We'll never know very much in detail about the earliest interactions between Native Americans and newly arrived Africans (including escaped slaves), but we do know that some of these people definitely got together with each other. Members of similar tribal cultures, individuals from these two groups met and communicated, but left no written record of whatever transpired.

Part of what we do know is that the folklore of both groups always included strikingly similar elements, including "trickster stories" featuring athropomorphic animals. I think that anyone who contends that the Uncle Remus stories are of exclusive African or Native-American origin is simply promoting his/her own personal prejudice. In fact, a case can be made for either theory, but I believe that elements of both must have been included in the late-19th-century versions of these tales.

I am generally supportive of the African-American community's consensus feeling regarding any given issue, but I truly believe that their wholesale rejection of the entire history of American popular culture's depiction of black people is a big mistake. The article to which Azizi provided a link is a good example of this militant ignorance ~ let me second Q's assertion much earlier in this thread: "The article by Davis gives a completely distorted and false picture of Joel Chandler Harris and his stories. Obviously he knows nothing about them. Finding something like this in 'Teacher Resources' is very disturbing." Ditto for the rewritten PC tales by Julius Lester, an artist I've always respected who seems to be very much in the wrong this time around. Those who blind themselves to history are doomed to repeat it!

I'd be glad see Amos and Andy, too, but I understand why I can't. More to the point, I'd be glad to live in a world where no one had a problem with Amos and Andy. But Harris' presentation of these timeless fables is not only more innocuous than the pop-culture slapstick of "A&A," it's infinitely more authentic and much more serious as literature, too.

Let's not forget that there was a time, not too long ago, when educated middle-class black folks were scandalized by and ashamed of the blues. Let's hope that Uncle Remus can someday regain an appropriate level of respect, much like BB King eventually did...