Br'er Rabbit aunt from the State of Georgia, that "She knew all the 'Br'er Rabbit' stories, and I was brought up on them. One of my uncles, Robert Roosevelt, was much struck with them, and took them down from her dictation, publishing them in "Harper's", where they fell flat. This was a good many years before a genius arose who, in 'Uncle Remus', made the stories immortal." These stories were popularized for the mainstream audience in the late 19th century by Joel Chandler Harris (1845–1908), who wrote down and published many such stories that had been passed down by oral tradition. Harris
Uncle Remus times, African American mothers are known to read the Br'er Rabbit stories to their children to teach them about the significance of protecting the small from the big and the weak from the powerful. Harris modeled Uncle Remus after a man known as "Free Joe" Edwards. In 1885, Free Joe was stabbed to death by Bell Todd in a quarrel over a woman. Todd was convicted of murder. An "Uncle Remus and His Tales of Br'er Rabbit" newspaper Sundays-only strip (King Features Syndicate) ran from October 14, 1945, through December 31, 1972. The stories have inspired at least three feature