 All the tales were in part inspired by Joel Chandler Harris's Uncle Remus stories, which Potter illustrated as early as 1893 in an attempt to find a career direction.Potter was unable to successfully translate Harris's characters to the English country garden, but she transformed the American author's "lippity-clippity, clippity-lippity" to "lippity-lippity" in "Peter Rabbit", and used his "rabbit tobacco" (lavender) in "Benjamin Bunny" and "Mr. Tod".None of her rabbit characters were based on Br'er Rabbit; Harris's rabbit wins by cunning, but Potter's Benjamin and Peter win by pure luck.