The Tar-Baby is the second of the Uncle Remus stories published in 1881; it is about a doll made of tar and turpentine used by the villainous Br'er Fox to entrap Br'er Rabbit. The more that Br'er Rabb
Br'er Rabbit and the Tar-Baby, drawing by E. W. Kemble from "The Tar-Baby", by Joel Chandler Harris, 1904
Br'er Rabbit attacking the Tar-Baby, 1895 illustration
Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear are fictional anthropomorphic cartoon characters in African-American folktales. They originate from African-American oral traditions popular in the Southern United States. The
Tar-Baby
…The Tar-Baby is the second of the Uncle Remus stories published in 1881; it is about a doll made of tar and turpentine used by the villainous Br'er Fox to entrap Br'er Rabbit. The more that Br'er Rabbit fights the Tar-Baby, the more entangled he becomes. The phrase "tar baby" has acquired idiomatic…
Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear, from Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings: The Folk-Lore of the Old Plantation, 1881
Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear in Song of the South (1946). Disney's versions of the anthropomorphic characters are more stylized and cartoony than the illustrations in Harris's books.