Uncle Remus

Uncle Remus was the title and fictional narrator of a collection of stories by Joel Chandler Harris, published in book form from 1881; seven Uncle Remus books were published. Harris was a journalist in post-reconstruction Atlanta, Georgia.

Related Topics:
Joel Chandler Harris - 1881 - Atlanta, Georgia

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Uncle Remus is a collection of animal stories, songs, and oral folklore, collected from Southern blacks. Many of the stories have a moral or advisory point, much like those of Aesop and La Fontaine. Uncle Remus is the purported narrator, and the setting is that of an old Negro slave telling folk tales to white children. The stories are told in a literary version of an essentialized Deep South Negro dialect. The style of story is the trickster tale and may well have roots in West Africa. The title "Uncle" is given by the plantation children to their favorite slave/mentor. At the time of Harris's publication, his work was praised for its ability to capture plantation negro dialect.

Related Topics:
Oral folklore - Aesop - La Fontaine - Trickster - West Africa

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Brer Rabbit ("brother rabbit") is the main character of the stories, a likable trickster getting into trouble who is often opposed by Brer Fox and Brer Bear. In one tale, Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear construct a lump of tar and put clothing on it. When Br'er Rabbit comes along, he finds the lack of manners from the "tar baby" (as he mistakes it) insulting, strikes the tar baby, and gets stuck. Now that Br'er Rabbit is stuck, Fox decides how to dispose of him. The captured Br'er Rabbit pleads, "Please don't throw me in the briar patch," prompting the fox to do exactly that. As rabbits are at home in thickets, Br'er Rabbit escaped. Using the phrases "please don't throw me in the briar patch" and "tar baby" to refer to the idea that 'a problem that gets worse the more one struggles against it' became part of the wider American popular culture in the mid-20th century. They are now fading from the scene.

Related Topics:
Brer Rabbit - Brer Fox - Brer Bear - Tar baby

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The stories were the subject of a Walt Disney movie in 1946, Song of the South (now uncirculated and little known).

Related Topics:
Walt Disney - 1946 - Song of the South

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The animal stories are not overtly racist and had considerable popular appeal, but by the Civil Rights era of the 1960's the dialect and portrayal of the narrator seemed demeaning, and the author's defense of slavery in his foreword made the book indefensible. Without much controversy the book and movie simply disappeared from American popular culture. Few children born after 1970 have heard of them.

Related Topics:
Civil Rights - 1970

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Harris himself said, in the introduction to Uncle Remus, that he hoped his book would be considered: a sympathetic supplement to Mrs. Stowe's wonderful defense of slavery as it existed in the South. Mrs. Stowe, let me hasten to say, attacked the possibilities of slavery with all the eloquence of genius; but the same genius painted the portrait of the Southern slave-owner, and defended him. This which would appear to mean that Harris was against cruelty to blacks yet in favor of slavery. In Harris' day, among most Southern whites, this would have been a moderate position to take. However in the more enlightened parts of American society in the 1880s and certainly in today's America, such views would be considered contemptibly racist and obviously hypocritical.

Related Topics:
Uncle Tom's Cabin - Moderate

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