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∎ Libro Free AfroAmerican Folk Lore Told Round Cabin Fires On the Sea Islands of South Carolina Abigail M H Christensen 9781298665515 Books

AfroAmerican Folk Lore Told Round Cabin Fires On the Sea Islands of South Carolina Abigail M H Christensen 9781298665515 Books



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AfroAmerican Folk Lore Told Round Cabin Fires On the Sea Islands of South Carolina Abigail M H Christensen 9781298665515 Books

This book is one of the foundations of African-American folklore collections in the United States. Essentially, Miss Christensen was a White Northerner who recorded the tales of African-American ex-slaves and Gullah speakers in South Carolina's St. Helena Island in the 1870s. In 1877, one of those tales (included here) was among the first known publications of "Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby," a few years before the white Georgian Joel Chandler Harris gained more fame from the "rabbit stories" (as the indigenous call them). While Miss Christensen was the first to publish one of these stories, Harris's collection was published 12 years before she was able to find a publisher for her collection.

Interestingly, one of her informants, a black man named Prince Baskins, says that his African grandfather told him these tales. Recent studies indicate that he may have been right, as simiarities about between these proverbs of rabbits, alligators, and the like and actual African folktales. Unfortuantely, the tales are somewhat marred by Miss Christensen's sentiments that were common to her times, such as refering to the "monkey-like" appearance of some of her black informants. The stories themselves are written authentically in phonetic Gullah, but those who are not familiar with how this dialect sounds to the ear will find the book almost incomprehensible. Like other Gullah folklorists such as Ambrose Gonzales and Samuel Stoney, she does her job a bit too well in this aspect.

Overall, folklorists, storytellers, and those interested in Gullah culture will find this an interesting read.

Product details

  • Hardcover 144 pages
  • Publisher Andesite Press (August 11, 2015)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10 1298665515

Read AfroAmerican Folk Lore Told Round Cabin Fires On the Sea Islands of South Carolina Abigail M H Christensen 9781298665515 Books

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AfroAmerican Folk Lore Told Round Cabin Fires On the Sea Islands of South Carolina Abigail M H Christensen 9781298665515 Books Reviews


Abigail Christensen was the daughter of Northern abolitionists who came down to the South Carolina Sea Islands during the Civil War to assist the newly freed slaves in their transition to freedom. Growing up among Gullah people, she learned their language and heard their extraordinary folktales about Buh Rabbit, Buh Fox, Buh Bear, etc. Later, when she was a college student in the North, her professors encouraged her to compile the stories she had collected and written down into a book. Her "Afro-American Folk Lore" was originally published in 1892. Christensen's knowledge of Gullah was not as deep as that of the former slaveowner Charles Colcock Jones, Jr. whose story collection ("Negro Myths of the Georgia Coast," 1888) is also a classic work of Gullah folklore, but her book is an enormously valuable document of Gullah culture nonetheless. Christensen's stories even contain a few phrases in African languages, reflecting the early date at which they were collected. As far as I know, the African language (or languages) of these phrases has never been identified. This would be a great project someday for some enterprising young linguist. This collection has been igored by scholars for decades (though a full-scale biography of Christensen was recencly published), but with all the interest in Gullah culture these days, it is just a matter of time before these stories are rediscovered and republished in a popular edition.
This book is one of the foundations of African-American folklore collections in the United States. Essentially, Miss Christensen was a White Northerner who recorded the tales of African-American ex-slaves and Gullah speakers in South Carolina's St. Helena Island in the 1870s. In 1877, one of those tales (included here) was among the first known publications of "Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby," a few years before the white Georgian Joel Chandler Harris gained more fame from the "rabbit stories" (as the indigenous call them). While Miss Christensen was the first to publish one of these stories, Harris's collection was published 12 years before she was able to find a publisher for her collection.

Interestingly, one of her informants, a black man named Prince Baskins, says that his African grandfather told him these tales. Recent studies indicate that he may have been right, as simiarities about between these proverbs of rabbits, alligators, and the like and actual African folktales. Unfortuantely, the tales are somewhat marred by Miss Christensen's sentiments that were common to her times, such as refering to the "monkey-like" appearance of some of her black informants. The stories themselves are written authentically in phonetic Gullah, but those who are not familiar with how this dialect sounds to the ear will find the book almost incomprehensible. Like other Gullah folklorists such as Ambrose Gonzales and Samuel Stoney, she does her job a bit too well in this aspect.

Overall, folklorists, storytellers, and those interested in Gullah culture will find this an interesting read.
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