure and Fancy / The Man WHo Went to Heaven from Johnstown / Little Eight John / De Ways of de Wimmens / He Heard the Bullet Twice / Mother Wit / Who Dat Darken de Hole? / Lula / Ruint 

Do You Call That a Preacher? The Farmer and G.P.C. / The Superfluous Brains / The Three Preachers / The Preacher and His Farmer Brother / A Job for God / Little Bill's Conversation with God / Reverend Carter's Twelfth Anniversary Sermon / The Wrong Man in the Coffin / What Major Buford Knew / How Elder Samuels Was Saved / Sister Liza and the New Pastor / The Old Preacher's Will and the Young Wife / Future World Difficulties / Playing Again for the Same Goods / Origin of Races / Group Pride / Democratizing Heaven / Doctrine of Election / Denominationalism / An Exclusive Church / Thanksgiving / Confession / The Two Ducks / The Crow 

Ghost Stories. Ghost / The Headless Hant / Jack-ma-Lantern / Hold Him, Tabb / Some New Orleans Ghosts / The Hairy Toe / Wait till Emmett Comes / Tailypo / Daid Aaron / Louis Alexander / A Roost on the Rim of the Moon 

Black Magic and Chance. Origin of the Voodoo Cult / Hoodoo / Rites / Anatol Pierre / Concerning the Dead / Conjure Doctors / Hoodoo Prescriptions / Black Magic / Black Art Used to Influence People / Voodoo and Witches / Witches Who Ride / Hags and Horses / Aids to the Lovelorn / Weddings / South Carolina Superstitions / Names for Dice Numbers / Dice Shooting Song / Reading for the Deck / Let the Deal Go Down / Song of 4-11-44 / New Orleans Lottery Shops / The Hit 

On the Levee. Levee Life / Annie Christmas / Waterfront Lore 

Amen Corner. De Sun Do Move / Behold the Rib! / The Wounds of Jesus / Jeff's Funeral Sermon / Sister Lucy / Silas / The Harps of God / God / The Remnant / Dry Bones / Prayer / Same God / Prayer for Teacher / Hooked in the Heart / My Jaws Became Unlocked / God Struck Me Dead / A Love Letter from de Lord / The Lord Spoke Peace to My Soul / Wild Goose Nest / A Letter from Father Divine / Remarks of Mother Divine / A Transparent Airplane / No Pushbutton God 

Spirituals. The Spirituals / Do, Lord, Remember Me / Motherless Child / City Called Heaven / No More Auction Block / Go Down, Moses / Savious, Don't Pass Me By / Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen / Every Time I Feel the Spirit / Swing Low, Sweet Chariot / Steal Away / Deep River / I God a Home in Dat Rock / Where Shall I Be When the First Trumpet Sound? / God's Gonna Set Dis World on Fire / Oh, Mary, Don't You Weep / Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho / Now Let Me Fly / Get on Board, Little Children / Hand Me Down My Silver Trumpet / Sit Down / Rise and Shine / There's a Little Wheel A-Turnin' / Go Tell It on the Mountain / Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow / The Virgin Mary Had a Baby Boy / Wasn't That a Mighty Day / What You Gonna Name That Pretty Little Baby? / Were You There When They Crucified My Lord? / Delilah / When the Saints Go Marching In 

Gospel Songs. Rock, Church, Rock! / Take My Hand, Precious Lord / What Could I Do? / If I Can Just Make It In / Build Me a Cabin / Move On Up a Little Higher / 99 1/2 Won't Do / When I Touch His Garment / I Know It Was the Lord / He Went on a Man's Bond / Father Divine's Greetings to the Universe 

Pastime Rhymes. Love / When I Go to Marry / Roses Red / Day / Here I Stand / She Hugged Me and Kissed Me / Vinie / Precious Things / Take Yo' Time, Miss Lucy / Slave Marriage Ceremony Supplement / Love Is Just a Thing of Fancy / Does I Love Your / A Short Letter / I'm a Round-Town Gent / Mistake / A Sick Wife / Old Woman in the Hills / Miss Rinner / Disgrace / Louisiana Women / Homely / Ancestry / Aunt Dinah / Deacons / The Devil / Indications / Don't Sing / Uncle Jerry Fants / Aunt Kate / Still Water / A Toast / Shoo Fly, Don't Bother Me / Mother Says I'm Six Years Old 

Ballads. John Henry / Dupree and Betty Blues / Frankie Baker / De Ballit of de Boll Weevil / Bad Man / Captain Lord Welton / Poor Lazarus / Stackalee / Stackolee (Harlem version) / The Signifying Monkey / Sinking of the Titanic / Roosevelt and Hitler 

Blues. The Blues as Folk Poetry / Just Blues / Good Morning Blues / See, See Rider / Careless Love / Southern Blues / Joe Turner / Dink's Blues / Mamie Desdume's Blues / Traditional Blues Verses / How Long Blues 

Work Songs. Take This Hammer / Railroad Man / Can't You Line It / Mule on de Mount / Chilly Win' Don' Blow / lt Makes a Long Time Man Feel Bad / South Carolina Chain Gang Song / Hyah Come de Cap'm / Go Down, Ol' Hannah / Pity a Poor Boy / Hammer Song / Good Morning, Captain / Pick a Bale of Cotton / Alabama Bound 

Street Cries. Street Cries of an Old Southern City / Watermelon Vendor's Cry / Waffle Man's Cry / Cala Vendor's Cry / Oyster Man's Cry / Six Negro Market Songs of Harlem 

Playsongs and Games. Chickama, Chickama-Craney Crow / Hide and Seek / Counting Out Rhymes / Did-You Game / Yes Ma'm / Shoo Fly, Don't Bother Me / Lil Liza Jane (multiple versions) / Give That Gal Some Cake / Old Cow Died / Play Verses / Sweet Notasulga / Old Lady Sally / Aunt Dinah's Dead / Chula, Lu! / Mary Mack / Rosie, Darling Rosie / Bluebird, Bluebird / Harlem Children's Rhymes and Gags 

The Jazz Folk. Jelly Roll Morton / Bunk Johnson / Joe Oliver / Louis Armstrong / Preston Jackson / Bessie Smith / Billie Holiday 

Harlem Jive. First Steps in Jive / Harlem Jive Talk, Idioms, Folk Expressions / Rhymed Jive / Willie Cool Digs the Scene / There Is a Square in My Hair, I Do Declare / Here I Come with My Hair Blowing Back / The Barefoot Boy / Bopster Stories / When to Hip a Child / Respect for Work / A Cold Winter 

The "Problem." Heads, I Win-Tails, You Lose / The Way of a Newspaper / The Evolution of Suspicions / Can't Fool the Experts / Passing the Buck / Deep South / The Other Side of the River / Respect for Law / Discretion / Due Respect / Good Mornin' Alligator / Down Home / Lucky / On a Streetcar / Desegregation / Saturday Night / On the Rail / Right-Off-Right-On / The Whole Wide World / Neutrality / Father to Son / Bus Ride / Lenox Avenue Dialogue / Thermometer: Negro Domestics / Black Cats / Plantation Help / Work / Lord's Prayer / Just the Same / Dixie Mother Goose /

You can find out more about both Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps at Wikipedia... and now: enjoy! Wherever you jump into this enormous book, I am sure you will find something you will want to read.

The Book of Negro Folklore

 by Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Affrilachian Tales

After writing about Zora Neale Hurston yesterday, I want to write about a great contemporary storyteller, Lyn Ford, who has written these two beautiful books inspired by her family's storytelling traditions: Affrilachian Tales: Folktales From the African-American Appalachian Tradition and Beyond the Briar Patch: Affrilachian Folktales, Food, and Folklore.

These books were two of my favorite discovering when I was doing some intensive Brer Rabbit research back in the summer of 2019 (you can see the results here: Brer Rabbit: Tales of a Trickster).

It was my first encounter with this brilliant term: Affrilachian. You can find out more about Lyn Ford and her "home-fried tales" at her website: StorytellerLynFord.com

One of my favorite things about her books is the way the sense of family tradition comes shining through. So many of the books of stories that I've written about at this blog have been decontextualized from their tellers and audiences, but Lyn Ford's books are filled with her presence and her family's presence. They are a perfect delight to read!

Here is a list of the stories in the two books:

Affrilachian Tales. Possum and Snake / Why Possum's Tale is Bare / Frog and Rabbit / Fox and Old Man Turtle / Turtle Wants to Fly / Why Dog Chases Cat / Look Every Which-A-Way / Hyena and the Big Cheese / Spider and Snake / The Sing / Three Suitors / Oh, John, No! / No Fishin' on Sunday / Sistah Sarah Mae / No, I'm Not! / Jack and the Old Woman / Zuri Killed Me / A Bedtime Story

Beyond the Briar Patch. The Happy Place / Turtle and Rabbit / Grasshopper and the Ants / Fox and Crow / Mrs. Turtle's Cooking Pot / Pig's Nose / Papa Turtle and Monkey / Rabbit and Fox at the Well / Rabbit and Lion at the Well / Clever Jackie / Josephus / John: The Baby / John: Pig and Possum / John: The Handsomeest Man in the World / Old John and Death / The Devil and the Farmer's Wife / John and the Devil / Jack Finds His Fear / Siftin' Sand / A Sense of Place and Time

Lyn Ford also has some videos at YouTube too! Here's one: her version of Rumpelstiltskin, "By Another Name."

So, these beautiful books await you at the Internet Archive, and you might be inspired to learn more about Affrilachian culture as a result; here's the Wikipedia article to get started.

Affrilachian Tales:

Folktales From the African-American

Appalachian Tradition

by Lyn Ford

Beyond the Briar Patch:

Affrilachian Folktales, Food, and Folklore

by Lyn Ford

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Every Tongue Got to Confess

Yesterday I shared a book by Julian Bagley, a storyteller from Florida, which is the perfect excuse to share one of my very favorite books by one of my very favorite storytellers today: Every Tongue Got to Confess: Negro Folk-tales From the Gulf States by Zora Neale Hurston.

You can find out more about Hurston at Wikipedia. Here's a gorgeous photo you can find at the Library of Congress from 1937 where she is playing a drum:

This amazing book contains over 300 stories that Hurston collected in the 1920s, and it was brought back from oblivion to be published for the first time in 2001. It's an amazing story in and of itself, which you can read about in the book's introduction. The unpublished manuscript turned up at the Smithsonian in the papers of William Duncan Strong, an anthropologist at Columbia and colleague of Franz Boas, who had supported Hurston's work; Hurston had been Boas's student in the 1920s at Columbia. It seems likely that Boas had a copy of the manuscript which ended up in the files of the Anthropology department that were eventually moved into storage in the basement where Strong's papers were also stored, and the whole lot ended up being archived at the Smithsonian, where Hurston's manuscript was discovered decades later.

It is a MIRACLE.

The book also features a foreword by John Edgar Wideman with some great observations about Hurston's writing style and the whole idea of folklore and "oral literature" (more about Wideman at Wikipedia).

Here's an inventory of the stories you will find in this book linked to that specific page at the Internet Archive (some of the stories in Hurston's manuscript had titles, but most did not, so I have supplied those titles myself):

God Tales. Why God Made Adam Last / When God First Put Folks on Earth / When God Made Man / Christ Wuz Going Along / God's Two Boxes / Why Negroes Have Nothing / Why Negroes Are Black / Uncle Ike in de Judgment / God Made de Cabbage / De Lightning / Two Boys, the Sweet Potato, and God / Praying

Preacher Tales. Isaac and Daphne / Gabriel's Trumpet / De Holy Ghost / The Preacher an' de Sheep's Tails / A Man and His Wife Had a Colt / Testimony / A Great Sunday-School Boy / Economical River / A Half Pint of Shinny / A Woman Always in Church / The Rooster / God Grant It! / Aunt Dinah / The Ole Preacher / Called Tuh Preach / Just Done Dat Tuh Try Yo' Faith / De Blood-Stained Banner uh Jesus Christ / Gimme Dat Ole Time Religion / Every Tongue Got to Confess / Two Deacons / Cussin' and Damnin' / Hongry Man / A Great Big Woman / Two Men Hoboing / Changing Pastors / Ole Lady Par'lyzed / The Farmer's New Ground / Man Loved Preachers / Uncle Jeff and the Church / Preacher Had a Son / Preacher in the Pulpit / Shouting and Running / All dem Words Don't Say Preach / A Little Boy Lived on a Hill / Daddy Was a Great Preacher / Two Colored Preachers / Leaving Alabama / I Been to Hell

Devil Tales. The Communion Cup / Bapti' and Meth'dis' / A Man Had Two Sons / The Woman and the Devil / Uh Man Wid Two Horses / Woman Smarter than Devil / The Devil's Daughter / De Devil Took Possession / A Negro and de Devil / De Devil Don't Do Everything They Say / Why We Say "Unh Hunh" 

Witch and Hant Tales. De Witch Woman / The Four Story Lost Lot / The Orphan Boy and Girl and the Witches / The Old Fortune-Teller Woman / De High Chief Devil / High Walker and Bloody Bones 

Heaven Tales. The First Colored Man in Heben / De Flying Negro / Prophets Died and Went to Heaven / Stingy Man in Heaven / Meeting in Heaven / God's Big Blackboard / If Your Lamp Is Low / A Man and His Brother / The Day That President Harding Died 

John and Massa Tales. During Slavery Time / John and Bill / De Chimbley / Ole Missus / Meddling Man / Bear in de Cane Patch / Ole Marsa and Jack / When John Got Tired / Big Sixteen / John / Ole Rooster / Massa's Hogs / John in the Smoke-house / John and de Horse / Jack and his Wife 

Massa and White Folks Tales. Sambo / Stolen Meat / Dat Rain / De Boss Man / Ole Massa's Gun / Deer-Huntin' / A Gold Watch and Chain / De Buggy / De White Man's Prayer / Roofin' uh House / Walkin' Cross de Street / The Black Horse / Hunter / Biscuit Bread / Big Talk / Moufy Emma / Ole Master's Sheep 

Tall Tales. The Ugliest Man / The Meanest Man / A Man So Bad / A Man So Hungry / The Gun and the Bullet / A Nose So Big / A Man So Smart / The Fastest Man / A Man So Lazy / The Tallest Man / The Biggest Man / The Shortest Man / The Stingiest Man / The Blackest Man / The Smallest Wife / So Much Milk / A Cow So Swaybacked / The Fastest Horse / The Poorest Horse / A Mule So Poor / A Hen That Cackled So Much / The Biggest Chickens / Best Trained Mule / The Biggest Pumpkin / Sugar Cane So Large / Watermelon So Large / Biggest Apple / The Biggest Cabbage / Sweet Potato So Big / The Biggest Tree / Rich Ground / On Mississippi River / The Poorest Ground / Country So Hilly / Hard Ground / Hard Wind / It Rained So Hard / So Dry / De Darkest Night / The Hottest Day / The Coldest Day / The Biggest Gate / The Blacksmith / A Boiler So Big / Uh Seed-Tick / De Workenest Pill / Talking about Fishing / Rockefeller and Ford / So Many Fish / Brother So Swift / Train So Fast / River Running So Fast / Hobo Trip out in Texas / Railroad So Crooked / De Grist Mill / Blocks of Ice / A Burning / River on Fire / In a Field I Saw a Man / Crossing the River / Making My Fire / I Wuz Lost / The Largest Sawmill / My Uncle / Muzzle-Loader / De Hongry Bear / Wild Turkeys / Hunting a Deer / The Race Runner / My Pa Had a Gun / Three Thousand Ducks / Rabbit Huntin'

Mosquito and Gnat Tales. Skeeter an' de Hominy Pot / Once in My Home / Clearing Up New Ground / Some Tin Suits / The Boiler / The Fireman / A Man Who Lived in the Country / An Airplane / Me an' My Brother / Me and My Buddy / Coming from Birmingham

Neatest Trick Tales. A Man Had Three Daughters / Three Girls Went to Huntin' / Three Fellows Courtin' de Same Woman / Courtin' uh Man's Daughter / A Big Rabbit / An Old Man Had Three Sons / A Man Had Seven Sons

Mistaken Identity Tales. A Man by the Name of Tom / The Running Death / Uh Persimmon Tree / Prayin' Woman an de' Banjo Man / God an' de Devil in de Cemetery / A Negro Praying / Praying in the Graveyard / A Boy Who Was Always Cussin' / An Old Man, His Son, and Two Good Dogs / Hog-Stealing / Pig in de Poke 

Fool Tales. The Six Fools / Slop for the Hogs / Saving for Mr. Hard Time 

Women Tales. A Lady Sitting by the Fire / A Man and His Wife / A Woman That Had a Sweetheart / De Hoodoo / Cruel Wife / The Wash-Pot / The Widow Woman / No Women in de Army / Pokin' de Fire

School Tales. Going to School / The Man That Sent His Daughter to School / Seven Years of School

Miscellaneous Tales. Good-Time Willie / Scissors / Sam / Pretty Woman, Proud Man / The Load of Wood / Man with Three Coughs / Cutting Wood / Courting a Girl / On the Train / The Old Man and the Old Woman / Grasshopper / De Boll Weevil / The Cotton Patch / Jordan Car / The Old Man, the Old Woman, and the Boy / The Old Woman's Pipe / The White Folks' Graveyard / Fishing on Sunday / Sunday Morning / The Poor Old Lady / Corn / Going to Church / Uncle Sam / The Big Man / The Man That Was Drunk / Hey Cook / Two Rogues / The Man That Stole Some Sheep / Buzzards / The Nigger and the Goat / The Red Silk Shirt / The Mourning-Ground / De Lying Mule / The Pretty Girl / Jack Johnson / Calling Trains / Gold Teeth / The Mobile Disaster / Take Me / Stealing / Hard Times / The Big Grizzle Bear / Man and de Lion / De Animal Congress / Mocking Birds / Terbaccer / Hurrican Met de Tornado / Why the Waves Have White Caps 

Talking Animal Tales. The Pet Monkey / The Stolen Chicken / Bill the Mule / The Fox / Collision / The Rooster's Head / Man Had a Cat

Animal Tales. Rooster and Fox / The Frog and the Mole / Why the Dog Hates the Cat / Why de Donkey's Ear Is Long / De Reason de Woodpecker Got uh Red Head / Why de Buzzard Ain't Got No Home / The Fox and the Hounds / Why de Alligator Is Black / The Flies and God / Why de Cat Has Nine Lives / The Goat / Why de Porpoise's Tail Is on Crosswise / The Lion and the Rabbit / Biddy, Biddy, Hen / De Crane Wuz Hongry / Why the Waves Have White Caps / How Come de Gator Hate de Dog / Why de Gator Got No Tongue / De Rabbit Wants uh Tail / Dirt-Dauber and Bee / The Alligator and de Rabbits / The Snake and God / De Rabbit an' de Elephant / How the Gopher Was Created / Brother Rabbit and Brother Fox / The Snail Crossing the Road / The Possum's Tail / The Rabbit, the Fox, and the Girl / De Gopher in Court / Hawg Under de House / Ole Goose / Tarrypin an' de Fox / The Rabbit and the Bear / Living in the Country / The Snail and His Wife / The Snail Crosses the Road

Note that the animal tales come last here; Zora Neale Hurston was very aware of how the popularity of animal tales had become part of the infantalizing of folklore, associating the tradition with children, making it something "childish" as a whole. So, even though I love the animal tales (they are my main interest!), I have to admire her putting the animal tales last here when they regularly come first in folktale collections by other anthropologists.

Zora Neale Hurston's importance as a folklorist is maybe not as well known as her work as a novelist and essayist. So, if you are a fan of Hurston and want to know more about the work she did collecting and documenting African American storytelling traditions, this is the book to read... and thanks to the Internet Archive, it's just a click away.

Every Tongue Got to Confess:

Negro Folk-tales From the Gulf States

by Zora Neale Hurston