Minstrelsy's response to Uncle Tom's Cabin is characteristic of plantation influence at the time. Tom acts generally came to displace other plantation accounts, especially in the third act. These portrayals some of the time upheld Stowe's novel, however generally as frequently they turned it on its head or attacked the creator. Whatever the expected message, it was normally lost in the cheerful, amusing enviornment of the piece. Characters, for example, Simon Legree occasionally vanished, and the title was much of the time changed to something more energetic like "Happy Uncle Tom" or "Uncle Dad's Cabin". Uncle Tom himself was often depicted as a safe bootlicker to be mocked. Groups known as Tommer organizations spent significant time in such
King, Milwaukee R. Unconstitutionality of the Fugitive Slave Act Decisions of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin in the Cases of Booth and Rycraft. Milwaukee: R. King, 1855. Print.
When Abraham Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe, he said, “So, this is the little lady who made this big war”(“History.com Staff”2). After Stowe published Uncle Tom’s Cabin, there was a rumor that this book led to the Civil War. Uncle Tom’s Cabin turned a lot of people in the North against slavery. The people in the North wanted slavery to end which caused them to fight the South. The most important topic of Uncle Tom’s Cabin is that slavery was worse in the South than in the North. Slavery was worse in the South than in the North because of the hard labor, the freedom policy, and the treatment of the slaves.
As explained by author Carl E. Krog, “Some Northerners, if they did not disapprove of slavery, were uncomfortable with it, particularly with the slave trade and its consequent break-up of families in an age which idealized the family” (Krog, p. 253). Krog goes on to cite various examples of families being separated in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the first of which being the story of Eliza and Harry. Spurred by the fear of losing her son, Harry, Eliza flees captivity, taking refuge in the free state of Ohio. Once in Ohio, Eliza meets Senator and Mrs. Bird whom have lost a child and can understand Eliza’s pain. (Stowe 876-880). In a later scene, a slave being transported away from her family cries out in agony as white women, sitting with their own children, look on in disgust at her uncouth display of sadness. Another passenger on the ship calls out their hypocrisy, noting that if their children had been shipped away they too would be distraught. Stowe gives her characters something that swiftly taken away from real slaves, humanity. As noted in Ramesh Mallipeddi’s essay, slaves lost their identity at capture and were not trapped in a false, inhuman persona crafted by slave masters. Stowe pushes her characters out of the trope of uneducated animal allowing her readers to see slaves as they were,
who is more commonly known by his pen name, Mark Twain. He was born in
For hundreds of years, slavery has been practiced around the world. At this time, abolitionist Americans have no right to deny this tradition. Our founding fathers, in fact, had slaves of their own. One must concur that slavery is not morally wrong but rather needed for the growth of America. The abolitionists of the North have weak arguments that can be overruled by all the advantages of slavery. These advantages include white supremacy and the advantages of living as a slave, the kingdom of cotton, and the reality of the United States' Constitution and its Amendments. The South will not lose slavery over a bunch of abolitionist fools view's of the wrongs of slavery, but will instead remain in charge of their black slaves and keep them working the fields of cotton.
He includes various books of the era Uncle Tom’s Cabin was written, including those who criticized Stowe’s work. Charles Chesnutt claimed his novel “The Marrow of Tradition” would be embedded into “the popular mind as the legitimate successor of Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (Reynolds, 2011, p.205). Chesnutt’s work serves to verify the author’s argument of Uncle Tom’s influence on the nation. Reynolds also includes an excerpt of President Lincoln to support the fact that black slaves were more valuable as women because she “who brings a child every two years as more profitable” (Reynolds, 2011, p.60). Uncle Tom Mania by Sarah Meer is a novel that agrees with Reynolds’ argument of the cultural importance of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Meer’s novel “Tom-Mania” is named after a British newspaper that gave light to Uncle Tom’s Cabin. This novel looks upon the songs, plays, and imitations inspired by Uncle Tom’s Cabin, creating common ground on which Britain and the United States could debate slavery upon. Burning Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Carl Walters is a novel that in ways both supports and contrasts Reynolds’ argument. Walters believes that Stowe’s novel was influential, but that the characters she has created are unrealistic. Walters’ novel revolves around Eliza and George Harris, creating and providing the reader with a much more realistic
The debate raging in the years 1836-1837 over women's proper duties and roles in regards to abolitionism was publicly shaped primarily by two opposing forces: on the one hand, sisters Angelina and Sarah Grimke, abolitionists and champions of women's rights; and on the other, Catharine Beecher, who opposed suffrage and women's involvement in abolitionism and argued in favor of woman's place in the home. After the printing of Angelina Grimké's pamphlet Appeal to the Christian Women of the Southern States (1836), Grimké and Catharine Beecher engaged in a written debate over woman's public role in regards to the slavery issue. Beecher responded to Grimké's assertions that Southern women should actively protest the system of slavery in her Essay on Slavery and Abolitionism (1837), in which she claimed that women, true to their naturally subordinate natures, were not fit to interfere in such matters. In light of these facts, it is surprising to note that Harriet Beecher Stowe was Catherine Beecher's sister. How could the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin be related to the same woman who wrote Essay on Slavery and Abolitionism-- an anti-abolitionist document which pleaded with women to keep their thoughts on slavery to themselves? In Uncle Tom's Cabin, Stowe not only frames both sides of the debate, but also actively incorporates it into her female characters and into her narrative voice, fictitiously dramatizing the issues with which Grimké and Beecher were concerned fifteen years earlier.
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.
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.
In the year 1852, nine short years before the civil war began in 1861, Harriet Stowe published arguably the most influential, groundbreaking, and controversial books in American history, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The novel drew widespread criticism for the depiction of African Americans and slaves in a time when the United States of America was teetering on civil unrest due to the strength of the opposing views between the North and the South. The rapid expansion and growth the United States throughout the 19th century had led to an increase in labor demands, and slavery was not only viable but also essential to the economic prosperity of the southern states. The argument over slavery was wrestled with for the entire history of the young nation, and the late mid-1800’s brought the country to a crossroads. The publishing of Uncle Tom’s Cabin stirred the emotions of the country over whether or not African Americans are equal, if they should be free, and what should be done about slavery.
William Arthur Ward once said, "Real religion is a way of life, not a white cloak to be wrapped around us on the Sabbath and then cast aside into the six-day closet of unconcern." Religion is the one thing that people can usually tolerate but never agree upon. Each faith seems to have an ordained assumption that they have the correct thoughts on how to life one's life or how to think about things or the way to act in certain situations. Still, each religion has its own "sub-religions." If someone refers to Christianity, there are several different religions that are blanketed under that umbrella: Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, Pentecostal, and Presbyterian are just a handful. The inconsistencies that are associated with everyone's belief about religion run into deeper ruts of confusion. This confusion leads people to have distorted views as to what they believe and what their religion is all about. This is no different from the feelings about slavery by Christians in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Throughout the novel, Christianity presents itself in a few different lights; as a twisted and deformed glimmer of what religion is supposed to be with undertones of bigotry and prejudice, an innocent yet naive child that brings joy to everyone he or she meets, and as Uncle Tom himself, the standard for what a Christian is supposed to be. These different portrayals of Christian living come from Stowe's own beliefs about Christians and brings them into the light.
With racial disparities as a primary point of focus in Lott’s Love and Theft, Mark Twain also focuses on both the blackface minstrel and the famous abolitionist novel on “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” A contrast between Eric Lott’s blackface minstrel perspective and that of the post-slavery advocates exists, concerning the abolitionist context. According to Lott, the minstrel show performances were a method that provided a way for the white working class audiences as well as the performers to give an expression of their individual attraction for the African or rather the black culture through the appropriation of different parts of the black culture. On the contrary, the post-slavery advocates considered this move by the whites as foolish. According to them, this behavior by the white performers was mainly a means of trying to convey the message that the black slaves were not intelligent enough to take care of themselves.
Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, published in 1960, is a novel which explores the theme of challenging racial prejudice. Within this novel, Lee has portrayed unintentional racial prejudice through the characters Atticus Finch, Link Deas and Scout Finch. With these characters, and their roles in exploring the theme of racial prejudice, Harper Lee has set unintentional boundaries for readers, as result, racial prejudicial thinking from contemporary perspective, in comparison to historical views, is challenged to a small extent.
Uncle Tom, being an avid follower of Christianity, owns this book and reads it everyday. Uncle Tom has protected this book ardently as he moves from the Shelby household to the St. Clare estate and finally to Legree’s plantation. The Bible is a source of strength and comfort for Uncle Tom who endures the harsh environment of slavery and the switching of masters. In the novel, Uncle Tom says: “[...] I will hold on to the Lord, and put his commands before all,—die or live; you may be sure on’t. Mas’r Legree, I ain’t a grain afeared to die. I’d as soon die as not. Ye may whip me, starve me, burn me, it’ll only send me sooner where I want to go” (433). Stowe shows us how much he values Christianity and how he is even willing to sacrifice his life. He also reads the Bible to many of the characters in the novel which gives hope to many who struggle with their faith like Cassy. His willingness to spread his faith to Cassy despite the circumstances on the plantation is truly remarkable, but this loyalty to Cassy also leads to his suffering. The Bible allows him to withstand the brutal treatment from Legree and this shows the strength of his Christian faith. However, when Uncle Tom is on the brink of death, he decides to forgive Legree for his wrongdoings and that he has “only opened the gate of the kingdom for [him]” (476). This shows that despite suffering, Uncle Tom still grasped onto his Christian faith. Stowe wanted to use the Bible to symbolize Uncle Tom’s suffering, strength, and love for God.
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, has had a tremendous impact on American culture, both then and now. It is still considered a controversial novel, and many secondary schools have banned it from their libraries. What makes it such a controversial novel? One reason would have been that the novel is full of melodrama, and many people considered it a caricature of the truth. Others said that she did not show the horror of slavery enough, that she showed the softer side of it throughout most of her novel. Regardless of the varying opinions of its readers, it is obvious that its impact was large.