The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales by Virginia Hamilton

Hamilton, V. (1985). The people could fly: American black folktales (L. Dillon and D. Dillon, Illus.). Alfred A. Knopf. 

This is an anthology made with the pure intention of preserving a history often told incorrectly and educating the masses on a culture that rarely receives the spotlight, especially in creative histories. This comes through immediately because of the introduction Hamilton provides. In this introduction, she describes the challenges that came with keeping these stories alive within the community during times of enslavement. This introduction provides two important things for appreciating this anthology. The first is a history to prove an authority to retell and preserve these stories. The second thing is a lens in which to read the stories to truly understand them. Hamilton reminds us to keep in mind that these stories were meant to be told orally, so colloquialism are necessary to keep the spirit and tone as well as to stay the most accurate. She makes sure the reader will remember the environment in which these tales were often shared and the job they did for the people telling them and the people listening to them. Continuing to be informative to ensure the reader could appreciate each story and its lesson, Hamilton also provided notes at the end of each story explaining the lesson, theme, and purpose along with a brief history of its origins and the differences that appear in her personal retellings. Hamilton makes this anthology an easy learning experience by separating the stories by topic like animals or freedom. This helps the reader recognize reoccurring characters and lessons. Finally, to fully provide an objective learning experience and validate her authority, she provides a bibliography of the other versions of the stories she retold. As a whole, the writing does a great job at capturing the heart, hope, and hurt that would’ve been felt as someone tells this story out loud.

The anthology also includes illustrations that are simple and unique, often capturing a scene from the tales. All images are in black and white while the size varies, never larger than a page. Each illustration captures the tone appropriately using shading and shadows. Though every image is bordered, sometimes when the story’s theme calls for it, the elements within the images breakthrough the borders giving the theme a bigger impact. Overall, the images are not necessary to understand the tales, but they are a nice addition to have to just simply provide visuals and add to the cultural aspect of the anthology. This is not an anthology meant to entertain as much as it is to inform and educate. Though reading each story can bring enjoyment, the main objective is to document and share these stories to keep them alive and ensure there is an accurate print version among the many inaccurate ones.