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Tar-Baby
The Tar-Baby is the second of the Uncle Remus stories published in 1881; 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.
The phrase "tar baby" has acquired idiomatic meanings over the years, including a negative racial connotation.
Joel Chandler Harris collected the story in its original dialect and included it in his 1881 book, "Uncle Remus, his Songs and his Sayings". His introduction mentions earlier publication of some of his Uncle Remus Stories in the columns of a daily newspaper, The Atlanta Constitution. Harris said these legends had "become a part of the domestic history of every Southern family." Indeed, Theodore Roosevelt (the 26th president of the United States, born in 1858), noted in his autobiography that as a young child he heard Br'er Rabbit tales from his Southern aunt, Anna Bulloch, and that his uncle, Robert Roosevelt, transcribed some of her stories from her dictation.
The 'Tar Baby' story comes from the oral tradition of black slaves on the old plantations of the American South, one of many Uncle Remus stories. It features Br'er Fox, who constructs a doll out of a lump of pine tar and dresses it with some clothes. When Br'er Rabbit comes along he addresses the tar "baby" amiably but receives no response. Br'er Rabbit becomes offended by what he perceives as the tar baby's lack of manners, punches it and, in doing so, becomes stuck. The more Br'er Rabbit punches and kicks the tar baby out of rage, the worse he gets stuck.
In Joel Chandler Harris's popular retelling of the tar baby story, the fox then saunters over and gloats, laughing uproariously, and invites the rabbit to his house to "take dinner" with him, saying he has some calamus root and will take no excuse. The little boy listening to the story asks if the fox ate the rabbit, but the storyteller demurs and tells the boy to run off because he's being called. The Harris version seems to end there.
A couple of stories later, though, the tale continues in Harris's story, "How Mr. Rabbit was Too Sharp for Mr. Fox". This ending is now popularly incorporated into the tar baby story:
Now that Br'er Rabbit is stuck, Br'er Fox ponders how to dispose of him. The helpless but cunning Br'er Rabbit pleads, "Do anything you want with me – roas' me, hang me, skin me, drown me – but please, Br'er Fox, don't fling me in dat brier-patch", prompting the sadistic Br'er Fox to do exactly that because he gullibly believes it will inflict the maximum pain on Br'er Rabbit. However, as rabbits are at home in thickets like the brier-patch, the resourceful Br'er Rabbit escapes.
In folklore studies, the story of the Tar-Baby is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as tale type ATU 175, "The Tar-Baby and the Rabbit".
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Tar-Baby
The Tar-Baby is the second of the Uncle Remus stories published in 1881; 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.
The phrase "tar baby" has acquired idiomatic meanings over the years, including a negative racial connotation.
Joel Chandler Harris collected the story in its original dialect and included it in his 1881 book, "Uncle Remus, his Songs and his Sayings". His introduction mentions earlier publication of some of his Uncle Remus Stories in the columns of a daily newspaper, The Atlanta Constitution. Harris said these legends had "become a part of the domestic history of every Southern family." Indeed, Theodore Roosevelt (the 26th president of the United States, born in 1858), noted in his autobiography that as a young child he heard Br'er Rabbit tales from his Southern aunt, Anna Bulloch, and that his uncle, Robert Roosevelt, transcribed some of her stories from her dictation.
The 'Tar Baby' story comes from the oral tradition of black slaves on the old plantations of the American South, one of many Uncle Remus stories. It features Br'er Fox, who constructs a doll out of a lump of pine tar and dresses it with some clothes. When Br'er Rabbit comes along he addresses the tar "baby" amiably but receives no response. Br'er Rabbit becomes offended by what he perceives as the tar baby's lack of manners, punches it and, in doing so, becomes stuck. The more Br'er Rabbit punches and kicks the tar baby out of rage, the worse he gets stuck.
In Joel Chandler Harris's popular retelling of the tar baby story, the fox then saunters over and gloats, laughing uproariously, and invites the rabbit to his house to "take dinner" with him, saying he has some calamus root and will take no excuse. The little boy listening to the story asks if the fox ate the rabbit, but the storyteller demurs and tells the boy to run off because he's being called. The Harris version seems to end there.
A couple of stories later, though, the tale continues in Harris's story, "How Mr. Rabbit was Too Sharp for Mr. Fox". This ending is now popularly incorporated into the tar baby story:
Now that Br'er Rabbit is stuck, Br'er Fox ponders how to dispose of him. The helpless but cunning Br'er Rabbit pleads, "Do anything you want with me – roas' me, hang me, skin me, drown me – but please, Br'er Fox, don't fling me in dat brier-patch", prompting the sadistic Br'er Fox to do exactly that because he gullibly believes it will inflict the maximum pain on Br'er Rabbit. However, as rabbits are at home in thickets like the brier-patch, the resourceful Br'er Rabbit escapes.
In folklore studies, the story of the Tar-Baby is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as tale type ATU 175, "The Tar-Baby and the Rabbit".