African American Oral Tradition Essay

Modern African American Literature was formed chthonic a stressful time for Africans, slavery. The only way the stories of the indigenous pot of Africa were passed down was through oral recollections, or stories of the counterbalancets. In America this was particularly difficult for the slaves because of laws preventing them from nobbleing English. By not being allowed to learn English, the slaves had to learn English solely on auditory purposes. This essentially made the slaves illiterate.When the slaves transferred the terminology that they heard to paper, a new style of language was formed which was referred to as dialect. Dialect is what the slaves thought they heard and the correct spelling of those words, not timeworn English. Dunbar, who wrote fluently in both standard English and dialect was praised by white critics only for his dialect poems, and not praised for his poems in standard English. His literacy whole kit and caboodle ar still alive today, however the dial ect works were addicted with a stigma. Usually whites despised the Africans dialect.Therefore, the slaves would not guess to publish any type of work with dialect because the slaves did not lack to be associated with the stigma. In all, by creating a unique dialect gave the slaves a bilingual type of style. By not being able to write, slaves as well as made Genres such as, unearthly, folk songs and gospels. Songs such as these were ways of limiting down stories to the next generation. These songs also contained secret messages. These messages may have contained info about escape routes or even the underground- railroad.However most of the songs were spiritual in nature. The songs also progressed through the years. The originals slave folk songs, spirituals, and gospels are now prevalent in modern day jazz and the blues. Martin even gives the example of Hayden, who mixes his song ideas with the ideas of Bessie Smith. Even though African are allowed to exact and write, this is a form how their culture is still expressed today. Martin made the tenseness that the oral tradition is part of the African Americans distinct culture.