Harris, Joel Chandler (1845-1908), an American author and journalist, became famous for his Uncle Remus stories. Uncle Remus is a former enslaved man who has become a beloved servant of a Southern family. He entertains the young son of the family by telling him traditional animal fables, using Southern African American dialect of the 1800’s. In these stories, animals behave and talk like human beings. Among the best-known characters of the stories are Brer (Brother) Rabbit, Brer Fox, Brer Bear, and Brer Wolf. Many literary critics and folklorists today agree that these tales contain thinly veiled racial allegories. They point out that the trickster in the stories, though the weaker figure, usually wins.
Harris was born on Dec. 9, 1845, in Eatonton, Georgia. From 1862 to 1866, he worked as a printer on a plantation that was near his home. The plantation owner, Joseph Addison Turner, published a newspaper called The Countryman. Turner introduced Harris to literature and encouraged him to write essays and poems. Harris became acquainted with enslaved people on the plantation. He learned about their customs and listened to their stories. This material formed the basis of his most successful writings.
From 1876 to 1900, Harris wrote for The Atlanta Constitution, in which his first Uncle Remus stories appeared. He later collected the stories in book form as Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings (1881). Readers enjoyed its humor, and critics called it an important record of manners and oral folk tales of African Americans of the southeastern United States. The book’s popularity led Harris to publish more collections of Uncle Remus stories, including Nights with Uncle Remus (1883) and Uncle Remus and His Friends (1892).
Harris also wrote many stories and novels about life in the South during and after the American Civil War (1861-1865). Collections of such stories as Free Joe and Other Georgian Sketches (1887) gave him a separate though less celebrated reputation from his Uncle Remus tales. In On the Wing of Occasions (1900), another collection, Harris introduced Billy Sanders, the Sage of Shady Dale. Through Sanders, Harris expressed the opinions of many rural Georgians. Harris died on July 3, 1908.
