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    Every Tongue Got to Confess: Negro Folk-tales from the Gulf States
    Every Tongue Got to Confess: Negro Folk-tales from the Gulf States
    Every Tongue Got to Confess: Negro Folk-tales from the Gulf States
    Ebook309 pages4 hours

    Every Tongue Got to Confess: Negro Folk-tales from the Gulf States

    By Zora Neale Hurston

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    About this ebook

    A recently discovered collection of folktales celebrating African American oral tradition, community, and faith...”splendidly vivid and true.”—New York Times

    Every Tongue Got to Confess is an extensive volume of African American folklore that Zora Neale Hurston collected on her travels through the Gulf States in the late 1920s.

    The bittersweet and often hilarious taleswhich range from longer narratives about God, the Devil, White Folk, and Mistaken Identity to witty one-linersreveal attitudes about faith, love, family, slavery, race, and community. Together, this collection of nearly 500 folktales weaves a vibrant tapestry that celebrates the African American life in the rural South and represent a major part of Zora Neale Hurstons literary legacy.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061741807
    Every Tongue Got to Confess: Negro Folk-tales from the Gulf States
    Author

    Zora Neale Hurston

    Zora Neale Hurston was a novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist. She wrote four novels (Jonah’s Gourd Vine, 1934; Their Eyes Were Watching God, 1937; Moses, Man of the Mountains, 1939; and Seraph on the Suwanee, 1948); two books of folklore (Mules and Men, 1935, and Every Tongue Got to Confess, 2001); a work of anthropological research, (Tell My Horse, 1938); an autobiography (Dust Tracks on a Road, 1942); an international bestselling nonfiction work (Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo,” 2018); and over fifty short stories, essays, and plays. She attended Howard University, Barnard College, and Columbia University and was a graduate of Barnard College in 1928. She was born on January 7, 1891, in Notasulga, Alabama, and grew up in Eatonville, Florida.

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    Reviews for Every Tongue Got to Confess

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      This was a series of folktales and folk stories, recorded just as told to ZNH, complete with the names of the people who told the stories. The book was divided by subject matter--God tales, Devil tales, Tall tales, etc., plus a fairly large miscellaneous section.

      They were great! As usual w/ZNH's stuff, you get a real sense of cadence and speech patterns, which I love. The mood of the stories was all over the place; lots of funny ones, some raunchy ones, some sharp ones, some sad ones. I didn't read the book cover to cover, but I dipped in and read a fair number of them--mainly the shorter ones.
    • 4/5
      Brief and utterly engrossing, I recommend these stories, though I suspect more could be got from them if I paid closer attention. The repetitions worked both for and against. Satisfied but I somehow wanted more...
    • 4/5
      While I like this, this is more a collection of short interviews Zora did while doing anthropology work. Most of these stories aren't very long and there are a handful of one-liners. All of this is in dialect. More for people who read Zora and admire her contributions to anthropology and folklore.

    Book preview

    Every Tongue Got to Confess - Zora Neale Hurston

    God Tales

    Why God Made Adam Last†

    God wuz through makin’ de lan’ an’ de sea an’ de birds an’ de animals an’ de fishes an’ de trees befo’ He made man. He wuz intendin’ tuh make ’im all along, but He put it off tuh de last cause if He had uh made Adam fust an’ let him see Him makin’ all dese other things, when Eve wuz made Adam would of stood round braggin’ tuh her. He would of said: "Eve, do you see dat ole stripe-ed tagger (tiger) over dere? Ah made. See dat ole narrow geraffe (giraffe) over dere? Ah made ’im too. See dat big ole tree over dere? Ah made dat jus’ so you could set under it."

    God knowed all dat, so He jus’ waited till everything wuz finished before he made man, cause He knows man will lie and brag on hisself tuh uh woman. Man ain’t found out yet how things wuz made—he ain’t meant tuh know.

    —JAMES PRESLEY.

    When God first put folks on earth there wasn’t no difference between men and women. They was all alike. They did de same work and everything. De man got tired uh fussin ’bout who gointer do this and who gointer do that.

    So he went up tuh God and ast him tuh give him power over de woman so dat he could rule her and stop all dat arguin’.

    He ast Him tuh give him a lil mo’ strength and he’d do de heavy work and let de woman jus’ take orders from him whut to do. He tole Him he wouldn’t mind doing de heavy [work] if he could jus’ boss de job. So de Lawd done all he ast Him and he went on back home—and right off he started tuh bossin’ de woman uh-round.

    So de woman didn’t lak dat a-tall. So she went up tuh God and ast Him how come He give man all de power and didn’t leave her none. So He tole her, You never ast Me for none. I thought you was satisfied.

    She says, "Well, I ain’t, wid de man bossin’ me round lak he took tuh doin’ since you give him all de power. I wants half uh his power. Take it away and give it tuh

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