African-American folktales

African-American folktales refer to the storytelling and oral history practices of enslaved African Americans from the 1700s through the 1900s. Common themes in African-American folktales include tricksters, life lessons, heartwarming tales, and slavery. African Americans created folktales that spoke about the hardships of slavery, telling stories of folk spirits who could outwit their slaveholders and defeat their enemies. These folk stories gave hope to enslaved people that folk spirits would liberate them from slavery.

Folktales have been misused to perpetuate negative stereotypes about the African American community, from minstrel shows to academic journals. One of these figures is High John de Conqueror. He often symbolized empowerment for newly freed slaves, saying that if they needed him, his spirit was said to reside in a local root. Other common figures in African American folktales include Anansi, Br'er Rabbit, and Uncle Monday. Many folktales are unique to African-American culture, while African, European, and Native American tales influenced others. In the present, the impact of African American folklore is apparent in Hip-hop music, where themes like gangsters and pimps are influenced by the “badman” and “trickster” archetypes.