How African American Literature Shows Its Influence from Vernacular Tradition
How African American Literature Shows Its Influence from Vernacular Tradition
Vernacular tradition was a way of passing down information from generation to generation and recording history for slaves who were denied the right to read. Vernacular tradition proved useful to slaves in many ways, from remembering their past in Africa to somehow understanding with surprising accuracy contemporary issues, such as information about the Civil War. When African Americans were granted the right to read, the influence of vernacular tradition appeared in their literature. Specifically, the references to vernacular tradition in Harriet Jacobs’ and Booker T. Washington’s story reflects the influence vernacular tradition had on African American Literature.
Harriet Jacobs’ choice of speech in different dialogues shows that “vernacular speech” in African American literature portrayed the socioeconomic classes of different American classes. Throughout most of her story, Harriet Jacobs writes in Standard English. She mentions that she herself knows how to read and how unique that is. Few of her friends and relatives take on the speech of Standard English, instead taking on a more African American vernacular speech dialect. Throughout the story, we see Jacobs writing other Black people’s dialogues as more "vernacular" to match their accent. A great example of the differentiation of illiterate and literate Black speech can be found in Chapters XVII (17) “The Flight” and XL (40) “The Fugitive Slave Law”. In Chapter 17, Jacobs’ speaks to another slave woman who was likely illiterate (Jacobs, 159). Here, the reader can clearly see her speech differentiated from her friend, as they exchange in a back to back dialogue, something that rarely occurs in this narrative. The second is when Jacobs speaks to a slave named Luke who most likely was not granted the right to read, granted Jacobs’ description of his experience as a slave (Jacobs). The fact that Harriet Jacobs and her grandmother spoke Standard English while others didn't signifies that dialect could determine how more exposure to vernacular tradition than written literature influenced the dialect between Blacks with higher vs. lower socioeconomic place in their societies in African American literature.
Harriet Jacobs and Booker T. Washington’s experiences themselves reflect the influence of vernacular tradition in African American literature. The majority of Harriet Jacobs' relatives do not pass down their information via literature or signs, but rather through the “grapevine telegraph”. The fact that Harriet Jacobs mostly got her information through the grapevine telegraph made her story unique and definitely shows the influence of vernacular tradition in African American literature. Similarly, a reader of Washington’s work can also see the influence of the “grapevine telegraph” on his literature. On page 5 of “Up from Slavery”, Washington says his mother was praying that Lincoln and his armies succeed and how he was surprised how the illiterate slaves “...were able to keep themselves so accurately and completely informed about the great National questions that were agitating the country,” (Washington 5). These are few of the many examples of how the role that the “grapevine telegraph” played in Black people’s lives in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries differentiated African American narratives from other contemporary forms of narratives in America. These differentiated narratives led to unique forms of literature formed by Black writers.
The vernacular tradition had a huge influence in African American literature. African American literature often portrays the social and economic status of African Americans within the stories through dialogue, which portrays common African American folk as having African American Vernacular English, and the people with higher socioeconomic status, opportunities, and education as having Standard English. It also influences the types of narratives and literature being produced by African Americans, as vernacular tradition shaped the experiences of Black authors, forming Black American Literature as a unique form of literature compared to the traditional European-American literature at that era.
Citations:
Literature:
Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Boston, Thayer & Eldridge, 1861.
Washington, Booker T. Up from Slavery. Doubleday, Page & Co., 1901.
Images:
"Harriet Jacobs: A Beacon of Resistance Against the Darkness of Slavery." Group Post News, 10 Oct. 2023, www.postnewsgroup.com/harriet-jacobs-a-beacon-of-resistance-against-the-darkness-of-slavery/
Daniels, Patricia E. "Biography of Booker T. Washington, Early Black Leader and Educator." ThoughtCo., 22 Jan. 2020,
www.thoughtco.com/booker-t-washington-1779859.
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This blog was amazing Milky because similar to me you went over "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" and "Up from Slavery." However I loved how instead of doing something similar to what I did you showed your readers Vernacular Tradition and demonstrated how that was incorporated in both books. While I was reading your blog I recognized the examples of Vernacular Tradition but had never known what it was called until now.
ReplyDeleteMilky, I like your comments on how AAVE was deeply intertwined with socioeconomic status, especially with your precise details on Jacobs' autobiography. In the poetic works written during or before the Harlem Renaissance, there's a resurgence in the use of AAVE as a poetic form in numerous writers. Do you think that AAVE shifted to become more of a symbol of Black nationalism and form of expression rather than an indicator of education in future eras? It was interesting to see Jacobs' specific uses of AAVE in her writing, and it makes sense considering her audience.
ReplyDeleteHey Milky! This is a very cohesive and attention-grabbing blog. I really liked the way you structured the images with your text. You make excellent points about how vernacular tradition influenced both Jacobs and Washington. All in all, your analysis really shows how vernacular tradition not only shaped communications but also gave African American literature its unique voice comparatively to American writing. I also did my blog on vernacular tradition, and I took a different approach but still found this to be quite interesting. Amazing work Milky!
ReplyDeleteHi Milky, I appreciated your thoughtful connections between the stories we read and the influence of the vernacular tradition. I definitely agree that it has been shown to be a culturally significant aspect throughout history, and we can witness its translation into literature as well. In a sense, I feel like literature as a kind of expression is also a form of art, and the vernacular tradition creates an enriched experience with heart and soul shared through unique narratives. In addition to what you said about how vernacular dialogue separated characters, giving more context and information, I think it also could create a new sense of depth and really bring voices to life. Great work!
ReplyDeleteHi Milky! The connection between the grapevine telegraph and Black vernacular tradition was not one I had made before, so reading your blog was very educational and enlightening. I normally think of the vernacular tradition as being a linguistic variation from "standard" English, whereas the grapevine telegraph is more so a communication /channel/, more than a method. However, to make that distinction is to forget why the vernacular tradition arose in the first place -- as a way for enslaved people to communicate with each other with encoded language (like Go Down Moses and other spiritual hymns that conceal a deeper message of freedom and Black resilience) that white landowners would not have access to. In that way, the vernacular tradition not only symbolizes a separation of Black and White that led to distinct linguistic evolutions, but also an effort by enslaved Black people to spread information among themselves in a form of communication white people were not privy to (see Washington's quote about learning about news before his owners did, for example). Amazing blog -- you really made me think deeply in a way I didn't expect!
ReplyDeleteHi Milky! I really enjoyed how you connected the vernacular tradition as not just to language but also to communication systems like the grapevine telegraph! It was really interesting how you showed that these oral traditions were both expressiong and survival for enslaved people. Do you think Jacobs and Washington used Standard English to appeal to white audiences, or was it more about showing the range of Black speech traditions? Great job, I really enjoyed reading this article!
ReplyDeleteHi Milky, I like how you talk about how it is used to show speech. Well reading sometimes I would have to say it out loud to understand what I was reading. I have never thought about how because most people could not read or write their stories where told my tongues. People would always talk to each other to keep up to date. I also think that Vernacular Tradition extended vicariously affected their community and social involvement. Good Blog :)
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