C059. Baer (p. 76). African Jack

This is Chase059.

Types
Motifs (Baer gives no motifs, by compare Pimmerly Plum: Chase072)
Notes

Baer does not include types or motifs for the tale of the fool waiting for the persimmons to drop into his mouth; instead, she focuses on the introduction of African Jack into the world of the Nights.

Harris himself comments on the use of Gullah in AJ's stories: "it would be impossible to separate these stories from the idiom in which they have been recited for generations. The dialect is a part of the legends themselves, and to present them in any other way would be to rob them of everything that gives them vitality."

Baer notes "there is evidence that Harris sought and received Jones's help on his Daddy Jack material" as Jones wrote to Harris in 1883 offering his help: "I would experience no difficulty in interpreting, or in putting them in proper shape."

Chase060, Chase062, Chase066, Chase068, Chase074, Chase077, Chase088, Chase091, Chase094 and Chase099.

Harris had advertised in a Darien GA newspaper offering to pay for outlines of coast tales; he received outlines from Mrs. Helen Barclay, who was a folktale collector. Her cover letters say her informants were "old Negro women who were former slaves." 

In the ad, harris mentioned particularly "stories in which the alligator figures."