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

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 African American culture then came to the metropolitan Opera later in her life an sang phenomenally in Four Season. Jazz took over for the blues to form a million-dollar industry. Singers such as Elvis Presley siphoned songs from blacks such as “Sittin on the Dock of the Bay.”

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.

Because of the bad stigma attached to dialect, African Americans did not like to be associated with this style of langu

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