African American Vernacular

Essential Works of the African American Vernacular Culture When thinking of musical genres such as jazz, blues, and hip-hop, most Americans do not realize that they are the essential components to the evolution of African American Vernacular Literature. In fact, it is the key factor that brought African American culture into the limelight in America. Since the first black peoples in America were slaves, and were not allowed to read or write, the African American Vernacular Traditions began as completely oral communications in the form of church songs, blues, jazz, rhythm and blues, and hip hop. The African American Vernacular began as Spiritual and Secular works, which portrayed the struggles of the slaves and black population over the centuries. Through the years, African American Vernacular has advanced into the most widely listened to musical genre in America’s youth today. The African American vernacular “consists of forms sacred—songs, prayers, sermons—and secular—work songs, secular rhymes and songs, blues, jazz, and stories of many kinds It also consists of dances…” (Gates, McKay 6). Traits that suggest that a work is of African American culture consist of : Call-response patterns, dance-beats, and most importantly, improvisation. (Gates, McKay, 6). The earliest form of these spoken traditions are known as spirituals. African American slaves are reported to have sung these religious songs since the beginning of slavery. Slaves sang these tunes all throughout the day to provide a mental escape from their current state and to explain their sorrows and hardships (Gates, McKay, 8). The slave masters thought the slaves were singing these songs through their forced belief in the Christian religion, but they actually contained codes that referred to the slaves obtaining freedom. “I’m tryin’ to make heaven my home” is a common phrase in spirituals, as in City Called Heaven (Gates, McKay, 11). After Spirituals came Gospels, which were nearly the same as

Cited: Gates Jr., Henry Louis, and KcKay, Nellie Y., eds. The Northern Anthology of African American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004. Print.