Martin begins by explaining the language of the African Americans. The law forbade anyone to teach the slaves standard English; therefore, they learned solely by ear. When they transferred the language that they heard to paper, a new style of language was formed which was referred to as dialect. Dialect was not Standard English because it was what the African Americans perceived they had heard or how they thought the word was spelled, since they were forbidden to learn Standard English. Dunbar is celebrated as the first African American writer. His literacy is still alive, however with a stigma attached. Dunbar was introduced to the public, whom d

espised dialect, but celebrated Dunbar whom used dialect.

African American literature was formed through the use of all these various genres. African Americans learned language in a unique way because they learned under distress that no other language has been learned under. This has given their work a sort of bilingual style. The audience is therefore able to get a real sense of reality, place, time and tone from each piece of literature. All together, this is what formed the African American oral tradition according to Herbert Martin.

Folk poems are known as the lesser child to formal verses. Catches are a type of folk poem that is often used as sales and pitch songs. A catch was sung by martin that went like this; “Strawberries…Come and feel my sweet strawberries!” These songs are used to let people know what they have in their cart that they are selling.

From blues came rhythmic blues, a genre that showed how well African Americans could adapt. Anderson is a prime example of a woman who was created by the Africa

Some topics in this essay:
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