Life and Career:
- Born: December 9, 1848, Eatonton, Georgia, USA
- Died: July 3, 1908, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
- Occupation: Journalist, folklorist, fiction writer
- Best Known For: The "Uncle Remus" stories, a collection of folktales featuring talking animals from African American traditions in the Southern United States.
Early Life and Influences:
- Harris grew up in the American South during Reconstruction after the Civil War.
- He was raised in poverty and worked on plantations as a young man, where he was exposed to African American folktales and Gullah dialect.
- This early exposure significantly shaped his literary career.
The Uncle Remus Stories:
- Harris began publishing the "Uncle Remus" stories in the Atlanta Constitution newspaper in the late 1870s.
- The stories feature an elderly formerly enslaved man named Uncle Remus who tells fables to a young white boy.
- These fables often involve animals like Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, and Brer Bear, and they convey moral lessons and social commentary.
- The stories were immensely popular and helped to introduce African American folklore to a wider audience.
Legacy:
- Harris's work has been praised for its preservation of African American folktales but also criticized for perpetuating racial stereotypes.
- The dialect used in the stories can be seen as condescending or inauthentic.
- However, there's no doubt that Harris's work played a significant role in American literature.
Additional Points:
- Beyond the "Uncle Remus" stories, Harris wrote other novels, short stories, and essays.
- He was a prominent journalist in the South and advocated for racial reconciliation.