This study assesses the historical and educational implications of a ‘griotic’ methodology that was employed by free African Americans in the antebellum North. This griotic methodology involved a textual production of history by and for African Americans that was derived from a West African oral/performance basis of history. The study therefore examines how a distinctive approach of history production developed among free African Americans from the late 1700s through the 1830s as they appropriated, engaged and/or countered prevailing European American discourses. Most important to the study is how these early intellectuals sought to vindicate, historicize and liberate themselves through re-presenting the idea of ‘Africa’ as the metaphorical source and destiny of their race. Educational implications of this griotic methodology are subsequently highlighted in the study as it is applied as pedagogy in a post-secondary classroom to empower African African students.

In order to establish an endogenous prism through which to examine this distinctive African American methodology, this study integrates a number of qualitative and historiographical components: an intellectual autobiography of the author who is an African American male educator; oral histories of African and African American history professors; and assessments of recent African American scholarship that focus on early African identity politics in the Americas. From these analyses, the author delineates and employs a ‘griotic’ framework that involves a dialogue between the present and past, to chart how a West African oral/performance basis of history ascended into the textual productions of Olaudah Equiano, John Marrant, Peter Williams Jr., William Hamilton, Jacob Oson, David Walker and Maria Stewart. The historical usage of this ‘griotic’ methodology is then emphasized within these works as a liberatory praxis by which early free Africans empowered their identity politics. As this African American approach is specifically examined as an framework for historical production and education, the final component of the study consequently involves the application of griotic methodology as pedagogy within a post-secondary humanities course. The griotic methodology’s applicability is ultimately assessed with respect to how it prompts African American educational agency in, and/or ownership of curriculum in a manner that is meaningful to students’ experiences as constructed by race, ethnicity, religion, and/or gender. In final assessment of griotic methodology as pedagogy, seven principles and practices are offered for educators in post-secondary classrooms to promote a sense of educational agency among African American students in such a way that students’ views of themselves and others are expanded and/or challenged.