African american citizens of the South have lengthy had a wealthy culture of folklore and customs, lots of which predate the Civil warfare. a few of these ideals originated within the South, whereas others have their roots in voodoo and African religions. yet with the tip of the Civil battle and the decline of segregation, the folklife of Southern African americans has been disappearing. Many African American childrens have been taught to fail to remember all reminders of the lengthy demanding years of slavery, and plenty of African american citizens stay ignorant of their people's cultural contributions in tune, dance, paintings, and literature. whereas folklore has continually been an intrinsic a part of African American society, it was once now not until eventually the early Forties that African American folklore used to be a subject matter of research.

As a reference paintings, this quantity preserves the folklife of Southern African americans and refers readers to extra resources of knowledge. the 1st half comprises alphabetically prepared entries for a variety of issues from Southern African American folklife, resembling critter stew, loss of life customs, evil spirits, excessive John the Conqueror, peach tree leaves, persimmon beer, quilts, ragtime, and snakes. info for those entries used to be drawn from interviews and from scholarly works. The entries comprise cross-references to entries within the moment a part of the amount, that's an intensive catalog of books, articles, and different assets of data. those works are prepared in topical chapters to facilitate research.