Aesop, A Black Slave
Millions of children and their parents are familiar with the fables like the tortoise and the hare, and the ant and the grasshopper. They know these are Aesop's fables, but few know his racial origin. Even fewer of Aesop's fans know that his impact goes beyond his "stories." Aesop was a gifted black man who lived, suffered, and died as a slave in ancient times. His great mind and wit were a powerful influence on the thought and the moral views of many of the world's great thinkers. The philosophies embedded in his fables had a mojor influence on the development of ancient and modern societies. Plato, Socrates, Aristophanes, Shakespeare and other great minds of the Western world, thought about and found inspiration in his simple stories.
Aesop is believed to have lived during the 6th century, before the birth of Christ, in ancient Greece. His name meant "Ethiop of Africa."
Hundreds of years after Aesop's death, in the 14th century, his fables were first presented to the public by Planudes the Great, a scholarly monk who researched and wrote Aesop's biography. In the 17th century, French poet and author Jean de La Fontaine wrote a biography of Aesop. Both Planudes and de La Fontaine proclaimed Aesop's African origin and described his broad flat nose, thick lips, black skin and kinky hair.
This description of Aesop as an old black slave, the teller of tales and fables, gives him a special place in black history. He is the classic-era counterpart of more modern day Uncle Remus and his tales. Socrates spent his last days putting Aesop's fables into verse. The mass entertainment markets, print and electronic media, have kept alive and perpetuated the wit and fables of this black slave.
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