“Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (1852)

By Harriet Beecher Stowe

Nicolle Naranjo

Introduction

In writing such vivid sketches of slave sufferings and family separations was meant to bring awareness to the broad population of the United States and show slavery under a different light. Harriet Beecher Stowe brought to the subject of anti-slavery, not through the outrage of it but through the senses of human emotion and sympathy for other human lives. . The first version of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” appeared between June 1851 and April 1852. In the north an antislavery paper published in Washington, D.C. The first book edition appeared in March 1852 and sold more than 300,000 copies in the first year. Although the novel was spread across the nation the South eventually banned such novel from being sold. This novel was undoubtingly the most influential novel of its time; it was an emotional mirror for all Americans regardless if they were for or against slavery.

About the author

Harriet Beecher Stowe was a world-renowned American writer, staunch abolitionist and one of the most influential women of the 19th century. Born into a prominent family on June 14, 1811, in Litchfield, Connecticut, her father, Lyman Beecher, was a Presbyterian preacher and her mother, Roxana Foote Beecher, died when Stowe was just five years old(history). Stowe had twelve siblings, but it was her sister Catharine who likely influenced her the most. Catharine Beecher strongly believed girls should be afforded the same educational opportunities as men. She eventually went on and founded the Hartford Female Seminary, one of rare schools of the century that educated women. When Harriet moved to Ohio, with Catharine and her father in 1832, this is when she found her true writing voice. Stowe taught at the Western Female Institute, another school founded by Catharine, where she wrote many short stories and articles. Being just across the river from the slave state of Kentucky Stowe often encountered fugitive slaves and heard their heart-wrenching stories. The turning point in Stowe’s personal and literary life came in 1849, when her son died in a cholera epidemic that claimed nearly 3000 lives in her region. She later said that the loss of her child inspired great empathy for enslaved mothers who had their children sold away from them (WomensHistory). Harriet then released the novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, in March 1852, selling 300,000 copies in the US in just the first year (History). Stowe used her new found platform to petition an end for slavery. She toured nationally and internationally, speaking about her book and donating some of what she earned from the tours to help the antislavery cause.

About the book

“Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, was a book that was a rude awakening to many Christian Americans who were naïve to how morally wrong slavery actually was. This novel showed contradicting the theory of slavery was, compared to their ‘Christian beliefs’. This book not only opened everyone’s eyes towards the horrid truth about slavery but it also, for the first time, was a portrayal of slaves being actual human beings and, Tom, specifically being a dignified, intellectual and God loving person. This different idea of another human being and his family being subject to so much scrutiny conflicted with many racist beliefs; so much so, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was prohibited from being sold in the south. This did not stop the books popularity from growing outside from just America. It was an emotional mirror for all who read the book or saw the play and rapidly gained popularity throughout America, and reached several countries in Europe (History). Stowe’s style of writing in this novel can be described as intense, democratic and having biblical overtones throughout the story. Her style in writing this was more a play on the human emotions towards rather than superior and cultured. Some of the theme presented in this book would be the evils of slavery, Christian values compared to slavery and the influence and power women have.

Legacy

By far this is Stowe’s most influential novels released. Selling 10,000 copies within only seven day in just northern America (History), even going so far as selling copies and running plays internationally to other countries in Europe. Stowe’s main goal in writing this novel was for clarity over a formal innovation, this is what I think made the novel so acceptable for all, whether the readers were naive towards the atrocity slavery was, or not. Although there was such a vivid violence depiction in this novel, the surliness is what brought most with moral integrity to their knees. “I’ll conquer ye, or kill ye … I’ll count every drop of blood there is in you and take’em one by one, till you give up!”(Uncle Tom’s cabin), “Do you know I’ve made up my mind to kill you?”(Uncle Tom’s Cabin), this was said in response to Tom not giving up the names of the runaways. After being threatened with his life Tom still noble and loyal to his master replies to this threat with, “If you were sick or in trouble or dying and I could save you, I’d give you my hearts blood… O mas’r ! Don’t bring this great sin on your soul” (Uncle Tom’s Cabin), even in the face of death is Tom shown to bring his faith in Christianity and shows worry for his oppressor. Readers not only gain sympathy for tom from what happens to him and the other slaves around him but from the other white characters having sympathy and showing their moral beliefs throughout the novel. “Palpable infringement of human rights; actually buying a man up, like a horse, — looking at his teeth, cracking his joints, and trying his paces, and then paying down for him, — having speculators, breeders, traders, and brokers in human bodies and souls, — that is, appropriating one set of human beings to the use and improvement of another, without any regard to their own.”(Uncle Tom’s Cabin), here Miss Ophelia St. Clare, an abolitionist from Vermont, is having a debate with her cousin, Augustine St. Clare, a slave owner in whose household she lives in. You see both sides of viewing slavery through the characters but the overtones of biblical form contradict the thought of being pro slavery.

Work Cited

Michals, Debra. “Harriet Beecher Stowe.” National Women’s History Museum, 2012, www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/harriet-beecher-stowe.

“Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Additional Information.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/topic/Uncle-Toms-Cabin/additional-info.

Editors.com, History. “Harriet Beecher Stowe.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 12 Nov. 2009, www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/harriet-beecher-stowe.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe