Joel Chandler Harris

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.