Joel Chandler Harris: The Tar Baby & Other Rhymes of Uncle Remus

26 of Uncle Remus's stories put into verse and song. With the exception of the Tar Baby story, they were all new to this publication of 1904 and cover a variety of humorous subjects from Adan and Eve (De Appile Tree) to Brer Rabbit's Gigglin' Place. There are also genuine Camp Meeting Songs and a Corn Shuckin' Song. The underlying story of Brer Rabbit (Brother Rabbit) is actually an African-American folk tale, passed down many generations through strorytelling. An anthology of these tales was compiled by Joel Harris in 1881. They were collectively known as the Uncle Remus Stories. The idea of a "tar-baby" has been around a very long time, and did not have any racist connotation at it's origin. It originated as the gum-doll used by Anansi in African folklore. The Tar-Baby is the second of the Uncle Remus stories published in 1880. It is about a doll made of tar and turpentine used by the villainous Br'er Fox to entrap Br'er Rabbit. The more that Br'er Rabbit fights the Tar-Baby, the more entangled he becomes. And of course there is the famous ending with Br'er Rabbit pleading for Br'er Fox to do anyhing to him "But PLEASE don't throw me into the briar patch!!" Which of course is exactly where he wants to go. In modern usage, "tar baby" refers to any "sticky situation" that is only aggravated by additional involvement with it. An example of the written dialog by Harris “Bimeby, one day, after Brer Fox bin doin’ all dat he could fer ter ketch Brer Rabbit, en Brer Rabbit bin doin’ all he could fer ter keep ’im fum it, Brer Fox say to hisse’f dat he’d put up a game on Brer Rabbit, en he ain’t mo’n got de wuds out’n his mouf twel Brer Rabbit come a-lopin’ up de big road, lookin’ des ez plump en ez fat en ez sassy ez a Moggin hoss in a barley-patch." Yes, it's hard to read