Brer Rabbit is a trickster figure in American folklore. He triumphs over opponents through a combination of wit, luck, and ruthlessness. Brer Rabbit is the matchless survivor in a violent, unjust world. He turns improbable odds in his favor. He also overthrows traditional hierarchies of power, sometimes humorously, sometimes violently, and often both. Though African American slave culture is believed to have produced the tales, journalist and amateur folklorist Joel Chandler Harris, a white man, brought the tales national and international attention. He did this first through a newspaper column and later through a series of books, the first of which, Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings: The Folk-lore of the Old Plantation, was published in 1880.
The tales consist of Brer Rabbit helping himself by tricking other animals. Sometimes Brer Rabbit manipulates an animal to get what he wants, such as when Sis Cow agrees to ram a tree on behalf of both herself and Brer Rabbit to get persimmons, but Brer Rabbit actually wants her horns to get stuck in the tree so he can steal her milk. On several occasions, Brer Rabbit convinces another animal to switch places with him in a trap, claiming himself to be in a desirable location, such as saying he is fishing when he is in fact caught in a snare. Another tactic Brer Rabbit uses is tricking another animal by begging for something not to happen, knowing that the other animal will do exactly what he is begging them not to do. This is the form of the famous tale of the Tar-Baby. In this story, after becoming fed up with the many manipulations and humiliations Brer Rabbit has inflicted on the other animals, Brer Fox decides to turn the tables by performing his own trickery. He makes a baby out of tar (the Tar-Baby is a recurring figure in African lore) to lure Brer Rabbit. Brer Rabbit believes the baby to be real and becomes increasingly insulted by the baby’s failure to speak. Finally, Brer Rabbit strikes the Tar-Baby, and he gets stuck on the tar. When Brer Fox begins to debate the many ways he might go about killing Brer Rabbit, Brer Rabbit begs for any of them except the briar patch, claiming it would be the height of torture. Of course, Brer Fox tosses him into the briar patch where the Rabbit had been born and bred. Brer Rabbit has bargained for this specific result, but in the ultimate trickster move, the negative contract is one where his opponent is not even aware of the bargain taking place.
Artist’s rendition of the trickster figure Brer Rabbit of Joel Chandler Harris’s Uncle Remus stories, dating from 1899. Here Brer Rabbit says, “you feels de fleas a bitin’, Brer Wolf,” as he pours scalding water on the wolf. (Library of Congress)
European folktales favor harmonious conclusions that emphasize social cohesion (marriage, ascension to a throne, etc.). Like other African American trickster tales, Brer Rabbit’s stories present a bleak worldview: Brer Rabbit, though more clever than the other animals, is constantly threatened by other animals because they remember his many deceptions, and therefore he can never manage to find anything resembling security. This structure and the recurring motifs that accompany it (entrapment, survival, deception, isolation, threat, hunger) make sense for stories told under the conditions of slavery.
These stories are about what it means to charismatically survive in a world where starvation, murder, and traps are always around the corner. A lady’s man, a charmer, a musician, and a talented dancer: Brer Rabbit doesn’t merely survive; he wins. Out of twenty confrontations with Brer Fox, Rabbit successfully tricks the Fox in nineteen, and in the final one, Brer Fox ends up dead. In that final tale, Brer Fox believes he is on a joint raid, but Brer Rabbit sells him out to Mr. Man. Brer Fox’s death was Brer Rabbit’s ultimate goal.
There are two major controversies in scholarship surrounding Brer Rabbit: the origins in folklore predating slavery and what to do with Harris’s appropriation (a necessary analysis given the popularity and pervasiveness of Harris’s collection over other Brer Rabbit retellings). As to the first, significant similarities exist between Brer Rabbit stories and both African and Native American tricksters. Scholars debate whether the Brer Rabbit figure represents a unique fusion of African and Native American stories adapted to the particular situation of slaves or is a direct descendant of one of the traditions exclusively. The evidence for exclusive heritage of either variety usually rests on conclusions based on the quantity and quality of similarities in motif and plot among tales from different traditions. Harris’s introduction to Uncle Remus is one example of this. It concludes an exclusive African genealogy based on the idea that transmission by African slaves is the only possible explanation for the similarity in tales among geographically distant indigenous tales in North and South America. Alan Dundes also argues that Brer Rabbit is most like an East African rabbit trickster. In contrast, Jay Hansford C. Vest argues that the inclusion of specific details of North American animals not present in African folklore lends credence to the idea of heavy Native American influence. The ability to come to any conclusions in the debate over Brer Rabbit’s origins is hindered greatly by the scarcity of primary sources from either Native Americans or African Americans under slavery. Thus some scholars suppose that it is extremely unlikely that origin could ever conclusively be established.
The second major controversy involves Harris’s choice to place the Brer Rabbit stories in a frame narrative where old, black Uncle Remus returns to the plantation where he was once enslaved and tells stories to the young, white grandson of the former plantation owner. Uncle Remus has been interpreted as both a delightful black man and as a devious trickster. Underlining the distinction between Uncle Remus and Brer Rabbit has allowed scholars to largely avoid this debate. Scholars suggest that Uncle Remus was created by Harris in part to preserve the Brer Rabbit figure from obscurity (of course, arguments that this move was intentional and ironic favor Harris). In this vein, Brer Rabbit becomes an authentic representation of slave culture. He becomes a cultural hero and Uncle Remus a racist embarrassment. Some argue that even if Uncle Remus was a nonironic foil meant to undermine Brer Rabbit, there is little to suggest he would be effective in dampening the rebellious spirit of the trickster. Although there is considerable textual evidence for the idea of Remus as subverting nostalgic plantation propaganda, Disney’s infamous 1946 Song of the South looms large in the imagination of Uncle Remus; the Disney version eliminates the specifics of his personality as a very particular elder man who exercises a certain amount of power through his position as preferred storyteller and instead renders him as simply a very joyful man who loves to tell stories to children. In literary fiction, Brer Rabbit appears in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man and children’s literature. Publishers have reproduced the Brer Rabbit stories, usually without the appearance of Uncle Remus.
Meredith Wallis
See also Anansi/Anancy, Animal Tales, Coyote Tales; Folklore and Folktales; Great Hare; Tar-Baby; Uncle Remus
Further Reading
Bickley, Bruce. 1987. Joel Chandler Harris: A Biography and Critical Study. Athens: University of Georgia Press.
Brasch, Walter M. 2000. Brer Rabbit, Uncle Remus, and the ‘Cornfield Journalist’: The Tale of Joel Chandler Harris. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press.
Cartwright, Keith. 2001. Reading Africa into American Literature: Epics, Fables, and Gothic Tales. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.
Harris, Joel Chandler. 2002. The Complete Tales of Uncle Remus. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Schlosser, S. E. 2014. “Brer Rabbit Stories.” American Folklore website. http://americanfolklore.net/folklore/brer-rabbit/. Accessed August 24, 2015.
Brer Rabbit—Primary Document
Joel Chandler Harris, “Old Mr. Rabbit, He’s a Good Fisherman” (1880)
Uncle Remus’s fables are among the first significant examples of African American folktales passing into the Southern white literary tradition. Joel Chandler Harris, the man responsible for compiling the stories, remains a controversial figure among folklorists today. While many praise his work as preserving a significant portion of African American culture that would have been lost otherwise, others accuse him of corrupting this great heritage through his interpretation. Harris’s own racial views become quite evident from a reading of the tales. He tended to romanticize the paternalistic relationship between African American slaves and their white masters.
“Brer Rabbit en Brer Fox wuz like some chilluns w’at I knows un,” said Uncle Remus, regarding the little boy, who had come to hear another story, with an affectation of great solemnity. “Bofe un um wuz allers atter wunner nudder, a prankin’ en a pester’n ‘roun’, but Brer Rabbit did had some peace, kaze Brer Fox done got skittish ‘bout puttin’ de clamps on Brer Rabbit.
“One day w’en Brer Rabbit, en Brer Fox, en Brer Coon, en Brer B’ar, en a whole lot un um wuz clearin’ up a new groun’ fer ter plant a rosa’n’year patch, de sun ‘gun ter git sorter hot, en Brer Rabbit he got tired; but he didn’t let on, kaze he ‘feared de balance un um’d call ‘im lazy, en he keep on totin’ off trash en pilin’ up bresh, twel bimeby he holler out dat he gotter brier in his han’, en den he take’n slip off, en hunt fer cool place fer ter res’. Atter w’ile he come ‘crosst a well wid a bucket hangin’ in it.
“‘Dat look cool,’ sez Brer Rabbit, sezee, ‘en cool I speck she is. I’ll des ‘bout git in dar en take a nap,’ en wid dat he jump, he did, en he ain’t no sooner fix hisse’f dan de bucket ‘gun ter go down.”
“Wasn’t the Rabbit scared, Uncle Remus?” asked the little boy.
“Honey, dey ain’t been no wusser skeer’d beas’ since de worril begin dan dish yer same Brer Rabbit. He f’arly had a ager. He know whar he cum fum, but he dunner what he gwine. Dreckly he feel de bucket hit de water, en dar she sot, but Brer Rabbit he keep mighty still, kaze he dunner w’at minnit gwineter be de next. He des lay dar en shuck en shiver.
“Brer Fox allers got one eye on Brer Rabbit, en w’en he slip off fum de new groun’, Brer Fox he sneak atter ‘im. He knew Brer Rabbit wuz atter some projick er nudder, en he tuck’n crope off, he did, en watch ‘im. Brer Fox see Brer Rabbit come to de well en stop, en den he see ‘im jump in de bucket, en den, lo en beholes, he see ‘im go down outer sight. Brer Fox wuz de mos’ ‘stonish Fox dat you ever laid eyes on. He sot off dar in de bushes en study en study, but he don’t make no head ner tails ter dis kinder bizness. Den he say ter hiss’f, sezee:
“‘Well, ef did son’t bang my times,’ sezee, ‘den Joe’s dead en Sal’s a widder. Right down dar in dat well Brer Rabbit keep his money hid, en ef ‘tain’t dat den he gone gone en ‘skiver’d a gole-mine, en ef ‘tain’t dat, en I’m gwineter see w’at’s in dar,’ sezee.
“Brer Fox crope up little nigher, he did, en lissen, but he don’t year no fuss, en he keep on gittin’ nigher, en yit he don’t year nuthin’. Bimeby he git up close en peep down, but he don’t see nuthin’ en he don’t year nuthin’. All dis time Brer Rabbit mighty nigh skeer’d outen his skin, en he fear’d fer ter move kaze de bucket might keel over en spill him out in de water. W’ile he sayin’ his pra’rs over like train er kyars runnin’ ole Brer Fox holler out:
“‘Heyo, Brer Rabbit! Who you wizzitin’ down dar?’ sezee.
“‘Who? Me? Oh, I’m des a fishin’, Brer Fox,’ sez Brer Rabbit, sezee. ‘I des say ter myse’f dat I’d sorter sprize you all wid a mess er fishes for dinner, en so here I is, en dar’s de fishes. I’m a fishin’ fer suckers, Brer Fox,’ sez Brer Rabbit, sezee.
“‘Is dey many un um down dar, Brer Rabbit?’ sez Brer Fox, sezee.
“‘Lots un um, Brer Fox; scoze en scoze un um. De water is natally live wid um. Come down en he’ me haul um in, Brer Fox,’ sez Brer Rabitt, sezee.
“‘Hos I gwintter git down, Brer Rabbit?’
“‘Jump inter de bucket, Brer Fox. Hit’ll fetch you down all safe en soun’.’
“Brer Rabbit talk so happy en talk so sweet dat Brer Fox he jump in de bucket, he did, en, ez he went down, co’se his weight pull Brer Rabbit up. W’en day pass one nudder on de half-way groun’, Brer Rabbit he sing out:
“‘Good-by, Brer Fox, take keer yo’ cloze,
Fer it is de way de worril goes;
Some goes up en some goes down,
You’ll git ter de bottom all safe en soun’.”
“W’en Brer Rabbit got out, he gallop off den tole de fokes w’at de well b’long ter dat Brer Fox wuz down in dar muddyin’ up de drinkin’ water, en den he gallop back ter de well, en holler down ter Brer Fox:
“‘Yer come a man wid a great big gun—
W’en he haul you up, you jump en run.’”
“What then, Uncle Remus?” asked the little boy, as the old man paused.
“In des ‘bout half n’our, honey, bofe un um wuz back in de new groun’ wukkin des like dey never heer’d er no well, ceppin’ dat eve’y now’n den Brer Rabbiy’d bust out in er laff, en ole Brer Fox, he’d git a spell er de dry grins.”
Source: Harris, Joel Chandler. “Old Mr. Rabbit, He’s a Good Fisherman.” In Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings. New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1880.