Br'er Rabbit
Encyclopedia
Uncle Remus
Uncle Remus is a fictional character, the title character and fictional narrator of a collection of African American folktales adapted and compiled by Joel Chandler Harris, published in book form in 1881...
stories of the Southern United States
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
. He is a trickster
Trickster
In mythology, and in the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a god, goddess, spirit, man, woman, or anthropomorphic animal who plays tricks or otherwise disobeys normal rules and conventional behavior. It is suggested by Hansen that the term "Trickster" was probably first used in this...
character who succeeds by his wits
Wit
Wit is a form of intellectual humour, and a wit is someone skilled in making witty remarks. Forms of wit include the quip and repartee.-Forms of wit:...
rather than by brawn, tweaking authority figures and bending social mores
Mores
Mores, in sociology, are any given society's particular norms, virtues, or values. The word mores is a plurale tantum term borrowed from Latin, which has been used in the English language since the 1890s....
as he sees fit. The story of Br'er Rabbit, a contraction
Contraction (grammar)
A contraction is a shortened version of the written and spoken forms of a word, syllable, or word group, created by omission of internal letters....
of "Brother Rabbit", has been linked to both African and Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
cultures. Disney
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
later adapted the character for their Song of the South
Song of the South
Song of the South is a 1946 American musical film produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The film is based on the Uncle Remus cycle of stories by Joel Chandler Harris. The live actors provide a sentimental frame story, in which Uncle Remus relates the folk tales of the...
.
African origins
The Br'er Rabbit stories can be traced back to tricksterTrickster
In mythology, and in the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a god, goddess, spirit, man, woman, or anthropomorphic animal who plays tricks or otherwise disobeys normal rules and conventional behavior. It is suggested by Hansen that the term "Trickster" was probably first used in this...
figures in Africa, particularly the hare
Hare
Hares and jackrabbits are leporids belonging to the genus Lepus. Hares less than one year old are called leverets. Four species commonly known as types of hare are classified outside of Lepus: the hispid hare , and three species known as red rock hares .Hares are very fast-moving...
that figures prominently in the storytelling traditions in Western, Central
Central Africa
Central Africa is a core region of the African continent which includes Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda....
and Southern Africa
Southern Africa
Southern Africa is the southernmost region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. Within the region are numerous territories, including the Republic of South Africa ; nowadays, the simpler term South Africa is generally reserved for the country in English.-UN...
. These tales continue to be part of the traditional folklore of numerous peoples throughout those regions. In the Akan
Akan people
The Akan people are an ethnic group found predominately in Ghana and The Ivory Coast. Akans are the majority in both of these countries and overall have a population of over 20 million people.The Akan speak Kwa languages-Origin and ethnogenesis:...
traditions of West Africa, the trickster is usually the spider (see Anansi
Anansi
Anansi the trickster is a spider, and is one of the most important characters of West African and Caribbean folklore.He is also known as Ananse, Kwaku Ananse, and Anancy; and in the Southern United States he has evolved into Aunt Nancy. He is a spider, but often acts and appears as a man...
), though the plots of spider tales are often identical to those of rabbit stories.
Many have suggested that the American incarnation, Br'er Rabbit, represents the enslaved
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
African who uses his wits to overcome circumstances and to exact revenge on his adversaries, representing the white slave-owners. Though not always successful, his efforts made him a folk hero. However, the trickster is a multi-dimensional character. While he can be a hero, his amoral nature and lack of any positive restraint can make him a villain as well.
The American version of the story is said to have originated among enslaved Africans. Br'er Rabbit stories were written down by Robert Roosevelt
Robert Roosevelt
Robert Barnwell Roosevelt, also known as Robert Barnhill Roosevelt , was a sportsman, author and United States Congressman from New York .-Biography:...
, uncle of President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
. Teddy Roosevelt wrote in his autobiography, about his aunt from Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, that "She knew all the 'Br'er Rabbit' stories, and I was brought up on them. One of my uncles, Robert Roosevelt, was much struck with them, and took them down from her dictation, publishing them in Harper's
Harper's Magazine
Harper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...
, where they fell flat. This was a good many years before a genius arose who, in 'Uncle Remus', made the stories immortal."
These stories were popularized for the mainstream audience in the late 19th century by Joel Chandler Harris
Joel Chandler Harris
Joel Chandler Harris was an American journalist, fiction writer, and folklorist best known for his collection of Uncle Remus stories. Harris was born in Eatonton, Georgia, where he served as an apprentice on a plantation during his teenage years...
(1845-1908), who wrote up and published many of the stories previously passed down by oral tradition. Harris also attributed the birth name, Riley, to Br'er Rabbit. Joel Chandler Harris heard the tales in Georgia. Very similar versions of the same stories were recorded independently at the same time by folklorist Alcée Fortier
Alcée Fortier
Alcée Fortier was a renowned Professor of Romance Languages at Tulane University in New Orleans. In the late 19th and early 20th century, he published numerous works on language, literature, Louisiana history and folklore, Louisiana Créole languages, and personal reminiscence. His perspective...
in southern Louisiana, where the Rabbit character was known as Compair Lapin in Creole French
Louisiana Creole French
Louisiana Creole is a French Creole language spoken by the Louisiana Creole people of the state of Louisiana. The language consists of elements of French, Spanish, African, and Native American roots.-Geography:...
. Enid Blyton
Enid Blyton
Enid Blyton was an English children's writer also known as Mary Pollock.Noted for numerous series of books based on recurring characters and designed for different age groups,her books have enjoyed huge success in many parts of the world, and have sold over 600 million copies.One of Blyton's most...
, the English writer of children's fiction, retold the stories for children.
Creek Indian origins
Many Native American cultures have oral traditions that involve animals that speak. Throughout eastern North America, it was typically the rabbit, which was the "trickster." However, the Uncle Remus Tales exactly match the ancient children's stories of the Creek Indians of Georgia, the Carolinas and Alabama. Furthermore, Creek farmers made frequent use of pine tar from long leaf pines. It was applied to carved wooden objects and statues, as a means of catching rodents near granaries and barns.In 1929, the ethnologist for the Smithsonian Institute, John R. Swanton
John R. Swanton
John Reed Swanton was an American anthropologist and linguist who worked with Native American peoples throughout the United States. Swanton achieved recognition in the fields of ethnology and ethnohistory...
, published a book on Creek folklore. The stories match verbatim with the Uncle Remus Tales. Swanton directly linked the original stories published by Joel Chandler Harris
Joel Chandler Harris
Joel Chandler Harris was an American journalist, fiction writer, and folklorist best known for his collection of Uncle Remus stories. Harris was born in Eatonton, Georgia, where he served as an apprentice on a plantation during his teenage years...
to Creek oral literature that predated the arrrival of Europeans or Africans. Both Joel Chandler Harris and Martha Ann "Minnie" Bulloch Roosevelt grew up in the heart of Creek Indian territory in Georgia. A substantial percentage of the current population in central Georgia (both nominally Caucasian and African) still has Creek ancestry. The Bulloch's were a prominent family in Savannah, GA on the Atlantic Coast. Harris began publishing the individual stories as special newspaper columns, immediately after being hired by the Atlanta Constitution. In its archives, the Georgia Historical Society has copies of Creek oral literature that match both Swanton's and Harris's books.
There are two possible explanations for Creek stories being passed on by the Cherokees and African slaves. During the late 1600s and early 1700s, the Cherokees obtained most of their trade income from capturing Native American slaves. Cherokee slave raiding parties ranged from southern Florida to the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River. The territory of the tribe swelled southward as aboriginal populations were wiped out by the slave raids. Cherokee raiders often kept the prettiest of their female captives as concubines or wives. Thus, Muskogean culture was absorbed matrilinearly into Cherokee culture.
The connection between Creek culture and African-American culture is more obvious. Once Muskogean slaves were mixed with African slaves, intermarriage occurred. King George II
George II of Great Britain
George II was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Archtreasurer and Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 11 June 1727 until his death.George was the last British monarch born outside Great Britain. He was born and brought up in Northern Germany...
freed all Native American slaves in the North American colonies in 1752. However, the individual colonial assemblies passed their own laws that classified slaves of mixed racial background as being African, not Native Americans. It was also common for Creek men or women to marry slaves of mixed heritage, then buy their freedom. By the early 1800s, many slaves in Georgia were practicing cultural traditions that mixed those of Africa and the Creeks.
Cherokee origins
Although Joel Chandler HarrisJoel Chandler Harris
Joel Chandler Harris was an American journalist, fiction writer, and folklorist best known for his collection of Uncle Remus stories. Harris was born in Eatonton, Georgia, where he served as an apprentice on a plantation during his teenage years...
collected materials for his famous series of books featuring the character Br'er Rabbit in the 1870s, the Br'er Rabbit cycle had been recorded earlier among the Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
s: The "tar baby
Tar baby
The Tar-Baby is a doll made of tar and turpentine used to entrap Br'er Rabbit in the second of the Uncle Remus stories. The more that Br'er Rabbit fights the Tar-Baby, the more entangled he becomes...
" story was printed in an 1845 edition of the Cherokee Advocate the same year Joel Chandler Harris was born.
Rabbit and Hare myths abound among Algonquin Indians in Eastern North America, particularly under the name Nanabozho
Nanabozho
In Anishinaabe mythology, particularly among the Ojibwa, Nanabozho is a spirit, and figures prominently in their storytelling, including the story of the world's creation. Nanabozho is the Ojibwe trickster figure and culture hero...
. The Great Hare is generally regarded as the supreme deity among tribes in eastern Canada.
In "That the People Might Live: Native American Literatures and Native American Community" by Jace Weaver, the origins of Br'er Rabbit and other literature are discussed. To say that a story only originates from one culture and not another can only be true when a group of people exist in complete isolation from others. Whereas, the Cherokee did live in isolation from Europeans in the far past, it's also true to say that a substantial amount of interaction happened between, not only North American tribes, but also between Europeans and, more often, those from the slave population during the 18th and 19th Centuries. That being understood, it is impossible to ascertain whether the Cherokee story pre-dated, independently, the African American story. Stories are told around communal fires in the evening and would have been told to travellers and visitors - they are the memorable currency of diplomacy.
In the Cherokee tale about the briar patch, "the fox and the wolf throw the trickster rabbit into a thicket from which the rabbit quickly escapes." There was a "melding of the Cherokee rabbit-trickster ... into the culture of African slaves." "In fact, most of the Br'er Rabbit stories originated in Cherokee myths."
Modern interpretations
- The 1946 DisneyThe Walt Disney CompanyThe Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
film Song of the SouthSong of the SouthSong of the South is a 1946 American musical film produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The film is based on the Uncle Remus cycle of stories by Joel Chandler Harris. The live actors provide a sentimental frame story, in which Uncle Remus relates the folk tales of the...
is a frame storyFrame storyA frame story is a literary technique that sometimes serves as a companion piece to a story within a story, whereby an introductory or main narrative is presented, at least in part, for the purpose of setting the stage either for a more emphasized second narrative or for a set of shorter stories...
based on three Br'er Rabbit stories, "The Laughing PlaceThe Laughing PlaceThe Laughing Place is an African American folktale as narrated by the fictional Uncle Remus.It was used in the movie Song of the South along with The Tar Baby and The Briar Patch....
", "The Tar Baby", and "The Briar Patch". The character of Br'er Rabbit was voiced by Johnny LeeJohnny Lee (actor)John Dotson "Johnny" Lee, Jr. was an American singer, dancer and actor known for voicing the role of Br'er Rabbit in Disney's Song of the South...
in the film, and was portrayed as more of a "lovable trickster" than previous tales. Disney comics starring that version of Br'er Rabbit have been done since 1945.
- The Magic Kingdom and Disneyland thrill rides, both known as Splash MountainSplash MountainSplash Mountain is a themed log flume attraction at Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, and the Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort, based on the characters, stories and songs from the 1946 Disney film Song of the South...
, have a Br'er Rabbit theme. Br'er Rabbit also appears at the Walt Disney Parks and ResortsWalt Disney Parks and ResortsWalt Disney Parks and Resorts is the segment of The Walt Disney Company that conceives, builds, and manages the company's theme parks and holiday resorts, as well as a variety of additional family-oriented leisure enterprises...
for meet-and-greets, parades and shows. He also has a cameo appearance in Who Framed Roger RabbitWho Framed Roger RabbitWho Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 American fantasy-comedy-noir film directed by Robert Zemeckis and released by Touchstone Pictures. The film combines live action and animation, and is based on Gary K. Wolf's novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, which depicts a world in which cartoon characters...
, and appears as one of the guests in House of Mouse. He also appears in the film Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of MouseMickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of MouseMickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse is the first direct-to-video movie spin off from the Disney Channel animated television series Disney's House of Mouse.-Plot:...
, often seen hopping in the applauding crowd. Jess HarnellJess HarnellJess Q. Harnell is an American voice actor and singer, best known for voicing Wakko Warner on Animaniacs. Harnell has been the announcer for America's Funniest Home Videos since 1998.-Life and acting career:...
performed Br'er Rabbit's voice characterizations in Splash MountainSplash MountainSplash Mountain is a themed log flume attraction at Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, and the Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort, based on the characters, stories and songs from the 1946 Disney film Song of the South...
and modern animation.
- In 1975, the stories were retold for an adult audience in the cult film CoonskinCoonskin (film)Coonskin is a 1975 American animated film written and directed by Ralph Bakshi, about an African American rabbit, fox, and bear who rise to the top of the organized crime racket in Harlem, encountering corrupt law enforcement, con artists and the Mafia...
, directed by Ralph BakshiRalph BakshiRalph Bakshi is an Israeli-American director of animated and live-action films. In the 1970s, he established an alternative to mainstream animation through independent and adult-oriented productions. Between 1972 and 1992, he directed nine theatrically released feature films, five of which he wrote...
. A direct-to-video film based on the stories, The Adventures of Brer RabbitThe Adventures of Brer RabbitThe Adventures of Brer Rabbit is the title of book, a play, and a film inspired by the Uncle Remus stories. The central character's actual name is Br'er Rabbit, but the title is simplified as "Brer." The film also has the distinction to be the second film to be released by Universal Studios under...
, was released in 2006.
- For many years, a popular brand of molasses called "Brer Rabbit" was distributed by Penick & Ford Ltd. The brand is currently distributed by B&G Foods of New Jersey.
- In 1984, American composer Van Dyke ParksVan Dyke ParksVan Dyke Parks is an American composer, arranger, producer, musician, singer, author and actor. Parks is perhaps best known for his contributions as a lyricist on the Beach Boys album Smile....
produced a children's album, Jump!, based on the Brer Rabbit Tales.
- In Oakwood theme parkOakwood Theme ParkOakwood Theme Park is a theme park in Pembrokeshire, Wales which attracts over 400,000 visitors each year....
a ride is called Br'er Rabbit's burrow.
- In the popular Hip-Hop band The Flobots, one of Emcees names is Br'er Rabbit.
- Richard AdamsRichard AdamsRichard Adams was a non-conforming English Presbyterian divine, known as author of sermons and other theological writings.-Life:...
, author of the children's book Watership DownWatership DownWatership Down is a classic heroic fantasy novel, written by English author Richard Adams, about a small group of rabbits. Although the animals in the story live in their natural environment, they are anthropomorphised, possessing their own culture, language , proverbs, poetry, and mythology...
, suggested that his mythical rabbit archetype El-ahrairah was known as Br'er Rabbit in America.
External links
- Brer-Rabbit.com
- Brer Rabbit Stories at AmericanFolklore.net
- Robert Roosevelt's Brer Rabbit stories
- Theodore Roosevelt autobiography on Brer Rabbit and his Uncle
- Inducks' index of Disney comic stories featuring Br'er Rabbit
- Archived audio recording of an educational ArtsSmarts elementary school recording of "Brother Rabbit and Tar Baby"