Nights With Uncle Remus

These are the tales that generations of American children have argued about. Gathered from the oral traditions of formerly enslaved people in the post-Civil War South, the stories follow Brer Rabbit, that irrepressible trickster, as he outwits Brer Fox, Brer Bear, and Brer Wolf through sheer cunning and wit. The battles between the small and the strong, the clever and the powerful, unfold in the cabin of Uncle Remus, where a rotating cast of listeners Daddy Jack, Sis Tempy, and young Tildy take their turns adding their voices to the storytelling. The animal fables pulse with a brilliant, mischievous energy: Brer Rabbit playing dead to escape trouble, using flattery as a weapon, turning every situation to his advantage. Beneath the humor lies something older and deeper, a tradition of wisdom passed down through generations, a way of understanding power and survival through the ancient art of the trickster tale. Harris collected these stories at a particular moment in American history, preserving an African American oral tradition that might otherwise have been lost. What remains is a complex artifact: genuine folk art that continues to entertain, while also raising questions about who gets to tell whose stories.