Talk:Uncle Remus

message: This article in no way reflects the harmful and racist images that plagued the black community after these folklores were published. Before citing that the Uncle Remus stories were simply recanted tales and mostly fact, provide sources. These images are more than likely false narratives told from the perspective of a rich white male, these are not images and stories that should be glorified. If discussing Uncle Remus in a neutral space, add more commentary on it's harmful effects. The controversy section needs much work. 
Mary T. Brown (talk) 00:08, 12 May 2017 (UTC)
thread_title: Expansion on Racism and Controversy

message: Thanks for the editing. However, I'm not sure this statement
The style of story is the trickster tale; and many may well have roots in West Africa. is entirely accurate. Harris was white and I suspect that the stories are folklore only in style. I don't remember anyone ever claiming that the stories have their roots in authentic American Negro folklore (as opposed to being complete inventions by Harris). If you can't support such a claim,  it might be more accurate to say that they resemble trickster folktales. Do you know more than this about the origin of Harris' stories?
alteripse 16 apr 04
Ok, thanks to the link from Gutenberg text, it is obvious from the author's forward that he was using oral folklore and not wholesale invention. I withdraw my quibble above. alteripse
There is a *lot* of discussion of the roots of the stories.  Harris said both that he got the tales from slaves in his youth and that he invented them.  I don't know that anyone has found satisfactory African analogs.  One thing that is slipping around in my memory, though, is Harris's relationship to Mark Twain, which would be worthy of inclusion.  Twain was an unambiguous abolitionist, and I think that he was friends with Harris.  I can't be sure enough to make an edit and inclusion, though.  On the matter of the trickster tale, it's true that pretty much every mythos has them, but it's not necessary for an African trickster to show up in these tales, because European literature was full of the rube-done-good tales, and in particular southern literature was by the time of Harris.  (See, for example, the play that Lincoln was watching when he was assassinated: Our American Cousin.)  It was a genre already. Geogre 13:26, 6 Jun 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: I think the last sentence of your comment is really the important one... we're not here to decide whether Uncle Remus is racist or not, or whether the race controversy is overblown or justified, etc., just to document what other people have said on the subject. And that's a very good thing in this case, because if we had to settle the issue before writing an article, an article would never get written. --Delirium 19:02, 9 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Discussion on roots of stories

message: In the article it is mentioned that there have been three film adaptations of the book, but then only names two of them. Is there a third, and if so, what was it? ChrisStansfield 19:40, 16 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Film adaptations 

message: Harris is credited in some places as the actual author of the stories, for example at U.S. National Historic Landmark  webpage for Joel Chandler Harris House, a house now described in Joel Chandler Harris House article, but I believe he stole them. 
Having visited a plantation house museum near New Orleans where the Brer Rabbit stories were written by a black slave (from oral history stories of slaves from West Africa I believe), I recall that Harris is regarded there as a blatant thief and/or plagiarist.  I don't know enough right now to write this definitively, but I recall from the tour there that Harris is spoken of as a copyright thief.  Either copyright laws were not strong, or it was impossible for the actual recorder to pursue legal claims against Harris, or both.  I believe that there is very good authentication of the recording of the stories at that plantation.  I think there is some additional story that needs to be told in the article, although it would need proper sourcing of course. doncram (talk) 20:31, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: What plantation, and who is the person who supposedly wrote down the stories? Edison (talk) 22:44, 26 April 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Funny this should pop up on my watchlist.  Actually, in the year since when i posted that, i came across the plantation's name:  it is Laura Plantation, perhaps known also as "Lara Plantation" or "Lara".  I went on the tour there, which includes visiting slave cabins behind.  Unfortunately the main plantation house had been damaged in a fire in 2006 or so, and was closed, so the tour spent more time on the cabins.  The stories were told/retold by a black slave.  As I recall, the stories were traditional, based on original African stories, revised/embellished by this story-teller and perhaps others before him to apply to rabbits and briar patches in the South.  This one particular slave wrote them down, has a name I don't recall.  These were published by Harris, who gained all the credit and money, back when it would be impossible to stop anyone from doing so.  Probably Harris retold them with some "improvements" or other changes, but the bulk of it was stolen, I understood.  There must have been some academic-type study of this;  the information presented in the tour is very detailed and convincing. doncram (talk) 23:18, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

text: More:  The Laura Plantation article now states: "Alcée Fortier, who later became Professor of Romance Languages and folklore at Tulane University, was said to have collected Louisiana Creole versions of the West African Br'er Rabbit stories here in the 1870s.", while the Alcee Fortier article does not mention that.  I don't know if he, not a slave, is the person that i am recalling or whether there was a particular slave who wrote them down.  Also, it could be that Gullahs in South Carolina and/or others could also legitimately believe the Brer Rabbit stories were theirs, if they also brought them from West Africa. doncram (talk) 23:27, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

text: Take a look at the references on the Joel Chandler Harris page: there is quite a bit of research as well as primary source material in the introductions to the first two Uncle Remus books.  The Brer Rabbit stories are a cycle of folklore.  If this collection of them is theft, then each generation of people telling these stories would be guilty as well.  The Brer Rabbit stories were recorded by people other than Harris and Fortier, including Robert Roosevelt. J L Shakespeare (talk) 22:56, 9 March 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Stories were stolen

message: How about a bibliography, or a list of books of the Uncle Remus stories? I've been interested in reading the original stories, but I'm not really sure where to start since it looks like Harris published several Uncle Remus books. Also, some of the books I've come across appear to be compilations or "best of" versions of the original Harris books. A list would be very handy. 69.204.5.228 (talk) 23:14, 10 June 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Currently, a list is available on the Joel Chandler Harris page.  J L Shakespeare (talk) 22:45, 9 March 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Book Titles 

message: I myself have heard these stories first hand growing up from native Gullah speakers in South Carolina, so why are the Gullah roots not listed here? RoyBatty42 (talk) 18:12, 9 October 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: He is a fictional character, he has no roots. Skiendog (talk) 18:27, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

text: Additionally, the Remus character is from middle Georgia.  A Gullah character written with corresponding dialect, Daddy Jake, first appears in Nights with Uncle Remus. J L Shakespeare (talk) 22:44, 9 March 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Gullah roots? 

message: An image used in this article, , has been nominated for deletion at Wikimedia Commons in the following category: Deletion requests September 2011 
;What should I do?
Don't panic; a discussion will now take place over on Commons about whether to remove the file. This gives you an opportunity to contest the deletion, although please review Commons guidelines before doing so.
* If the image is non-free then you may need to upload it to Wikipedia (Commons does not allow fair use)
* If the image isn't freely licensed and there is no fair use rationale then it cannot be uploaded or used.
This notification is provided by a Bot --CommonsNotificationBot (talk) 12:58, 11 September 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: File:Uncle remus norman rockwell.jpg Nominated for Deletion

message: An info box was added and quickly deleted from this article.  I would like to see an info box so I agree with the addition, but I would like it to have more than two lines, so I agree with the deletion.  I would like to see an info box that give more info.  A Softer Answer (talk) 15:21, 17 February 2014 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree one hundred and ten percent!— alf laylah wa laylah (talk) 15:35, 17 February 2014 (UTC)
thread_title: Info box

message: 1880 or 1881? The Harris biography states 1880. Published by whom? Both articles are silent. Illustrated? --P64 (talk) 21:31, 18 July 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  First edition 

message: This entry could use some work. Uncle Remus's bio was only a couple of lines. It could discuss why Joel Chandler Harris created this fictional character. The beginning could illustrate that the fictional character became a phenomenon. It briefly touched base on how Uncle Remus was turned into a live action film created by Disney. This post could go more into detail on why Disney recreated Joel Chandler Harris story and its importance. What was the reaction to the film? Did viewers take well to it or was it not popular to the public? I believe that this article definitely could use some work to strengthen it. The majority of the information came from google pages which the information isn't terrible but they should use more articles and refer more back to Harris's stories. I checked a few of the citations and the links work however, there are a few spots throughout the post that they did not even provided the appropriate citation. It currently says [ citation needed] at the end of the sentence. For this post it is necessary to add more information to strengthen it. Also, to acquire more information from articles and the discussed texts instead of off websites. When using information from another source it is required that you cite it appropriately, which was not evident throughout this post. Citations should be consistant throughout the entry and not just disregarded at times. 
 (Komak1006 (talk) 23:42, 5 April 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Strengthen entry 

message: This year an unnamed editor added the sentence Many of these stories are believed to have Creek Indian influence too.  There's no citation, and the linked-to Creek Indian page doesn't mention anything.  Maybe this is accurate, and maybe it's not, but for now this is cookie-cutter unsubstantiated rumor, even phrased in the passive voice to avoid naming the people who "believe" this (but don't "know" this for certain?).  For now I've flagged it as original research; I'll let future editors either fix it or remove it.
I'll also note that, as per the usual lazy edit job, the unnamed editor shoved the text in any random ol' place, and it doesn't read well.  I don't know what the right fix would be--would it merit a new section titled "Influences"?  Again I leave these decisions to those that might come after me.
--Larry Hastings (talk) 22:12, 26 November 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Creek Indian" influence?