Br'er Rabbit Earns a Dollar a Minute Br'er Rabbit Earns a Dollar a Minute "Br'er Rabbit Earns a Dollar a Minute" is a traditional African American folktale, featuring Br'er Rabbit, Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear. It is famous for its inclusion among Joel Chandler Harris' "Uncle Remus" stories. Although its folk roots most likely trace back to ancient Africa, the folktale's first written appearance was as a chapter titled "Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Bear" in "Uncle Remus: His Songs and Sayings", published in 1881. Like many short stories featuring Br'er Rabbit, the tale describes one of the trickster's successful attempts to talk his way out of a
Joel Chandler Harris a problematic and contradictory figure: sometimes a mouthpiece for white paternalism, sometimes a stereotype of the black entertainer, and sometimes poetically subversive. Julius Lester, a black folklorist and university professor, sees the Uncle Remus stories as important records of black folklore. He has rewritten many of the Harris stories in an effort to elevate the subversive elements over the purportedly racist ones. Regarding the nature of the Uncle Remus character, Lester said, There are no inaccuracies in Harris's characterization of Uncle Remus. Even the most cursory reading of the slave narratives collected by the Federal Writer's Project of the 1930s