Harris was an amateur anthropologist. He had traced the origins of these stories through the slave trade to as far as India. Harris had seen many versions of them but preferred those told by black slaves. They are ancient. They were taught to the children of white masters. He was so taken by their wisdom and love for the people who told them that he wanted to capture them for posterity, using the phonetic puns in the text that was a popular vehicle for humor in that day.
His was a powerful intellect expressing the antithesis of racism. That the "Politically Correct" have removed these stories depicting a rich and sophisticated side of black culture from the literature IS an act of racism.
Methinks they didn't want the children of the welfare state to learn how they were being had.
And look what black culture's been replaced with--ghetto gangsters as predatory and malicious as Br'er Fox.
Looks like Disney's "Song of the South" still is locked in the Disney vault. I remember seeing it on the big screen in the eighties, but I was way too young to pick up on any racial subtexts.