Born in a Mighty Bad Land: The Violent Man in African American Folklore and Fiction

The figure of the violent man in the African American imagination has a long history. He can be found in 19th—century bad man ballads like "Stagolee" and "John Hardy," as well as in the black convict recitations that influenced "gangsta" rap. "Born in a Mighty Bad Land" connects this figure with similar characters in African American fiction. Many writers—McKay and Hurston in the Harlem Renaissance; Wright, Baldwin, and Ellison in the '40s and '50s; Himes in the '50s and '60s—saw the "bad n...