He is a patriarchal ex-slave, who seems to be a storehouse of
knowledge concerning Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, Brer B'ar, and indeed all the
animals of those bygone days when animals talked and lived in houses. He
understands child nature as well as he knows the animals, and from the
corner of his eye he keeps a sharp watch upon his tiny auditor to see how
the story affects him. No figure more living, original, and lovable than
Uncle Remus appears in southern fiction. In him Harris has created, not a
burlesque or a sentimental impossibility, but an imperishable type, the
type of the true plantation negro.
Harris also writes entertainingly of the slaves and their masters on the
plantation and of the poor free negroes, in such stories as _Mingo and
Other Sketches_ (1884) and _Free Joe_ (1887). He further presents a vivid
picture of the Georgia "crackers" and "moonshiners"; but his inimitable
animal stories, and Uncle Remus who tells them, have overshadowed all his
other work, and remain his most distinctive and original contribution to
American literature. These tales bid fair to have something of the
immortality of those myths which succeeding generations have for thousands
of years enjoyed.
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