Alex Luong
April 14, 2016
Section # 5030
Mightier Than the Sword
David S. Reynolds
What were the two main sources of Stowe’s genuine hatred for the institution of slavery? Identify the following individuals who were influential in her life that were active in some form regarding the institution of slavery and what was each individual’s stand or approach: Lyman Beecher, William Lloyd Garrison, Theodore Dwight Weld, James G. Birney, and Elijah P. Lovejoy. Explain Reynolds’ coverage on Stowe’s view of their positions? You should also cover how these individuals viewed each other and how members of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s family interacted with any/all of the abolitionists (state which individuals/family members id this and how)? Harriet Beecher
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He became one of Charles Grandison Finney’s converts and wanted to reform America to prepare for the millennium. He devoted himself to temperance then focused on abolition. He wanted immediate emancipation of slaves, but he avoided the harshness and denunciations that characterized Garrison. Weld knew Lyman Beecher from the East and decided to move west to enroll in the Lan Theological Seminary because Beecher was the president at the time. Weld began giving lectures of anti-slavery movements and turned the seminary into a time bomb that would explode on the topic of slavery. The Lane’s trustees issued a gag order on the issue of slavery because of how explosive the topic became. Weld and forty of his followers quickly withdrew from the school and continued lecturing widely about slavery until 1836 when he began feel fatigued and depressed with a severe throat irritation. He soon married Angelina Grimke who also was a feminist abolitionist that gave speeches and lectures in support of the movement. Catharine Beecher felt outraged by Angelina for being unfeminine (92). In 1839, Weld wrote American Slavery as It Is, which is a compilation of reports and newspapers that came from the south about slavery. Harriet Beecher Stowe used this book for facts that she implements in Uncle Tom’s Cabin to describe the slave whipping, scalding, and the family separation that fueled Stowe’s rage on slavery. Although Stowe used …show more content…
Lovejoy. He was a close friend of the Beecher family, especially with Edward Beecher. Lovejoy was a anti-slavery editor that was killed in November 1837 for his public support of the abolitionist movement. Lovejoy’s anti-slavery newspaper in St. Louis had been attacked three times by mobs of anti-abolitionists. Edward encouraged Lovejoy to establish his paper in Alton, Illinois and told him to arm himself. On November 7, a proslavery mob attacked the building that Lovejoy established for his paper and died in the process. Edward defended Lovejoy’s actions as an anti-slavery martyr despite the Garrisonians and the South criticizing Lovejoy for taking arms. Edward paid tribute to Lovejoy by writing how he died in the defense of justice and that his work still continued onward. Edward’s tribute to Lovejoy gave contributed to Stowe’s portrayal of the slave George Harris in Uncle Tom’s Cabin (96).
In the novel, Reynolds covers Stowe’s views of their positions based off the values she had gained from her father and from her personal experience by being closely linked to the abolitionist movement. He also covers how she bases her opinions of the abolitionist leaders by the tone and action they take through their abolition campaigns. Using Stowe’s beliefs and personal experience, Reynolds was able to present her opinions of the positions of each abolitionist leader that helped influence her and contributed to the creation of Uncle Tom’s
2) Was there any degree of autonomy in the lives of enslaved women in the revolutionary or antebellum America? Use the documents to address the question of whether or not an enslaved woman could protect the humanity and if so, explore how this might be achieved. Also include how the specific era (revolutionary or antebellum) affected her autonomy.
Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. “Stowe, Harriet Beecher”. Date of Last Revision Unknown. 6 Jan 2002. <http://www.encyclopedia.com/printablenew/12373.html>.
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Olaudah Equiano’s Narrative of his Life both endeavor to stir antislavery sentiment in predominantly white, proslavery readers. Each author uses a variety of literary tactics to persuade audiences that slavery is inhumane. Equiano uses vivid imagery and inserts personal experience to appeal to audiences, believing that a first-hand account of the varying traumas slaves encounter would affect change. Stowe relies on emotional connection between the readers and characters in her novel. By forcing her audience to have empathy for characters, thus forcing readers to confront the harsh realities of slavery, Stowe has the more effective approach to encouraging abolitionist sentiment in white readers.
In the earliest part of Harriet?s life the whole idea of slavery was foreign to her. As all little girls she was born with a mind that only told her place in the world was that of a little girl. She had no capacity to understand the hardships that she inherited. She explains how her, ?heart was as free from care as that of any free-born white child.?(Jacobs p. 7) She explains this blissful ignorance by not understanding that she was condemned at birth to a life of the worst kind oppression. Even at six when she first became familiar with the realization that people regarded her as a slave, Harriet could not conceptualize the weight of what this meant. She say?s that her circumstances as slave girl were unusua...
Another issue that presented her with difficulties in her teaching job was that of slavery and abolitionism. She had been raised a block away from Harriet Beecher Stowe and had heard stories from Harriet Tubman...
Harriet Beecher Stowe is perhaps best known for her work entitled Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a heart-wrenching story about the treatment and oppression of slaves. Uncle Tom’s Cabin brings to life the evils of slavery and questions the moral and religious values of those who condoned or participated in such a lifestyle. While the factual accuracy of this work has been criticized by advocators of both slavery and abolition it is widely believed that the information contained was drawn from Stowe’s own life experiences (Adams 62). She was the seventh child and youngest daughter in her family. She was only four years old when her mother died, which left the young Harriet Beecher little protection from her "Fatherâs rugged character and doctrinal strictness" (Adams 19). To further complicate matters she was aware that her father preferred she had been a boy. According to Adams, although Stoweâs childhood was not entirely unhappy she would never forget...
The intended audience and the reason this book was needed are two important aspects of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. In order to understand Stowe’s purpose in writing Uncle Tom’s Cabin, one must first understand the audience she was writing to. The intended audience was Americans from both the North and the South. In the South, the audience was good, moral people who did not seemed bothered by the evil nature of slavery
Many African American 19th Century critics saw Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin as a ray of hope and a means out of oppression. Critics praised the dialogue, the interjected sentimental stories, as well as the characterization. In fact, many considered the novel to be a gift from God. Uncle Tom's Cabin was the only popularized writing at the time that touched upon slavery as negative. The novel was popular in general but more importantly to African Americans. However, the response to the book was limited considering the scarcity of African American newspapers and writers. Much of the African American population at the time was held down by slavery, illiteracy, and/or a lack of places to publish.
Harriet drew on her passionate anger at this unjust law, the death of her child and the personal accounts of former slaves to write her novel. The first installment of Uncle Tom 's Cabin appeared on June 5, 1851 in the anti-slavery newspaper, The National Era. “Stowe enlisted friends and family to send her information and she scoured freedom narratives and anti-slavery newspapers for first hand accounts as she composed her story” (Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, 2015). In 1852, the series was published as a two volume book. Uncle Tom 's Cabin was a best seller in the United States, Britain, Europe, Asia, and translated into over 60 languages. “The heart-wrenching tale portrays slave families forced to cope with separation by masters through sale. Uncle Tom mourns for the family he was forced to leave” (Stowe, 5). The novel also takes the perspective that slavery brings out the worst in the white masters, leading them to carry out cruel acts that they would otherwise never commit. “The Fugitive Slave Law could hardly be enforced by any of Stowe 's readers. Although banned in most of the south, it served as another log on the growing fire” (US History, 2014). The book sold even more copies in Great Britain than in the United States. This had an immeasurable appeal in swaying British public opinion. “The strength of Uncle Tom 's Cabin is its ability to
Overall Uncle Tom’s Cabin is filled with religious overtones of martyrdom, imposed religion, and genuine piety of the slaves in bondage. Harriet Beecher Stowe shows the divide between how the slaveholders see religion as a whip to keep slaves in line and how slaves see the same religion as a balm for the wounds inflicted on them by the whites.
The novel centers around a pious slave, Uncle Tom, and how he is sold over and over again. It shows the different attitudes that Tom’s masters share about slavery, and how their slaves should be treat. It also teaches Christian values as well as family values. At the time of its publication, Uncle Tom’s Cabin was an immediate success and one of biggest sellers of all time. Despite the fact that Stowe induces her own personal opinions, with the very little experience she has had with slaves, she delivers a magnificent novel which is still enjoyed by many modern readers today. The time of her novel’s publication was very important. It was published at the peak of the abolitionist movement, in the 1850’s. It proved to be very effective propaganda for the abolitionist cause, which Stowe openly supported.
Is Stowe’s antislavery argument supported by the death scenes of Eva and Tom? In Uncle Tom’s Cabin the death of Eva and Tom can be symbolized as a heroic victory for the other characters, who are slaves, to be set free. Stowe parallels these two Christian figures, Eva and Tom, to Jesus’ death. Both characters that pass away have similar attributes that are emphasized throughout Stowe’s novel. They both had faith in God and they created a change in slavery after their death. Many characters showed much sorrow for the death of Eva and Tom. These two death scenes leave a lasting impression on the other characters and the reader of the novel. Keeping in mind that Stowe had a purpose for these two scenes to develop her argument that slavery should be abolished, I will be discussing the way Eva and Tom impacted the characters and reader.
Potter also criticizes how the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe served as propaganda in the Northern states for ending slavery. Southerners used counteractive measurement and probably saw the novel by Stowe as conflicting to their intentions. Cultural incentives such as this one placed a deep impact on the lives of people defending slavery, and used violence and direct approach to implement their ideas out into society. Fire-Eaters were also useful because just like removing Stowe’s literature from the public eye, the opinion of the Southern population starts to strongly favor pro-slavery
Despite each individual having different circumstances in which they experienced regarding the institution of slavery, both were inspired to take part in the abolitionist movement due to the injustices they witnessed. The result is two very compelling and diverse works that attack the institution of slavery and argue against the reasons the pro-slavery individuals use to justify the slavery
Rarely is one work of literature so significant that it has the ability to change a society or cascade it down a path of ruinous conflict. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, is a work that provided such a catalytic occurrence. To this day, this work of fiction brilliance is considered one of the most instrumental American works to ever be published. Selling over a million copies in its first two years and being the second bestselling book next to the Bible, what makes this accomplishment even more incredible is the fact that a woman wrote this book during a period in history when women were not granted the ability to have roles of influence or leadership, in any society1. In 1852, when the book was published, women were nonetheless confined to domestic obligations. With the help of the books, Uncle Tom’s Cabin written by Harriet Beecher Stowe and Social Analysis: Linking Faith and Justice written by Joe Holland, one is able to understand how much of an impact Stowe had on America’s history with the way people viewed slavery. The percussion of Uncle Tom’s Cabin caused much conflict between the abolitionists and the antislavery citizens. This work is important to history because it created the idea of finding a place for religion in society, shone a light on how African American slaves were treated, pushed the United States to a realization with the idea of whether slavery could continue to be a cornerstone of American life and how it contributed to the beginning of the Civil War. As Abe Lincoln said of Stowe, “the little woman who started the Great War1.”