The Story Archive

Mules and Men

Zora Neale Hurston · c. 1935 CE · Folktale · Modern / American · Modernist

Hurston drives back to Eatonville in a borrowed car and sits on Joe Clarke's store porch collecting the tales the town tells for nothing, then follows the work out to a sawmill camp in Polk County where the same stories are told harder. Br'er Rabbit outwits Br'er Fox, John gets the better of Old Massa, and God, the Devil and a mosquito the size of a mule each get a turn. The second half crosses to New Orleans and the hoodoo doctors she apprenticed herself to, making it the first book of African American folklore gathered by someone from inside it.

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