African Americans expressed one recurrent theme the weak must assert themselves against the strong because while the latter may have controlled the slave’s outer world, that power was neither permanent nor irrevocable. Folktales are used to describe the hopes, dreams and desire of free will for the slaves.
Slaves have been having their dreams trampled on for hundreds of years. Slaves can only access so much when they are in bondage, or enslaved by white oppressors. David Walker brings up this point in his writings. “I can upon the very tyrant himself, to show me a page of history either sacred or profane, on which a verse can be found which maintains that the Egyptians heaped the insupportable insult upon the children of Israel, by telling them that they were not of the human family. Can the white deny this charge? Have they not after having reduced us to the deplorable condition of slaves under their feet, held us up as descending originally from the tribes of monkeys” (253). I agree with Walker’s stance that whites say we are lower than them and have suffered greatly due to this labeling affect which has damaged the psyche of black people. What is fascinating is that white men were sleeping with black women and fathering children but taboo says this was not verbally acknowledged yet we are less than human. If we are all beasts than why were the slave masters (white men) having sex with animals because they found black women attractive but tried to hinder these thoughts be demoralizing black people. This caused strive and animosity in the black families due to the man not being able to protect his woman and the only result was submissiveness.
Slaves can almost never know hope if we are excluded from achieving a better future. Slaves have only known chains, beatings, verbal abuse, and the possibility of death which makes living life bleak. This point is delivered home by Charles Chesnutt in his written work of No More Shall They in bondage Toil. “And then suppose that accident should bring to his knowledge the fact that the wife of his youth, the wife he left behind him, not one who had walked by his side and kept pace with him in his upward struggle but one upon whom advancing years and a laboring life had set their mark was alive and seeking him, but that he had absolutely safe from recognition or discovery unless he chose to reveal himself. He should acknowledge her,” (600). This point that Chesnutt made here is that hope “real love” surpasses expectations and proves beyond upward mobility. He had the good life but is willing to take his first wife who wasn’t able to recognize him and the law says isn’t legal with him in his journey. This is real love that is his destiny, proving that free will is more powerful than all the riches in the world. Love of this nature is powerful and no amount of riches is worth what he had after years of prosperity.
Slaves have limited free will so what they desire is choice and freedom. Being a slave means one does not get to be free regardless if is his or her desire. Free will is something that us Americans take for granted. We get to walk down any street, use any bathroom, walk through the front door, and not be mistreated badly everyday on a regular basis. In some countries stealing still justifies removal of a hand as if a slave, which was possible if starvation was what one’s future held. Stealing wasn’t a stereotype of black people but a means of living to make it day after day without food. Harriet Jacobs brings this point home in Tell Ole Pharaoh, Let My People Go. “Dr. Flint was an epicure. The cook never sent a dinner to his table without fear or trembling for it there happened to be a dish not to his liking, he would either order her to be whipped, or compel her to eat it infront of him. The poor, hungry creature might not have objected to eating it, but she did object to having the master cram it down her throat til she choked” (439). These are the type of examples that slaves had to deal with on a daily basis. The most persisting issue is the unknown or unexpected due to the fact that slaves’ lives were never their own and they have to worry about hunger. That is one of the most basic needs that was never met without fear of lashings or beatings or not enough nourishment. Harsh conditions were everyday and that lead to anxiety or constant fear.
Folktales help the oppressed black people in their struggles and have a glimpse of hope. The desire for free will and possibly that their suffering might end one day was what motivated slaves to work daily. This is the belief that the Bible brought that my suffering today will be justified in the end.