"Born in a Mighty Bad Land": The Violent Man in African American Folklore and Fiction

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“Born in a Mighty Bad Land” B L A C K S I N T H E D I A S P O R A f o u n d i n g e d i t o r s Darlene Clark Hine John McCluskey, Jr. David Barry Gaspar e d i t o r Claude A. Clegg III a d v i s o r y b o a r d Kim D. Butler Judith A. By¤eld Leslie A. Schwalm Tracy Sharpley-Whiting “Bornina MightyBad Land” Jerry H. Bryant The Violent Man in African American Folklore and Fiction This book is a publication of Indiana University Press 601 North Morton Street Bloomington, IN 47404-3797 USA http://iupress.indiana.edu Telephone orders 800-842-6796 Fax orders 812-855-7931 Orders by e-mail iuporder@indiana.edu© 2003 by Jerry H. Bryant All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. m a n u f a c t u r e d i n t h e u n i t e d s t a t e s o f a m e r i c a Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bryant, Jerry H., date “Born in a mighty bad land” : the violent man in African American folklore and ¤ction / Jerry H. Bryant. p. cm. — (Blacks in the diaspora) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-253-34206-6 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-253-21578-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. American ¤ction—African American authors—History and criticism. 2. Violence in literature. 3. Literature and folklore—United States. 4. African American men in literature. 5. African Americans—Folklore. 6. Violence—Folklore. 7. Men in literature. 8. Men—Folklore. I. Title. II. Series. PS374.V58B79 2003 813.009'355—dc21 2002011578 1 2 3 4 5 08 07 06 05 04 03 For Betty ...