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Soul Deep: African American Literature and Music

© Meg Greene Malvasi

It is hard to imagine what American literature and music would be like without the contributions of African Americans. From slave spirituals to the moving and powerful writing of former slaves, from the poignant sadness of the blues to the energetic rhythms of hip-hop, blacks made important contributions to the literary and musical culture of the United States. Each of these art forms traces its roots to the blending and recreating of African tradition with European and American culture that took place centuries ago.

As slaves, African Americans found ways to express their sense of joy and sorrow, their identity and their longings. The African-American literary tradition began with the slave narratives, which provided a history of their lives in bondage. Along with the slave narratives, the oral tradition of folktales, which also had its origins in Africa, became in time part of mainstream American culture.

The oral tradition of storytelling, in which African folktales were retold and adapted to fit new surroundings and circumstances, was an important part of everyday slave life. The white southern writer Joel Chandler Harris later collected and published many of these tales. Among Harris's most popular books, Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings was based upon the tales he had heard from slaves as a child.

Perhaps the greatest satisfaction for black writers during the nineteenth century was to have the freedom to write. Learning how to read and write was a tremendous accomplishment for many African-Americans, since southern law prohibited such knowledge to the slaves. Frederick Douglass, himself a former slave, used his eloquence as a writer to persuade Americans to oppose slavery. As the bonds of slavery loosened, black writers clamored to be heard, but the range and scope of their work was limited. Their lives as slaves were practically the only subject in their repertoire. In addition, a serious black writer before 1920 was an oddity in the United States. Despite their talent, many African-American writers remained unknown and their works largely unread.

The turning point in African-American literary history came during the Harlem Renaissance, which extended from the late 1910s to the early 1930s. During the Harlem Renaissance, a number of African-American writers moved away from the earlier emphasis on slavery and, although they heeded the grim reality of racism, explored the meaning of their identity as black people. Yet, even amid the cultural flowering, black writes confronted serious literary and intellectual problems. The African-American historian Nathan I. Huggins, for example, argued that most black writers of the Renaissance either imitated white literary standards or presented an image of blacks as primitives that fit the white racial expectations and stereotypes.

The copyright of the article Soul Deep: African American Literature and Music in Writing from Harlem is owned by Nichel Anderson. Permission to republish Soul Deep: African American Literature and Music in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.