The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales by Virginia Hamilton

This book was a wonderful departure from the previous texts we have read. It was whimsical and mythical. I enjoyed being able to step into a notably fictitious world and allow myself to be mesmerized by the stories. I can’t honestly say I have had very much experience with folktales other than those recreated by Walt Disney and I was pleasantly surprised. As a person who favors contemporary realistic fiction above all else, I found myself more intrigued and interested in the stories than I thought I would be!

The combination of the stories, illustrations and genealogy of the tales made this book a very interesting collection. I really enjoyed the way Hamilton focused on the language of the characters and allowed the dialect to come through to accurately represent the culture from which the story originated, for example: “Don’t know some animal tells. Hear um but forget um” (31). Hamilton later comments that this story is “A version of a dialect plantation tale from the Georgia Sea Isles” (34). Her research and succinct explanations make this book even more enjoyable because the reader can be aware of the historical context: she frames the text for us! I enjoyed imagining these stories being told orally or read aloud while simultaneously showing the illustrations. There is so much that reading aloud can express that one cannot merely get by reading text on a page.

Throughout my reading I thinking that I was becoming privy to a secret language, a code of characters and plots created to inspire hope in slaves through the passing of tales of hope through generations. Hamilton has opened my eyes to a new understanding and appreciation of the story. The creativity and adaptation utilized by Hamilton is incredible. While most of the characters fit an archetype popular in many folktales throughout the world—Bruh Rabbit, Tar Baby and a variety of Johns—Hamilton manages to give them a flair that is all her own and makes the story that much more memorable. For example, in “Doc Rabbit, Bruh Fox and Tar Baby,” Hamilton says “the Tar Baby wasn’t gone speak to a stranger”: a comment most likely added to appeal to a contemporary audience who learned the concept of “stranger danger” as children (15).

I find this set of stories particularly appealing because they can be read at the surface level or beyond. The stories have so much aesthetic appeal (particularly with the added grayscale illustrations!) on their own, it is tempting to read them purely for their beauty and readability, but we all know this is an impossible task for literature students. I also enjoyed the “trickery” tales. However I don’t particularly agree with the phrase “trickery” because that implies that the “bruh” character is doing something wrong when he is doing something to protect himself. He is in fact outsmarting his opponent, rather than tricking him. In the story, “Manuel Had a Riddle” for example, Manuel is trying to outsmart the king in order to earn a fortune to take care of his widowed mother. I found myself cheering for Manuel as he “tricked” the king. I will always appreciate a story in which intelligence defeats power and the latter respects the former’s wishes. “He got his fortune and he took it to his mother. He and his mother then had a lot of everything and ever after they lived happily” (75). In the case of “John and the Devil’s Daughter,” we see both John and the Devil’s daughter working together to outsmart the Devil so that they can live happily ever after. In this case not only does intelligence conquer power but love triumphs over evil.

The story “Little Eight John,” was one of the only tales in the book that dealt with trickery within the family unit (with the exception of “John and the Devil’s Daughter” in which the Devil’s occupation supersedes his family role). In most of the stories, the families are working together to defeat an outside antagonist—symbolic of the dynamic between slave families and plantation owners. In this story, I didn’t much care for the protagonist, Little John who enjoyed at his (somewhat) indirect causal of his family’s misery. However, I still found myself shocked at the severity of his punishment and haunted by the story. But I will remember it, and that is the beauty of these tales. These stories are meant to be remembered, passed on, adopted and adapted for the storyteller and audience alike. Happy reading!