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For centuries, Brer Rabbit stories have communicated the values and experiences of enslaved Africans and of indigenous African American culture (Abrahams, 1985; Brewer, 1968; Levine, 1977). According to Blassingame (1972, p.127), Brer Rabbit stories are "a projection of the slave's personal experiences, dreams and hopes." Dunn (1979, p.183) explained that the stories are "paradigms dictating how to act and how to live," and Stuckey (1977, p.xuii) observed that they "revealed more about slave culture than... whole books on slavery by experts. Levine (1977) maintaned that Brer Rabbit stories survived the experiences of slavery and urban poverty because they were a vehicle by which African American cultural values could be shared by the masses of African American people, and Leslie (forthcoming) observed that urban Black mothers continue to share in these values by teaching their children that Brer Rabbit's tricks demonstrate the importance of "protecting the physically small and weak against the physically big and powerful."
Faulkner (1977, p.xiu) wrote that, "parading through almost all of these popular narratives was Brer Rabbit, who was adopted by the American Negro slaves as their culture-hero." In these stories, Brer Rabbit, an accomplished musician, songster, and dancer, successful lady's man, skilled farmer, and shrewd strategist, engages in struggles with adversaries, such as Brer Wolf and Brer Fox, as well as conflicts with friends, such as Brer Possum and Brer Squirrel. Whether Brer Rabbit contends with Brer Fox over who gets "tops" and "bottoms" of a crop they plant together, competes in a musical competition for Sis Possum's hand in marriage, pretends a cyclone "is-a-comin" to help small and defenseless animals against bigger more powerful ones, or feigns illness to get on Brer Wolf's back to convince Sis Possum that Brer Wolf is merely his riding horse, he usually wins (Levine, 1977). For instance, Harris (1880/1955) commented that Brer Rabbit encounters Brer Fox 20 times, trounces him 19 times, and emerges the unruffled winner. Levine noted that Brer Rabbit wins primarily by tricking others through complicated schemes in which he convinces them that a thing is one way when he knows it is not. On a few occasions, Brer Rabbit is tricked by another animal, who, usually puny like himself, employs a more clever ruse (Levine, 1977).
This article examines...