Literature Discussion Questions

46  Voices of the People: African-American Literature and Arts All God’s Chillen Had Wings 47

All God’s Chillen1 Had Wings Traditional

Once all Africans could fly like birds, but owing to their many transgressions, their wings were taken away. There remained, here and there, in the sea islands2 and out-of-the-way places in the low country, some who had been overlooked and had retained the power of flight, though they looked like other men.

There was a cruel master3 on one of the sea islands who worked his people till they died. When they died, he bought others to take their places. These also he killed with overwork in the burning summer sun, through the middle hours of the day, although this was against the law.

One day, when all the worn-out Negroes were dead of overwork, he bought, of a broker in the town, a company of native Africans just brought into the country and put them at once to work in the cottonfield.

He drove them hard. They went to work at sunrise and did not stop until dark. They were driven with unsparing harshness all day long, men, women, and children. There was no pause for rest during the unendurable heat of the midsummer noon, though trees were plenty and near. But through the hardest hours, when fair plantations gave their Negroes rest, this man’s driver4

Prereading. A folk tale is a story originating in the oral tradition, often

one containing fanciful or fantastic

elements. This African-American folk

tale was collected from a teller named

Caesar Grant, of John’s Island, South

Carolina and published in the early

1900s in a book called Drums and

Shadows: Survival Studies among the

Georgia Coastal Negroes and then in 1946

in a book by John Bennet called Doctor

to the Dead: Grotesque Legends of Old

Charleston. Versions of the story can be

found in The People Could Fly: American

Black Folktales, by Virginia Hamilton and

in Julius Lester’s Black Folktales. This

traditional story evolved from similar

tales told in West Africa. It is a moving

tale, expressing via fantasy what is

not fantasy at all—the unconquerable

nature of the human spirit, which can

soar above and beyond adversity. The

story provides an important motif and

thematic element in the prize-winning

novel by Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon.

pushed the work along without a moment’s stop for breath, until all grew weak with heat and thirst.

There was among them one young woman who had lately5 borne a child. It was her first; she had not fully recovered from bearing and should not have been sent to the field until her strength had come back. She had her child with her, as the other woman had, astraddle on her hip, or piggyback.

The baby cried. She spoke to quiet it. The driver could not understand her words. She took her breast with her hand and threw it over her shoulder that the child might suck and be content. Then she went back to chopping knot-grass,6 but being very weak and sick with the great heat, she stumbled, slipped, and fell.

The driver struck her with his lash 7 until she rose and staggered on. She spoke to an old man near her, the oldest man of them all, tall and strong, with a forked

beard. He replied, but the driver could not understand what they said. Their talk was strange to him.8

She returned to work, but in a little while she fell again. Again the driver lashed he until she

Enslaved Woman and Child, print, date

uncertain. Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-15385

1. chillen. Children, dialectical. 2. sea islands. Series of tidal and barrier islands off the Atlantic coast of the United States, belonging to the states of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. 3. master. This was the term used to refer to the owner of a plantation; it definitely does not reflect a position deserving of respect 4. driver. Person whose job it was to goad enslaved laborers to work harder

5. lately. recently 6. knot-grass. A creeping grass with the scientific name Paspalum distichum that grows in wet, marshy areas of the southern United States. 7. lash. whip 8. Their talk . . . to him. They have newly arrived from Africa and are speaking an African language unknown to the driver.

48  Voices of the People: African-American Literature and Arts All God’s Chillen Had Wings 49

got to he feet. Again she spoke to the old man. But he said, “Not yet, daughter; not yet.” So she went on working, though she was very ill.

Soon she stumbled and fell again. But when the driver came running with his lash to driver her on with her work, she turned to the old man and asked: “Is it time yet, daddy?” He answered, “Yes, daughter. The time has come. Go, and peace be with you!” and stretched out his arms toward her . . . so.

With that she leaped straight up into the air and was gone like a bird, flying over field and wood.

Soon, another man fell. The driver lashed him. He turned to the old man. The old man cried out to him and stretched out his arms as he had done for the other two, and he, like them, leaped up and was gone through the air, flying like a bird over field and wood.

Then the overseer9 cried to the driver, and the master cried to them both: “Beat the old devil! He is the doer!”

The overseer and the driver ran at the old man with lashes ready, and the master ran too, with a picket pulled from the fence, to beat the life out of the old man who had made those Negroes fly.

But the old man laughed in their faces and said something loudly to all the Negroes in the field, the new Negroes and the old Negroes.

And as he spoke to them, they all remembered what they had forgotten and recalled the power which once had been theirs. Then all the Negroes, old and new, stood up together. The old man raised his hands, and they all leaped up into the air with a great shout and in a moment were gone, flying, like a flock of crows, over the field, over the fence, and over the top of the wood, and behind them flew the old man.

The men went clapping their hands, and the women went singing, and those who had children gave them their breasts, and the children laughed and sucked as their mothers flew and were not afraid.

The master, the overseer and the driver looked after them as they flew, beyond the wood, beyond the river, miles on miles, until they passed beyond the last rim of the world and disappeared in the sky like a handful of leaves. They were never seen again.

Where they went, I do not know. I never was told. Nor what it was that the old man said . . . that I have forgotten. But as he went over the last fence, he made a sign in the master’s face and cried, “Kuli-ba! Kuli-ba!” I don’t know what that means.

But if I could only find the old wood sawyer,10 he could tell you more, for he was there at the time and saw the Africans fly away with their women and children. He is an old, old man, over ninety years of age, and remembers a great many strange things.

9. overseer. Person charged with the management of a plantation and/or its enslaved workers. 10. sawyer. carpenter

Raven, woodcut, late nineteenth century. Library of Congress,

LC-DIG-jpd-00845

Vocabulary from the Selection

transgressions: sins retained: kept  picket: wooden slat from a fence

50  Voices of the People: African-American Literature and Arts All God’s Chillen Had Wings 51

Viewing the Selections in Context

All God’s Chillen Had Wings Traditional

Questions for Discussion

1. What happened to the previous workers on this plantation? What sort of people are the so-called “master,” his driver, and his overseer?

2. One of the realities of slavery was the terrible way in which it interfered with, disrupted, and sometimes made impossible the ordinary interactions of family life. What does this story reveal about the slave owners’ attitudes toward motherhood and childraising?

3. Where do the mother, her father, and the other workers come from? Why can’t the driver understand their speech?

4. What happens to the people at the end of the story?

5. What does the storyteller claim not to know? How does the storyteller’s admission of this ignorance contribute to the credibility of the story as a whole?

Computer Skills and Research

Do some research online or in the library to find other examples of folktales from Africa. Read a number of these tales until you can discover at least three recurring motifs. (See the definition of motif under Literary Terms and Techniques, next column.) The following are some sites where you can find examples of African tales:

http://www.motherlandnigeria.com/stories. html

http://www.motherlandnigeria.com/stories. html

http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/africa. html

http://www.sacred-texts.com/afr/saft/ index.htm

Literary Terms and Techniques

A motif is an uncommon element that recurs within a work or within a group of literary works. The criterion of uncommonness, in the sense of not being found in ordinary, everyday life, is essential to the definition. So, for example, the appearance in a story of a cup is not a motif, but the appearance of a cup that can never be filled or emptied is. What are some examples of common folkloric or mythological motifs in “All God’s Chillen Had Wings”? (Hint: to answer this question, think about what uncommon things occur in the story and which of these are similar to elements found in other stories that you know.)

Writing/Test Prep

In law, an indictment is a formal statement of the crime or crimes that a person or organization has committed. In a paragraph, explain what makes “All God’s Chillen Had Wings” such a powerful indictment of the system of slavery.

Making the Selections Your Own

All God’s Chillen Had Wings Traditional

A Reading of the Selection

A third of all people report having had dreams that they could fly, and such dreams have been recorded throughout human history, from the earliest days to the present. This motif, or recurring element, is found in narratives from every culture, from the ancient Arabic tale of Alladin and his flying carpet to modern-day Western films about Superman. Almost always, dreams and stories about flying are associated with feelings of empowerment and transcendence, of rising above, literally and figuratively, the ordinary or baser parts of existence. In the case of “All God’s Chillen Had Wings,” the West African motif of the flying people is appropriated as a means to fulfill, in story, the desire to transcend the harsh realities presented by slavery. Some of the harshest of these realities are depicted in the story.

Cultural/Historical Context

One of the challenges presented by slavery, on top of the obvious physical hardship, was the emotional toll exacted on people who were treated as little more than beasts of burden, much as one might use an ox or a mule for plowing. The harsh treatment of slaves described in this story was not uncommon. In Brazil, in particular, it was common for slave owners to work people until they died and then simply to replace those who perished with newly purchased slaves. This story shows how, despite such treatment, people were still able to see beyond their current predicament and to recognize themselves as better than those who enslaved them. The people fly, but the master, the driver, and the overseer remain earthbound. This fact is symbolic of the relative spiritual condition of the characters.

About the Author

This story, like the other works in this unit, has no particular author but rather is a version, told by one speaker, of a tale passed down in the oral tradition in many, many variants. During slavery times, when in many states it was against the law to teach enslaved Africans to read and write, oral storytelling developed into a widespread and common art form. Enslaved people in the Americas often told stories that reworked motifs from West Africa. During the darkest times, storytelling helped the people to keep their traditions and their dreams alive.