African Diaspora at the Internet Archive: Spreadsheet (5)

Another "Spreadsheet Friday" and I've crossed a new milestone: there are over 4000 stories now listed in the African Diaspora Folktale Spreadsheet, from 65 different books and articles at the Internet Archive as sources!

And, of course, the big African Folktale Spreadsheet is available also, with over 10,000 stories there.

If you're curious about the process behind these two projects, I'll be giving a talk on March 30, together with Helen Nde of @MythologicalAfricans (yay!), as part of the Internet Archive's Library-as-Laboratory series. You can find out more about that at the Internet Archive blog. The recording of last week's presentation is available, then there will be another talk this Wednesday (March 16), and then Helen and I will be coming up next in the series after that on March 30. :-)

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Folklore of the Sea Islands

After writing about Gullah resources this week (Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday), I wanted to share another monumental book of stories from the South Carolina Sea Islands collected by folklorist Elsie Clews Parsons and published in 1923: Folklore of the Sea Islands, South Carolina. 

You will find over 200 stories in this book (many in multiple versions), plus riddles, proverbs, toasts, verses, games, songs, and folk traditions. Here is a list of titles linked to pages at the Internet Archive: Dog and Dog-Head / Playing Godfather / Playing Godfather: Tell-tale Grease / Tell-tale Grease / Selling Mothers: Tell-tale Grease / Tell-tale Grease: Mock Plea / Fire Test: Mock Plea / Rabbit seeks Endowments / Gives Himself Away / Guessing a Name / Ramstampeldam / Woman-Cat / Tar Baby / Tar Baby: Mock Plea (In the Brier-Patch) / Tar Baby: Mock Plea: Refugees in the Roof: Watcher Tricked / Frog Escapes / Playing Poisoned / Buried Tail / Mock Fire: Buried Tail / Fatal Imitation / The Password (Honey-Tree) / The Password (Eagle-Nest) / The Password (In the Store): Take my Place / God Above / Cartload of Fish / Who Dives the Longest: Cartload of Fish / The False Message / The False Message: Take my Place / The False Message: Take my Place: Ants in the Hole / Decoyed: "Fly, don't worry me!" Mock Plea / Playing Sick / The Chosen Suitor / The Chosen Suitor: The Devil's "Yes" / The Chosen Suitor: The Forbidden Room / Tiger's Wife / Tiger's Wife: Magic Flight / The Devil's Daughter / Rabbit makes Wolf his Horse / Rabbit makes Wolf his Horse: Watcher Tricked / Insult Midstream: Rabbit makes Alligator his Horse / Insult Midstream / Dilatory Buzzard / The Lazy Man / House A-Fire / Don't Suck your Teeth / God and Fortune / Only a Lamb / Seeing Trouble / Broom-Straw A-Fire / Tar Baby: Blinding the Owner: Broom-Straw A-Fire / Bewitching the Master / Witch-Man and Rooster / Out of her Skin / To meet in Hell / Watch or Rattlesnake / Watch or Rattlesnake: "Knee-Deep" and "Better go Round" / Tie me Tight! / Dividing the Souls / The Three Dreams / Big-Claw and Little-Claw / The Talking Mule / Racing a Ghost / Purgatory / Chair-Bound / Man in Liquor / Trackwell, Divewell, Breathewell / Master Disguised / The Irishman and the Donkeys / Treaty of Peace / Relay Race / Asleep in the Race / Frog Pays / Escape up the Tree / The Deserted Children: Escape up the Tree: Rescue of the King's Daughter / The Rich Old Man / The Doctor and his Man / The Three Sweethearts / Man under the Bed / The Two Cowards / Minstrel Monologue / On the Log / Gooseberry Gallows / Used to it / Landing is Hell / Lucky Hunter / Lucky Hunter: Tooth Out / Three more Damn Fools / Unruly Children / Splinter in his Toe / The Giant Pumpkin / Hackumsaw / The Big Bull / Gallinipper and the Oyster-Boat / Gallinipper on the Bridge / Sundown / The Widow's Son and the Lion / In Arkansaw / Tornado / Rattlesnake Pilot / Sport on Sunday / The Bag of Stories / The Bald-Headed Wife / Boiling Water on the Rice / Rabbit envies Crane / Sends for her Husband / The Dreamer / Three Men in a Boat / One-Foot Man and One-Arm Man / Worm-Tracks / In the Oven / On the House-Top / Under the Ground and over the Ground / Endures Mosquitoes / Too Lazy to live / The Master Thief / All Mine: I might, and I might not / The Blind Old Woman / Feasting on Dog / Old Bones / Wolf! Wolf! / Dead Duck and Wounded Duck / The Single Ball / Spit on my Hand / Who darkens the Hole? / Fasting-Trial / Wait upon the Lord / Sunrise calls / Guinea-Hen Call / Prayer / Cinderella / Nice to the Ladies / The Widow won / The Murderous Mother / The Apple-Tree / Fish to Every Cut / Buried Treasure / Curry-Comb Fodder / Never shake nor shiver / The Lion's Toss / A Little While I gone / Hard-boiled / Paul / Changing Places / The Murderous Husband / Robber Bridegroom / The Clever Companions / Mr. Hard-Times / The Girl who learned to talk Proper / Suitors who would talk Proper / Old Thief and Young Thief / Gallinipper and Mosquito / The Imitative Choir / By God! / Boot or no Boot / In the Well / The Mermaid / Cow Partnership / Prize Jumper / The Frightened Guest / Three Preachers / Illusion / The End of the Family / Sunday Dinner / Jacob's Call / John Bunyan / Crane loses his Fish / The Give-Away (Mock Funeral) / The Music-Box / The Haunted House / Incriminating the Other Fellow / The Boy and his Cap / Duck-Egg, Hen-Egg, and Goose-Egg / The Milk that Wolf got / A Prayer in the Bulrushes / Watch Overboard / How can a Boar-Hog have Pigs? / Bible, or Cards / Stick-Lick / Riddles / Proverbs / Toasts / John Brown's Body / Grizzly Bear / The Rose is Red / Jordan / So, Mister Brown! (a Dance-Song) / Little Sissie (a Dance-Song) / True-Love, True-Love / Lifeboat / Nancy Beulah / Sun and Moon / Lady, string those Beans! / London Bridge / Here comes a Bluebird! / Old Grandmother in the Dining-Room / The Farmyard / Sandy Grey / Johnny Smoker / Who dat a-ticklein' me? / He shall hang to-morrow / Old Ned / The Maid freed from the Gallows / Titanic / Ship on the Ocean / Down on my Knees / Good News, Dinah, Good News! / The Whole World on Fire.

The song section includes the musical transcription too:

This is just the first of many contributions from Elsie Clews Parsons that I will be featuring in this blog series; she was one of the most significant scholars of African American folktales and folkways in the early 20th century, and she also studied Native American traditions. Parsons was born in 1875 in New York City and graduated from Barnard College in 1896, and then received a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1899. In addition to her work as a folklorist, she was a radical feminist in her day. You can read more about her life and work at Wikipedia. (The article is strangely silent on her work with African American folklore, so after I finish this series of blog posts about her contributions, I'll see if I can update that article.)

So, I'll dedicate next week to more of Parsons' work; meanwhile, enjoy this wide-ranging collection of stories from the Sea Islands. It is one of the most important collections of African American folktales of the early 20th century.

Folklore of the Sea Islands, South Carolina

by Elsie Clews Parsons

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Gullah Texts and Audio

After writing about Charles C. Jones's 19th-century collection of Gullah folktales, I want to write about two other white collectors of Gullah stories, Abbie Christensen and Albert Stoddard.

Unlike Jones and Stoddard (see below), Abbie Mandana Holmes Christensen was not a southerner by birth; she was born in 1852 in Massachusetts and attended Mount Holyoke College. She then moved to South Carolina where she became a civil rights and suffrage activist, and she was also one of the founders of the Port Royal Agricultural School, which was a school for African American students in Beaufort, South Carolina. In 1892, she published this collection of Gullah stories: Afro-American Folk Lore, Told Round Cabin Fires on the Sea Islands of South Carolina.

Here is a list of the stories in the book, linked to their pages at the Internet Archive: Cooter an' Deer / De Tiger an' de Nyung Lady / De Reason Why Dog Hates Cat an' Cat Hates Dog / De Rabbit an' de Elephant Tushes / De Rabbit, de Bear an' de Locus' Tree / De Reason Br'er Rabbit Wears a Short Tail / The Rabbit Desires a Long Tail / De Rabbit an' de Alligator / De Reason Why de 'Gator Stan' So / De Rabbit, de Wolf an' de Alligator / De Rabbit, de Wolf an' de Tar Baby / De Rabbit, de Wolf an' de Keg of Butter / Br'er Rabbit an' Br'er Wolf Gone ter de Weddin' in Style / Br'er Rabbit an' Br'er Wolf Go to a Party an' Hunt de Deer / Br'er Rabbit an' Br'er Wolf Plant Pertater an' Hunt Honey / De Wolf, de Hog an' de Lion / De Wolf, de Rabbit an' de Whale's Eggs.

Albert H. Stoddard was born in 1872 and grew up on Daufuskie Island, South Carolina. In 1948, he went to the Library of Congress and asked them to record his readings of Gullah stories he had learned, and the three record albums are all available at the Internet Archive: Animal Tales Told In The Gullah Dialect, record 1 - record 2 - record 3. (The texts were later published in a book entitled Gullah Animal Tales from Daufuskie Island, South Carolina, but that book is not at the Internet Archive, although you can find used copies at online booksellers.)

Here is a list of the specific stories, linked to those specific tracks on the album: How Buh Houn Got His Long Mouth / How Buh Houn Git E Long Tongue / How Buh Wasp Gets His Small Waist / How Buh Buzzut Lost de Fedder on E Head / How Buh Tarrapin Git E Ma'kin / A'Allgetter Sees Trouble / Buh Rabbit Fools B'Olifaum and Buh Whale / The Tar Baby / Sneak Een E Buzzom / Man Git E Adam Apple / Buh Partridge Outhides Buh Rabbit / Buh Black Sneak Git Ketch / Buh Rabbit Berry Lub Peas / Buh Rabbit Want No Acknowledge / Buh Rabbit Eats Buh Fox's Butter / Buh Deer and Buh Rabbit Race / Cow Tail een de Ma-a-ash / Buh Rabbit and Buh Wolf Go Hunting / Grandaddy Ridin' Hoss / E Might Ober Run de Law / Dat Cow Done Pizen / Long Bill Duh Good Ting / Don't Trus Buh Rattlesneak Wud / Buh Wolf Lone Gat Chillum / Open Yo Mout B'Allegetter / Buh Fox and Buh Rooster / Uh Done Kill B'Allegetter / Buh Rabbit Loses His Head.

So if you want to read and/or listen, the Internet Archive has these valuable Gullah resources available. And I'll be back tomorrow with even more Gullah stories; the Gullah tradition has been and continues to be one of the most vibrant African legacies in the Americas.

Afro-American Folk Lore

Told Round Cabin Fires

on the Sea Islands of South Carolina

by Abbie Christensen

Animal Tales Told In The Gullah Dialect

by Albert Stoddard

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Negro Myths From the Georgia Coast

Yesterday I shared some Gullah stories retold for children, and today I want to start reviewing some of the sources for Gullah stories. One of the earliest and most important collections is by Charles Colcock Jones, Jr., born in 1831, a politician in Georgia (he was elected mayor of Savannah in 1860), who collected stories from slave storytellers, and later freed slaves, which he published in 1888:  Negro Myths From the Georgia Coast, told in the vernacular (that vernacular being Gullah).

Here is a list of the stories linked to their pages at the Internet Archive: How Come Buh Alligatur Nebber Sleep Fur From De Ribber Bank / Buh Tukrey Buzzud an De Rain / How Buh Cooter Fool Buh Deer / Buh Wolf, Buh Rabbit, an De Tar Baby / Buh Fowl-hawk an Buh Rooster / Buh Tukrey Buzzud an De King Crab / De King, Eh Darter, Buh Wolf, an Buh Rabbit / Buh Partridge an Buh Rabbit / De Ole Man an De Gallinipper / Buh Sparruh / Buh Alligatur an Buh Mash-hen / Buh Fowl-hawk an Buh Tukrey Buzzud / Buh Wolf an Buh Rabbit / Buh Wolf an De Two Dinner / Buh Owl an Buh Rooster / Buh Lion an Buh Goat / Buh Bear an Buh Tiger / Buh Monkey an De Bull-dog / Buh Elephant an Buh Rooster / De Po Man an De Snake / Leely Gal, Buh Alligatur, an De Jay-bud / De Cat, De Rat, De Cheese, an De Fox / Buh Rabbit an De Tarruh Beastises / Buh Wolf, Buh Rabbit, an De Butter / De Eagle an Eh Chillun / Chanticleer an De Ban-yad Rooster / Buh Rabbit an De Groun-mole / Buh Rabbit an De Rock-soup / De Two Fren and De Bear / De Ole Man an Det / De King an Eh Ring / Buh Lion, Buh Rabbit, Buh Fox, an Buh Roccoon / Buh Rabbit, Buh Wolf, an De Porpus / De Debble an May Belle / De Ole Man an De Coon / Buh Rabbit and De Crawfish / Buh Rabbit an Buh Elephunt / Buh Rabbit, Buh Wolf, an Buh Possum / Buh Rabbit, Buh Wolf, an De Holler Tree / Buh Rabbit an De Cunjur Man / Buh Rabbit, Buh Fox, an De Fisherman / Buh Rabbit, Buh Wolf, an De Yearlin / Buh Rabbit, Buh Wolf, De Dog, an De Goose / Buh Squirle an Buh Fox / Buh Rabbit, Buh Wolf, an De Buckra Man / Buh Rabbit an Buh Wolf Funeral / De New Nigger an Eh Mossa / Buh Rabbit an De King Darter / De Single Ball / Buh Roccoon an Buh Possum / Buh Wolf, Buh Rabbit, an De Rain / Buh Alligatuh, Buh Rabbit an Buh Wolf / De Dyin Bull-frog / Buh Rabbit, Buh Pattridge, an De Cow / De Fiddler, Buh Tiger, an Buh Bear / De Ole King an De Noung King / Buh Goat an Buh Wolf / Dentistry at the Old Plantation Home / The Negro and the Alligator / Sperits / Daddy Jupiter's Vision.

The Gullah stories can be hard to read, even more so with the "eye-dialect" that attempts to reproduce the pronunciation, so I have prepared versions of the stories with the eye-dialect removed. Those versions are still in Gullah, but with standardized spelling instead of the eye-dialect. So, for example, here's what the Sun says to the Hawk in Jones's version:

De Sun, eh say: "Budder, ef you kin ketch me in me bed, me gree fuh fine you in bittle."

And here's how it appears in mine:

The Sun, he say, "Brother, if you can catch me in me bed, me agree for find you in vittle." 

You can find my versions listed in Diigo, where each story links to a Google Doc page.

This is a project from a few years ago when I was still at the university so I used Hathi Trust as my digital library (and it is a great one!), but now of course I have shifted over to Internet Archive where, in addition to public domain materials, there are all kinds of more recent books available with Controlled Digital Lending (yay!).

At some point I would like to edit those versions of Jones's stories a bit more and publish them as a book... and then I can deposit that book at the Internet Archive too!

Negro Myths From the Georgia Coast

by Charles C. Jones, Jr.

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Bo Rabbit Smart for True

Yesterday's post was about the folktales that Zora Neale Hurston collected in Florida, and today I wanted to shift to the Sea Islands off the coast of Georgia and South Carolina. These islands have been a home to generations of Gullah speakers, and I'm going to spend the next few days on Gullah stories and resources; for an overview, you can find out more about the Gullah language at Wikipedia.

The book I will start with is not in actual Gullah (I'll share some books in Gullah tomorrow and beyond); instead, this is a lovely children's book in which some stories recorded in Gullah have been retold in literary English for a young audience: Bo Rabbit Smart for True: Folktales From the Gullah by Priscilla Jaquith.

There are 4 stories here: Bo Rabbit Smart for True / Alligator's Sunday Suit / Bo Rabbit's Hide-and-Seek / Rattlesnake's Word, with notes on each story in the back, plus a detailed bibliography.

The illustrations are by Ed Young, and they are done in a kind of cartoon style, with each story illustrated by a series of small panels. Here's what a typical page looks like; you can see Bo Rabbit here with Elephant (and yes, this is a famous African story; there are no elephants on the Sea Islands... but there are stories about elephants!).

As you can see from the book's title with the Gullah idiom "for true" there, even though the stories have been retold in literary English there is still some sense of their Gullah origins, with "Bo" instead of "Brer" as the term of address among the animals, including the notorious trickster, Bo Rabbit. It's a great way to get started becoming familiar with some of the stories that are popular in Gullah tradition, and I'll be back tomorrow with some more Gullah stories... next time IN Gullah.

Bo Rabbit Smart for True:

Folktales From the Gullah

by Priscilla Jaquith

The book cover has a kind of funky design; here's what it looks like with the spine and inside flap:

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