Brer Rabbit thinks he has sped through the race, flashing his form, but in fact he has only chased himself and lost the contest. The trick works because Rabbit assumes all members of the Terrapin family look alike. But the tale also teaches the wisdom of knowing your opponent’s weakness and utilizing that knowledge. At the level of “psychic drainage,” the unconscious level at which stories bring satisfactions we scarcely realize, the story offers immense satisfactions to any people denied their individuality by a system which ignores that some people run, others walk. “I am what I am, shell and all,” says the tale, “and I can beat you with it.”

At the most subtle levels of the narratives, Brer Rabbit teaches the world view necessary for survival. There is a constant emphasis on food as a symbol of status and power — a natural enough concern for slaves living on meager rations — and Brer Rabbit is particularly adept at stealing food. In one of the more complicated tales in Uncle Remus, Brer Rabbit steals Brer Wolf’s fish, then, when confronted with his crime, tells Brer Wolf that if he thinks he has been wronged, he can kill Brer Rabbit’s cow — which Wolf, seeking justice, proceeds to do. But Brer Rabbit, knowing Brer Wolf’s fear of “patter-rollers,” the white bands who enforce the slave codes, tricks him, stealing the meat back after falsely warning of a patter-roller attack. Allegorically, the tale may teach that one should not excessively fear the patter-rollers, but at another level it emphasizes the uncertainty of possession in a world where irrational violence can be invoked at any moment. There is no justice, only the search for it, and although Rabbit is on top at the end of the tale, Brer Wolf will be back with designs on the smokehouse.

Whatever our interpretation of individual tales, one constant in all the Uncle Remus stories is the psychic satisfactions that come from Brer Rabbit’s acquisition of status. This characteristic of the tales can best be seen in the famous tale of Brer Rabbit riding Brer Fox. A symbolic courting tale, the story revolves around Brer Rabbit’s attempt to impress “Miss Meadows en de gals” by telling them that Brer Fox used to be “my daddy’s riding horse.” Told of Brer Rabbit’s boast, Brer Fox vows to bring the rabbit to the ladies and make him eat his words. Brer Fox tries to trick Brer Rabbit into attending a party at Miss Meadows’s, but Brer Rabbit, feigning sickness, can only go if Brer Fox carries him part of the way. He tricks Brer Fox into putting on saddle and bridle, then breaks his promise and rides him right up to the front door, where “Miss Meadows en all de gals wuz settin’ on de peazzer.” Brer Rabbit saunters around smoking a cigar, a living reminder that the world can be overturned, the weak can ride the strong.

The story demonstrates the ultimate triumph for the slave listeners. Brer Rabbit does not kill his enemy, but treats him as a beast of burden — the legal status of slaves — and humiliates him. He also implicitly steals his woman, although Harris probably did not understand this part of the story. “Miss Meadows en de gals” have caused a good deal of inquiry over the years. Harris admitted to his illustrator he had no idea why they were there, and neither does Uncle Remus: “Don’t ax me, honey. She wuz in de tale, Miss Meadows en de gals wuz, en de tale I give you like hi’t wer’ gun ter me.” But there should be no question about their function. The “gals” represent the order of the white world, which Brer Rabbit violates by trampling on the most sacred of white sexual taboos. In effect, Brer Rabbit takes Brer Fox’s place, turning the established order of the slave world on its head.

The Brer Rabbit tales document one revolutionary turn of events after another. The world of superior force is undermined, but so is the notion that the meek shall inherit the earth; cunning often results in victory, but the trickster can also be tricked. Brer Rabbit exhibits the revolutionary consciousness necessary to survive in an oppressive system. He suggests that no order can be depended on for very long, that there are no certainties, that goodness may win this week but power the next. What is certain is the need to improvise, to hang loose, stay cool, avoid sticky situations, shun rigid interpretations of events. Brer Rabbit shows that anarchy undermines all systems which mask reality. His lessons inculcate a revolutionary consciousness because they teach that one never has to accept limitations on the self, that one can never be denied the radical possibilities of being human.

The Uncle Remus tales showcase a revolutionary black figure, Brer Rabbit, who must be sanitized for acceptance by the predominantly white American reading public of the nineteenth century. For slaves listening to the Brer Rabbit tales, the rabbit provided an acceptable outlet for an overwhelming hostility, which could lead to self-destruction if openly expressed. Black Brer Rabbit could only be assimilated into the culture of a postslavery America through the mouth of a quasi-Negro whom white readers desperately needed to defuse the stories’ revolutionary hostility.

Uncle Remus always loves, and Brer Rabbit sometimes hates, but Brer Rabbit does not hate life. He glories in its manifold possibilities, the chances for reversal.