African-American folktales

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African-American folktales are the storytelling and oral history of enslaved African Americans during the 1700s–1900s. Prevalent themes in African-American folktales include tricksters, life lessons, heartwarming tales, and slavery. African Americans created folktales that spoke about the hardships of slavery and told stories of folk spirits that could outwit their slaveholders and defeat their enemies. These folk stories gave hope to enslaved people that folk spirits would liberate them from slavery.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Folktales have been used to perpetuate negative stereotypes about the African American community, from minstrel shows to academic journals.^[6][7] One of these heroes that they looked up to was the charming High John de Conqueror, who was a cunning trickster against his slave masters. He often empowered newly freed slaves, saying that if they needed him, his spirit would be in a local root.^[1][2][3] Other common figures in African American folktales include Anansi, the Br'er Rabbit, and Uncle Monday. Many folktales are unique to African-American culture, while African, European, and Native American tales influenced others.^[8] In the present, the impact of African American folklore is apparent in Hip-Hop music, where themes like gangsters and pimps draw heavily from the “badman” and “trickster” archetypes.^[9]