African-American tales place emphasis on beginnings and transformations, whether focused on a character, an event, or the creation of the world. They use their wits to resolve conflict and achieve their goals. Two examples of African-American tricksters are Br'er Rabbit and Anansi. An example is in ''Crawling Into the Elephant's Belly,'' in which Yawarri, an anteater, follows Anansi, the trickster, and blackmails him to be brought to the king's elephants. Yawarri's family is starving, and he is upset at Anansi because of all the elephant meat Anansi is eating, which is the king's property. After jumping the wall, Anansi instructs Yawarri on how to get inside the elephant, telling him only to take a small piece of meat from the elephant so the king will not notice. However, since Yawarri is starving, he eats at the inside of the elephant until it dies. At sunrise, the king finds him in the beast's belly and kills him. The stories are about heroes, heroines, villains, and fools. Some examples: • "The Red Feather": responds to the intertwining of cultures, ending with heroes bringing forth gifts. • "Rabbit Rides Wolf": is a story that represents the amalgamation of African and Creek descent where a hero emerges during a time of conflict. These
anthropomorphic animals made the stories compelling to young children, and included singing, dancing, or themes such as greed, honesty, and loyalty.
Spiritual Ghosts and spirits African-American tales of ghosts and spirits were commonly told of a spook or "haint" or "haunt," referring to repeated visits by ghosts or spirits that keep one awake at night. The story "
Possessed of Two Spirits" recounts a personal experience in conjuring magic powers in both the living and the spiritual world, a common trope in African-American folklore. The story "
Married to a Boar Hog" emerged during the
American Revolution against the British. However, if the judge, or God, does not like the outcome of the situation, they will often invoke a countermeasure to bring order to the situation. In these tales, the God, or gods, are inherently good and do not invoke wrath upon the people, even if the subject veers off the path of righteousness. In African-American tales, the depiction of slavery often employs a rhetoric that may appear unconventional by modern standards, as the language transmitted across generations deviates from the typical racial narrative. When confronted with the harsh reality of slavery, African-American folktales served as a method to cope with the situation and document their history of slavery in America. Chesnutt's tales depict the challenges encountered by freed slaves in the post-war South, offering a reflective view on the difficulties of those who were marginalized during this period. Chesnutt's language surrounding African-American folklore derived from the standards of the racial narrative of his era. By using vernacular language, Chesnutt was able to deviate from the racial norms and formulate a new, more valorized message of folk heroes. Chesnutt writes "on the other side" of standard racial narratives, effectively refuting them by evoking a different kind of "racial project" in his fictional work. In African-American folk stories, High John de Conqueror was an African prince who was kidnapped from Africa and enslaved in the United States. He was a trickster and used his charm to deceive and outsmart his slaveholders. After the
American Civil War, before High John de Conqueror returned to Africa, he told the newly freed slaves that if they ever needed his spirit for freedom, his spirit would be at rest within a root they could use. According to some scholars, the origin of High John de Conqueror may have originated from African male deities such as
Elegua, who is a trickster spirit in West Africa.
Zora Neale Hurston documented some history about High John de Conqueror from her discussions with African Americans in the South in her book,
The Sanctified Church. Some African Americans believed High John de Conqueror freed the slaves, and that President
Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War did not bring freedom for Black people. Aunt Shady Anne Sutton, a woman interviewed by Hurston, affirms this belief: "These young Negroes reads they books and talk about the war freeing the Negroes, by Aye Lord! A heap sees, but a few knows. 'Course, the war was a lot of help, but how come the war took place? They think they knows, but they don't. John de Conqueror had done put it into the white folks to give us our freedom". In consonance with Sutton's statement, it had been the teachings by High John de Conqueror that assisted in the freedom of slaves, as opposed to the efforts by Lincoln and the actions taken during the Civil War. The root also provided protection against whippings from slaveholders and provided freedom from chattel slavery.
Frederick Douglass' experience with the root supports this belief, as it is said he avoided being whipped and beaten by a slave-breaker because he had it in possession. A second instance of the root's impact is told through the eyes of
Henry Bibb, who was born into slavery, as he used the root to protect himself by chewing and spitting it towards his enslaver.
Sukey and The Mermaid In African-American folklore, there is a story about a girl named Sukey meeting a mermaid named Mama Jo. Mama Jo in the story helps and protects Sukey and financially supports her by giving her gold coins. This story comes from the belief in
Simbi spirits from the
Bakongo people of West-Central Africa, who came to the United States during the
trans-Atlantic slave trade. In Africa, Simbi nature spirits protect and provide riches to their followers. In West-Central Africa, there are folk stories of people meeting mermaids. Among the
Gullah Geechee people in the
Carolina Lowcountry and
Sea Islands is a children's story called
Sukey and the Mermaid written by
Robert D. San Souci. In the
African diaspora, there are Afro-American folk stories of a little girl meeting a mermaid. During the era of slavery, Simbi folk stories in enslaved black communities provided hope from enslavement. It was believed that Simbi spirits help guide
freedom seekers (runaway slaves) to freedom or to
maroon communities during their escape from slavery on the
Underground Railroad, because Simbi spirits reside in nature.
Uncle Monday In African-American folklore, Uncle Monday was a
conjurer, medicine man, and
shapeshifter from Africa enslaved in the Southern United States. Uncle Monday escaped from slavery on the Underground Railroad and traveled through South Carolina and Georgia and made his final stop in Florida living amongst the
Seminole people and
Black Seminoles. He led a resistance movement against enslavement using his conjure powers. In the folktale, Seminole people and Black Seminoles beat their drums and Uncle Monday danced to the rhythms of Seminole and African music and turned into an alligator. After turning into an alligator, Uncle Monday went to the swamp waters and the other alligators followed him. In his alligator form, he and the others defeated the slaveholders. This folktale added historical accounts of the alliance between the Seminole people and Black Seminoles and their resistance movement against enslavement, and fictional stories about magic and shapeshifting. ==Impact of African-American folklore==