The tar-baby story is a popular folktale that appears in the book Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings by Joel Chandler Harris (1845–1908). In this book, published in 1880, Harris presents many folk stories that were popular among African Americans who worked on plantations in the southern United States. The book has a frame narrative in which the titular Uncle Remus, an elderly African American who works on a Reconstruction-era plantation, relates the folktales to a young white boy. Most of the stories involve the adventures of anthropomorphic animals, and, because they are narrated by Uncle Remus, they are rendered in the southern African American dialect. In the tar-baby story, Brer Fox (“Brer” is short for “Brother”) captures Brer Rabbit using a doll made out of tar, but Brer Rabbit is able to escape using his cunning wit. Similar stories, in which characters become stuck to adhesive entities, have been observed in the folklore of many regions of the world.
In the first chapter of Uncle Remus, titled “Uncle Remus Initiates the Little Boy,” Uncle Remus tells the little boy his first story. In the narrative, Brer Fox tries to catch Brer Rabbit, but Brer Rabbit is too clever for the fox and escapes his clutches. In the second chapter, titled “The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story,” the little boy asks Uncle Remus if the fox ever succeeded in catching the rabbit. Uncle Remus replies that Brer Fox had indeed come close to catching Brer Rabbit, and he then tells the boy the first part of the tar-baby story. The tale begins with Brer Fox mixing some tar with some turpentine and forming the resultant sticky substance into a roughly humanoid shape. He calls this curious fabrication a tar-baby. He then sets the tar-baby in the road and takes cover in some nearby bushes to see what will happen. Soon, Brer Rabbit comes hopping down the road. He notices the tar-baby and greets it. The tar-baby, unsurprisingly, does not reply. Brer Rabbit continues trying to engage the tar-baby in conversation, and when he receives no replies, he becomes incensed at the tar-baby’s apparent disrespect. He speaks angrily to the tar-baby and eventually strikes it with his paw, which becomes stuck. He demands his release, and when he is not let go, he hits the tar-baby with his other paw, and it also becomes stuck. He proceeds to kick the tar-baby with both of his feet, and both of them become stuck as well. Finally, Brer Rabbit head-butts the tar-baby, and his head becomes stuck. At this point, Brer Fox steps out from under the cover of the nearby bushes and comes onto the road. He gloats over Brer Rabbit—and Uncle Remus ceases the narrative at this point, leaving the boy, and the reader, to wonder what happens next.
In the third chapter of the book, Uncle Remus interrupts the tar-baby narrative to tell the little boy a story about a possum and a raccoon. However, in the fourth chapter, the little boy asks Uncle Remus what happened to the rabbit after the fox caught him with the tar-baby. Uncle Remus then tells the boy the remainder of the tar-baby story. He picks up the tale with Brer Rabbit still lying on the road, stuck to the tar-baby. Brer Fox tells Brer Rabbit that he is weary of Brer Rabbit’s sassy demeanor and attitude of superiority. He lists a number of methods by which he could execute Brer Rabbit, but disregards each of them as impracticable. Brer Rabbit, readily assents to all of the different methods that Brer Fox suggests, but begs Brer Fox not to throw him into the briar patch. The malicious Brer Fox eventually decides that, to cause Brer Rabbit the greatest amount of suffering, he will do exactly that which his prey (evidently) most fears: thus he flings Brer Rabbit into the briar patch. After a few moments, Brer Rabbit emerges from the thorny thicket in the distance, using a piece of wood to comb the tar out of his fur. He tells Brer Fox that he was born and bred in the briar patch, and then makes his escape, concluding the tale.
Walt Disney’s The Song of the South (1946) dramatized Joel Chandler Harris’s Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings (1880), a collection of African American folklore. The animated film revisited the well-known “Wonderful Tar Baby Story,” which features Brer Fox’s attempt to ensnare Brer Rabbit with the tar-baby. (Ronald Grant Archive/Alamy Stock Photo)
The tar-baby story appears in the 1946 Walt Disney film adaptation of Harris’s Uncle Remus stories titled Song of the South. The Disney attraction Splash Mountain—versions of which appear in Disneyland, Disney World, and Tokyo Disneyland—is based upon Song of the South. Riders of this attraction view a story involving Brer Fox and Brer Bear trying to catch Brer Rabbit. In the narrative presented in the ride, Brer Fox and Brer Bear do not use a tar-baby, but they do set out to catch Brer Rabbit and succeed in doing so. Then Brer Fox throws the captive Brer Rabbit into a briar patch, and Brer Rabbit triumphantly escapes.
The term “tar-baby” is now sometimes used to refer to a difficulty from which it is hard to escape. The term has also acquired a pejorative racial connotation. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary online and Dictionary.com both define the expression (in its unhyphenated form) according to the first definition mentioned above and do not give the racial meaning. The Oxford English Dictionary online, however, gives two definitions of the term (in its hyphenated form—the form, it will be noticed, employed by Harris), the first reflecting the more common definition, and the second demonstrating that in the United States the term can refer derogatorily to a black person and in New Zealand it can refer derogatorily to a Maori person.
Narratives similar to the tar-baby story are very common in the world’s folklore. Famed mythologist Joseph Campbell, in his popular book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, describes the general tar-baby story as “celebrated and nigh universal” (Campbell 1968, 87). One of the earliest versions of the story known to scholars hails from India. In this ancient telling, the Buddha, in one of his incarnations, attacks a sticky ogre in the forest first with his hands, both of which stick to the monster. He then strikes at the ogre with both of his feet, which likewise become stuck. Finally, he strikes the ogre with his head, and it becomes stuck as well. Notwithstanding his entrapment, the hero is able to convince the ogre to release him. To give another example, the Cherokee circulated a tar-baby story very similar to the one told by Uncle Remus. In the Cherokee tale, a drought prompts a conference of a group of animals to discuss what they can do to provide water for themselves. They decide to dig a well. The rabbit, who is lazy, refuses to help the other animals in their labors. The animals succeed in the excavation of their well, but unfortunately it only provides a meager supply of water. After some time, the animals come to the realization that the rabbit is sneaking to the well at night and stealing from their scant water supply. They fashion a wolf out of tar and set it by the well to frighten the pilferer. When the rabbit next makes a nocturnal visit to quench his thirst, he addresses the wolf, which does not reply. He tells the wolf to stand aside. When the wolf maintains his reticence and does not move, the rabbit assaults it and becomes stuck. The next day, the animals come to the well, but the rabbit is able to escape. There are hundreds of other versions of this basic tar-baby narrative from many different cultures around the world.
Andrew Albritton
See also Animal Tales; Brer Rabbit; Uncle Remus
Further Reading
Campbell, Joseph. 1968. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. 2nd ed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Coates, Ta-Nehisi Paul. 2006. “Why ‘Tar Baby’ Is Such a Sticky Phrase.” Time, August 1. http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1221764,00.html. Accessed July 28, 2014.
Espinosa, Aurelio M. 1930. “Notes on the Origin and History of the Tar-Baby Story.” Journal of American Folk-lore 43: 129–209.
Espinosa, Aurelio M. 1943. “A New Classification of the Fundamental Elements of the Tar-Baby Story on the Basis of Two Hundred and Sixty-Seven Versions.” Journal of American Folklore 56: 31–37.
Harris, Joel Chandler. 1955. The Complete Tales of Uncle Remus. Compiled by Richard Chase. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Harris, Julia C. 1918. The Life and Letters of Joel Chandler Harris. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Judson, Katharine B. 1914. Myths and Legends of the Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes. Chicago: A. C. McClurg.
Tar-Baby—Primary Document
Uncle Remus Stories (1881)
Joel Chandler Harris published Uncle Remus stories in the Atlanta Constitution beginning in the 1870s, and soon they enjoyed a wide audience through reprinting in newspapers across the country. Harris learned African American folklore by visiting Georgia plantations and talking to freedmen and women who recounted their experiences as slaves before the U.S. Civil War. This folklore comprises much of the content of the stories narrated by Uncle Remus, the imaginary former slave and storyteller in Harris’s tales of the Old South. Before he died in 1908, Harris wrote 185 Uncle Remus stories, published in eight books, although “The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story” may be the most well known.
THE WONDERFUL TAR-BABY STORY
“Didn’t the fox never catch the rabbit, Uncle Remus?” asked the little boy the next evening.
“He come mighty nigh it, honey, sho’s you born—Brer Fox did. One day atter Brer Rabbit fool ’im wid dat calamus root, Brer Fox went ter wuk en got ’im some tar, en mix it wid some turkentime, en fix up a contrapshun w’at he call a Tar-Baby, en he tuck dish yer Tar-Baby en he sot ’er in de big road, en den he lay off in de bushes fer to see what de news wuz gwine ter be. En he didn’t hatter wait long, nudder, kaze bimeby here come Brer Rabbit pacin’ down de road—lippity-clippity, clippity-lippity—dez ez sassy ez a jay-bird. Brer Fox, he lay low. Brer Rabbit come prancin’ ’long twel he spy de Tar-Baby, en den he fotch up on his behime legs like he wuz ’stonished. De Tar Baby, she sot dar, she did, en Brer Fox, he lay low.
“‘Mawnin’!’ sez Brer Rabbit, sezee—‘nice wedder dis mawnin’,’ sezee.
“Tar-Baby ain’t sayin’ nuthin’, en Brer Fox he lay low.
“‘How duz yo’ sym’tums seem ter segashuate?’ sez Brer Rabbit, sezee.
“Brer Fox, he wink his eye slow, en lay low, en de Tar-Baby, she ain’t sayin’ nuthin’.
“‘How you come on, den? Is you deaf?’ sez Brer Rabbit, sezee.
‘Kaze if you is, I kin holler louder,’ sezee.
“Tar-Baby stay still, en Brer Fox, he lay low.
“‘You er stuck up, dat’s w’at you is,’ says Brer Rabbit, sezee, ‘en I’m gwine ter kyore you, dat’s w’at I’m a gwine ter do,’ sezee.
“Brer Fox, he sorter chuckle in his stummick, he did, but Tar-Baby ain’t sayin’ nothin’.
“‘I’m gwine ter larn you how ter talk ter ‘spectubble folks ef hit’s de las’ ack,’ sez Brer Rabbit, sezee. ‘Ef you don’t take off dat hat en tell me howdy, I’m gwine ter bus’ you wide open,’ sezee.
“Tar-Baby stay still, en Brer Fox, he lay low.
“Brer Rabbit keep on axin’ ’im, en de Tar-Baby, she keep on sayin’ nothin’, twel present’y Brer Rabbit draw back wid his fis’, he did, en blip he tuck ’er side er de head. Right dar’s whar he broke his merlasses jug. His fis’ stuck, en he can’t pull loose. De tar hilt ’im. But Tar-Baby, she stay still, en Brer Fox, he lay low.
“‘Ef you don’t lemme loose, I’ll knock you agin,’ sez Brer Rabbit, sezee, en wid dat he fotch ’er a wipe wid de udder han’, en dat stuck. Tar-Baby, she ain’t sayin’ nuthin’, en Brer Fox, he lay low.
“‘Tu’n me loose, fo’ I kick de natchul stuffin’ outen you,’ sez Brer Rabbit, sezee, but de Tar-Baby, she ain’t sayin’ nuthin’. She des hilt on, en de Brer Rabbit lose de use er his feet in de same way. Brer Fox, he lay low. Den Brer Rabbit squall out dat ef de Tar-Baby don’t tu’n ’im loose he butt ’er cranksided. En den he butted, en his head got stuck. Den Brer Fox, he sa’ntered fort’, lookin’ dez ez innercent ez wunner yo’ mammy’s mockin’-birds.
“Howdy, Brer Rabbit,’ sez Brer Fox, sezee. ‘You look sorter stuck up dis mawnin’,’ sezee, en den he rolled on de groun’, en laft en laft twel he couldn’t laff no mo’. ‘I speck you’ll take dinner wid me dis time, Brer Rabbit. I done laid in some calamus root, en I ain’t gwineter take no skuse,’ sez Brer Fox, sezee.”
Here Uncle Remus paused, and drew a two-pound yam out of the ashes.
“Did the fox eat the rabbit?” asked the little boy to whom the story had been told.
“Dat’s all de fur de tale goes,” replied the old man. “He mout, an den agin he moutent. Some say Judge B’ar come ’long en loosed ’im—some say he didn’t. I hear Miss Sally callin’. You better run ’long.”
MR. FOX GOES A-HUNTING, BUT MR. RABBIT BAGS THE GAME
“ATTER Brer Fox hear ’bout how Brer Rabbit done Brer Wolf,” said Uncle Remus, scratching his head with the point of his awl, ‘he ’low, he did, dat he better not be so brash, en he sorter let Brer Rabbit ’lone. Dey wuz all time seein’ one nudder, en ’bunnunce er times Brer Fox could er nab Brer Rabbit, but eve’y time he got de chance, his mine ’ud sorter rezume ’bout Brer Wolf, en he let Brer Rabbit ’lone. Bimeby dey ’gun ter git kinder familious wid wunner nudder like dey useter, en it got so Brer Fox’d call on Brer Rabbit, en dey’d set up en smoke der pipes, dey would, like no ha’sh feelin’s ’d ever rested ’twixt um.
“Las’, one day Brer Fox come ’long all rig out, en ax Brer Rabbit fer ter go huntin’ wid ’im, but Brer Rabbit, he sorter feel lazy, en he tell Brer Fox dat he got some udder fish fer ter fry. Brer Fox feel mighty sorry, he did, but he say he bleeve he try his han’ enny how, en off he put. He wuz gone all day, en he had a monstus streak er luck, Brer Fox did, en he bagged a sight er game. Bimeby, to’rds de shank er de evenin’, Brer Rabbit sorter stretch hisse’f, he did, en ’low hit’s mos’ time fer Brer Fox fer ter git ’long home. Den Brer Rabbit, he went’n mounted a stump fer ter see ef he could year Brer Fox comin’. He ain’t bin dar long, twel sho’ enuff, yer come Brer Fox thoo de woods, singing like a nigger at a frolic. Brer Rabbit, he lipt down off’n de stump, he did, en lay down in de road en make like he dead. Brer Fox he come ’long, he did, en see Brer Rabbit layin’ dar. He tu’n ’im over, he did, en ’zamine ’im, en say, sezee:
“‘Dish yer rabbit dead. He look like he bin dead long time. He dead, but he mighty fat. He de fattes’ rabbit w’at I ever see, but he bin dead too long. I feard ter take ’im home,’ sezee.
“Brer Rabbit ain’t sayin’ nuthin’. Brer Fox, he sorter lick his chops, but he went on en lef’ Brer Rabbit layin’ in de road. Dreckly he wuz outer sight, Brer Rabbit, he jump up, he did, en run roun’ thoo de woods en git befo Brer Fox agin. Brer Fox, he come up, en dar lay Brer Rabbit, periently col’ en stiff. Brer Fox, he look at Brer Rabbit, en he sorter study. Atter while he onslung his game-bag, en say ter hisse’f, sezee:
“‘Deze yer rabbits gwine ter was’e. I’ll des ’bout leave my game yer, en I’ll go back’n git dat udder rabbit, en I’ll make fokes b’leeve dat I’m ole man Hunter fum Huntsville,’ sezee.
“En wid dat he drapt his game en loped back up de road atter de udder rabbit, en w’en he got outer sight, ole Brer Rabbit, he snatch up Brer Fox game en put out fer home. Nex’ time he see Brer Fox he holler out:
“‘What you kill de udder day, Brer Fox?’ sezee.
“Den Brer Fox, he sorter koam his flank wid his tongue, en holler back:
“‘I kotch a han’ful er hard sense, Brer Rabbit,’ sezee.
“Den ole Brer Rabbit, he laff, he did, en up en ’spon’, sezee: ‘Ef I’d a know’d you wuz atter dat, Brer Fox, I’d a loant you some er mine,’ sezee.”
Source: Harris, Joel Chandler. Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1881.