Vernacular Tradition in African American Literature

      Throughout all of the literary works that we've read, vernacular tradition has been expressed in various forms. Ranging from dialect, religious folklore, and ancestral acknowledgements, vernacular tradition is not confined to a specific genre. As expressed by Oxford Bibliographies, vernacular in African American Literature "permeates nearly every cultural aspect of black lives and history throughout the African diaspora." Vernacular tradition of African American literature conveys so many aspects of African American lives and history, passing on culture, history, and tradition across generations. It also acts a way of challenging dominant literary norms present at the time. In this blog, I'm going to be focusing on three examples of how vernacular tradition has presented itself in our texts.

      Religious folklore, specifically Christian folklore, is a significant aspect of the vernacular tradition present in African American literature across many works. Biblical references, like the story of Moses, can be seen in the works that we've read. In this class, our first encounter with the story of Moses was seen in the African American spiritual "Go Down, Moses." Rooting back to the period of slavery, this spiritual focuses completely on the story of Moses, which acts as a parallel to the conditions that the slaves encountered at the time. The story of Moses acted as a sense of hope for slaves that God was watching over and that, just like the Israelites under Moses, they would be freed in the same manner. The same story of Moses presents itself in Paul Lawrence Dunbar's poem, "An Ante-Bellum Sermon." In this poem, a pre-civil war preacher preaches on the story of Moses, and just like in "Go Down, Moses," it preaches a message of hope to the fellow slaves. Despite "Go Down, Moses" and "An Ante-Bellum Sermon" being written many years apart, the significance of religious folklore persists in African American Literature.

      Written dialect is also a major aspect of the vernacular tradition of African American Literature. As seen in many of our readings, it's common that authors write in the same manner as you would hear the spoken dialect of African American individuals. Dunbar's poem, "An Ante-Bellum Sermon," is an excellent example of how written dialect is portrayed in African American literature. In this poem, it's obvious to see that the poem is written in the same dialect that would be present if a real pastor was speaking. However, the poem also portrays the phrasing of the pastor's sermon too. Pastors are excellent and moving speakers during sermons, and a major factor of their effectiveness is how they use silence to emphasize specific phrases of their sermon. In the poem, you can see how Dunbar uses em dashes to show the dramatic pauses that pastors would normally have. In doing so, Dunbar transforms the written language into a living speech, showing how African American vernacular tradition preserves not just speech but also tradition.

      Ancestral acknowledgement is a very subtle aspect of vernacular tradition in African American literature. To elaborate, often in African American literature, authors refer back to Africa (or a specific country within Africa), as their ancestral homeland. For example, you can see it quickly referenced in Booker T. Washington's autobiography when he references the Africa as the fatherland ("[people are] constantly returning to African as missionaries to enlighten those who remained in the fatherland"). However, there are also examples that are very bold in their nature of ancestral acknowledgement like the poem "Ode to Ethiopia." From the beginning of the poem, it begins with the bold proclamation, "O Mother Race! to thee I bring / This pledge of faith unwavering, / This tribute to thy glory." Among various works in African American literature, the presence of ancestral acknowledgement prevails over time. Through subtle references and bold declarations, ancestral acknowledgement displays vernacular tradition by preserving a connection to African heritage and affirming cultural identity across generations.