Who Is This Brer Rabbit?

Brer Rabbit is the title character in the Uncle Remus stories of the Southern United States.

He is a sneaky type of character with a witty tongue and sense of humor who outwits his friends with brains rather than through brawn, making fun of authority figures and breaking rules as he sees fit.

The Brer Rabbit stories originate from African and Cherokees cultures, and is thought to have have his stories spread across America by enslaved Africans.

In America his stories were originally written down by Robert Roosevelt, Uncle of the President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt. These tales were made popular for the mainstream audience in the late 19th century by Joel Chandler Harris, who wrote up and published many of the stories which were previously told from person to person.

Disney featured Brer in their feature Song of the South, including 3 Brer Rabbit stories, "The Laughing Place", "The Tar Baby", and "The Briar Patch". In the film the title character was recorded by Johnny Lee, and the tale really focused on his lovable trickster character traits, rather then the slightly sinister version in the original tales.

In 1945 following the Song of the South Disney published comics starring their version of the character. The Disney Land Ride Splash Mountain is based on their film version of his story.

The Brer Rabbit Tales have become a large part of our upbringing through the stories that we read. Let's hope that these stories live on for many generations to come.

By John P Mitchell