The Tar Baby: A Global History

Many readers are familiar with the story of the tar baby—involving a lifelike figure composed of tar and turpentine, fox, and a rabbit—generally thought to be the creation of Joel Chandler Harris from his folklore collection Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings (1881) and further immortalized in Walt Disney's classic film Song of the South (1946). Harris, however, was not the originator of the tale, which Wagner (English, Univ. of California, Berkeley; Disturbing the Peace) demonstrates exists in hundreds of varieties from around the world. For generations, the tar baby, accompanied by the trickster figure who takes advantage of it, has become a central myth in African diasporic literature often seen as a metaphor for the slave outsmarting a powerful opponent. This interpretation has been questioned by recent scholars who maintain that the story's unsettled origins make it difficult to tie to a specific African identity. This book concludes with 12 examples of the story from around the globe.