Bob Roosevelt of Sayville penned the original Brer Rabbit story
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Robert Roosevelt of Sayville, Long Island, wrote the original Brer Rabbit stories. He introduced the world to the Tar Baby. |
 Robert Roosevelt |
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Robert Roosevelt of Sayville, Long Island, wrote the original Brer Rabbit stories. He introduced the world to the Tar Baby. |
Robert Roosevelt |
Theodore Roosevelt's Uncle Robert Roosevelt of Sayville wrote the original version of the Brer Rabbit stories in New York. The series of Brer Rabbit stories were published in Harper's Weekly, then the most important national media outlet in the United States. Teddy Roosevelt wrote in his autobiography that his mother and aunt, grew up on a Georgia Plantation, often spoke of, "...queer goings-on in the Negro quarters. She knew all the " 'Br'er Rabbit' " stories, and I was brought up on them. One of my uncles, Robert Roosevelt, was much struck with them, and took them down from her dictation, publishing them in Harper's, where they fell flat. This was a good many years before a genius arose who in "Uncle Remus" made the stories immortal." ( http://www.bartleby.com/55/1.html )
Theodore Roosevelt was friends with Joel Chandler Harris once said to him, "Presidents may come and presidents may go, but Uncle Remus stays put!" President Roosevelt said in 1905 that "what exults the South in the mind of every man who reads it, and yet what has not a flavor of bitterness toward any other part of the Union." and said the Brer Rabbit stories were "a tale, honey, an' tellin' tales is playin.'" In Forbes TR said, "Still there is an occasional outcropping here and there; and it is just as well that we should keep steadily in mind the futility of talking of a Northern literature or a Southern literature, an Eastern or a Western school of art or science. Joel Chandler Harris is emphatically a national writer; so is Mark Twain."
President Roosevelt said Joel Harris Chandler was "a genius", and his books were, "the most striking and powerful permanent contributions to literature that have been produced on this side of the ocean."
Theodore Roosevelt's mother Mittie Bulloch and Aunt Anna Bulloch grew up on a George plantation. They would tell stories for hours about the slaves and the stories they would tell, such as Brer Rabbit and the Tar baby. Robert Roosevelt lived next door. He was the brother of Teddy's father. Robert Roosevelt would listen to the stories of the old south and eventually wrote them down. Robert Roosevelt was a prolific writer and was even good friends with Oscar Wilde. He then compiled the tales and wrote them in short story form. Harper's Weekly then published the stories in their publication. Many years later Joel Harris Chandler would rewrite them. His stories would be published in the local paper, the Atlanta Constitution.
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The original Brer Rabbit stories written by Robert Roosevelt and published in Harper's Weekly. |
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Joel Chandler Harris rewrote the Brer Rabbit stories. |
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The Bulloch Plantation in Georgia, not
far from where Joel Harris Chandler grew up. Teddy Roosevelt's mother and
aunt, both of whom raised him, grew up on this slave plantation.
Two actual former slaves at the Bulloch Plantation, "Roswell.">>
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President Roosevelt |
| Letter From Theodore Roosevelt to Joel Chandler Harris |
| To Joel Chandler Harris White House, Oct. 12, 1901. MY DEAR HARRIS: It is worth while being President when one's small daughter receives that kind of an autograph gift. When I was younger than she is, my Aunt Annie Bulloch, of Georgia, used to tell me some of the brer rabbit stories, especially brer rabbit and the tar baby. But fond though I am of the brer rabbit stories I think I am even fonder of your other writings. I doubt if there is a more genuinely pathetic tale in all our literature than "Free Joe." Moreover I have felt that all that you write serves to bring our gether. I know, of course, the ordinary talk is that an artist should be judged purely by his art; but I am rather a Philistine and like to feel that the art serves a good purpose. Your art is not only an art addition to our sum of national achievement, but it has also always been an addition to the forces that tell for decency, and above all for the blotting out of sectional antagonism. Theodore Roosevelt |
| President Roosevelt - Letter to Harris in 1902 |
| White House, June 9, 1902. MY DEAR MR. HARRIS: Your letter was a great relief to Kermit, who always becomes personally interested in his favorite author, and who has been much worried by your sickness. He would be more than delighted with a copy of "Daddy Jake." Alice has it already, but Kermit eagerly wishes it. Last night Mrs. Roosevelt and I were sitting out on the porch at the back of the White House, and were talking of you and wishing you could be sitting there with us. It is delightful at all times, but I think especially so after dark. The monument stands up distinct but not quite earthly in the night, and at this season the air is sweet with the jasmine and honeysuckle. All of the younger children are at present absorbed in various pets, perhaps the foremost of which is a puppy of the most orthodox puppy type. Then there is Jack, the terrier, and Sailor Boy, the Chesapeake Bay dog; and Eli, the most gorgeous macaw, with a bill that I think could bite through boiler plate, who crawls all over Ted, and whom I view with dark suspicion; and Jonathan, the piebald rat, of most friendly and affectionate nature, who also crawls all over everybody; and the flying squirrel, and two kangaroo rats; not to speak of Archie's pony, Algonquin, who is the most absolute pet of them all. Mrs. Roosevelt and I have, I think, read all your stories to the children, and some of them over and over again. |
Joel Chandler Harris grew up poor near Atlanta, in Georgia. He wrote for a
local paper called the Atlanta Constitution. The character of Uncle Remus was
the idea of Joel Harris Chandler which he added on the the nationally published
works of Robert Roosevelt. Since Harper's Weekly was the most important media
outlet in the United States, when a series of stories were published that took
place in metropolitan Atlanta, it caused a lot of interest among locals. One of
these locals was of course Joel Harris Chandler.
song of the south zip a
dee doo dah. Brer Rabbit
Stories of Georgia. 8k
THE WONDERFUL TAR BABY STORY
"Didn't the fox never catch the rabbit, Uncle Remus?" asked the little boy the next evening.
"He come mighty nigh it, honey, sho's you born--Brer Fox did. One day atter Brer Rabbit fool 'im wid dat calamus root, Brer Fox went ter wuk en got 'im some tar, en mix it wid some turkentime, en fix up a contrapshun w'at he call a Tar-Baby, en he tuck dish yer Tar-Baby en he sot 'er in de big road, en den he lay off in de bushes fer to see what de news wuz gwine ter be. En he didn't hatter wait long, nudder, kaze bimeby here come Brer Rabbit pacin' down de road--lippity-clippity, clippity -lippity--dez ez sassy ez a jay-bird. Brer Fox, he lay low. Brer Rabbit come prancin' 'long twel he spy de Tar-Baby, en den he fotch up on his behime legs like he wuz 'stonished. De Tar Baby, she sot dar, she did, en Brer Fox, he lay low.
"`Mawnin'!' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee - `nice wedder dis mawnin',' sezee.
"Tar-Baby ain't sayin' nuthin', en Brer Fox he lay low.
"`How duz yo' sym'tums seem ter segashuate?' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee.
"Brer Fox, he wink his eye slow, en lay low, en de Tar-Baby, she ain't sayin' nuthin'.
"'How you come on, den? Is you deaf?' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee. 'Kaze if you is, I kin holler louder,' sezee.
"Tar-Baby stay still, en Brer Fox, he lay low.
"'You er stuck up, dat's w'at you is,' says Brer Rabbit, sezee, 'en I;m gwine ter kyore you, dat's w'at I'm a gwine ter do,' sezee.
"Brer Fox, he sorter chuckle in his stummick, he did, but Tar-Baby ain't sayin' nothin'.
"'I'm gwine ter larn you how ter talk ter 'spectubble folks ef hit's de las' ack,' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee. 'Ef you don't take off dat hat en tell me howdy, I'm gwine ter bus' you wide open,' sezee.
"Tar-Baby stay still, en Brer Fox, he lay low.
"Brer Rabbit keep on axin' 'im, en de Tar-Baby, she keep on sayin' nothin', twel present'y Brer Rabbit draw back wid his fis', he did, en blip he tuck 'er side er de head. Right dar's whar he broke his merlasses jug. His fis' stuck, en he can't pull loose. De tar hilt 'im. But Tar-Baby, she stay still, en Brer Fox, he lay low.
"`Ef you don't lemme loose, I'll knock you agin,' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee, en wid dat he fotch 'er a wipe wid de udder han', en dat stuck. Tar-Baby, she ain'y sayin' nuthin', en Brer Fox, he lay low.
"`Tu'n me loose, fo' I kick de natal stuffin' outen you,' sez Brer Rabbit, sezee, but de Tar-Baby, she ain't sayin' nuthin'. She des hilt on, en de Brer Rabbit lose de use er his feet in de same way. Brer Fox, he lay low. Den Brer Rabbit squall out dat ef de Tar-Baby don't tu'n 'im loose he butt 'er cranksided. En den he butted, en his head got stuck. Den Brer Fox, he sa'ntered fort', lookin' dez ez innercent ez wunner yo' mammy's mockin'-birds.
"`Howdy, Brer Rabbit,' sez Brer Fox, sezee. `You look sorter stuck up dis mawnin',' sezee, en den he rolled on de groun', en laft en laft twel he couldn't laff no mo'. `I speck you'll take dinner wid me dis time, Brer Rabbit. I done laid in some calamus root, en I ain't gwineter take no skuse,' sez Brer Fox, sezee."
Here Uncle Remus paused, and drew a two-pound yam out of the ashes.
"Did the fox eat the rabbit?" asked the little boy to whom the story had been told.
"Dat's all de fur de tale goes," replied the old man. "He mout, an den agin he moutent. Some say Judge B'ar come 'long en loosed 'im - some say he didn't. I hear Miss Sally callin'. You better run 'long."
