Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe was a catalyst for the Civil War due to its depiction of slavery as harsh and brutal. The main character, a slave named Uncle Tom, and one of the slave owners, Simon Legree were used to attack the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and the institution of slavery that it protected. Throughout the novel, characters, scenes and plots were Stowe’s persuasions to the reader that slavery is evil, un-Christian, and should not be tolerated. She illustrates the fact that slavery and Christian values oppose each other and are not in any way compatible. Uncle Tom’s Cabin outraged the southerners and made the northerners more aware of the brutality of slavery. Ultimately, the novel used Uncle Tom and Simon Legree as …show more content…
The characters are used to show that northerners are contributing to the growth of slavery just like the southerners. In Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Uncle Tom is the central figure and he possesses a trait that makes him different from the rest of the characters. Uncle Tom 's faith is his source of strength throughout the novel that helps him through all the suffering, grief, and hardships. Stowe uses Tom to show that if the horrible white slaveholders of the novel were to achieve Tom’s faith of Christianity that slavery would be impossible. Stowe attack the institution of slavery by showing that being a Christian would not allow such cruelty of other human beings despite their color. Stowe portrays him like a Christ figure in the novel. He introduces God to people through his love for them, his sacrifices, and finally in his …show more content…
The South was outraged by Stowe’s novel as well as by her attempt to plant the abolitionist roots of her fiction in Southern reality (Beau 672) John R. Thompson, the editor of the Southern Literary Messenger, said she had “volunteered officiously to intermeddle with things which concern her not – to libel . . . a people from among whom have gone forth some of the noblest men that have adorned the face – to foment heartburning and unappeasable hatred between brethren of a common country” (Gossett 189). Some Southerners were worried about the novel leading to slave rebellions. In Abolitionism Unveiled, Henry Field James predicted that the South would be devastated by blacks who acted in the spirit of Stowe’s militant slave George Harris (Reynolds 151). Southerners felt threatened that it seemed necessary to challenge it in every genre, even poetry. Anti-Tom novels rose and their theme was a defense of slavery, arguing that the South’s enslaved blacks were far better off than either poor whites or free blacks in the North (Reynolds 155). As Southerners came back with defensive literature or protests, the North would comment back. The novel created a constant protest between the North and South which was a factor towards the sectional strife.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe was a catalyst for the Civil War due to its depiction of slavery as harsh and brutal. She uses Tom, St. Clare and Legree to
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.
Overcoming the death of a loved one can be one of life's most difficult tasks, especially when that loss involves a parent or a child. Author and abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe grieved over death as both mother and child. When she was only five years old, her mother Roxana Foote Beecher, died of tuberculosis. Later at age 38, she lost her infant son Charley to an outbreak of cholera. Together these two traumatic events amplified her condemnation of slavery and ultimately influenced the writing of one of America's most controversial novels, Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Books were a way for people to connect with characters, Uncle Tom's Cabin did this. Most of its readers were found sobbing after reading the heartbreaking but true story of a slave. Uncle Tom's Cabin was a slave narrative written by a woman named, Harriet Beecher Stowe. After the publication, the slavery issue was no longer just the Confederacy's issue, it affected the life of every person in the Union. Stowe brought numerous facto...
Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” in 1852. This anti-slavery book was the most popular book of the 19th century, and the 2nd most sold book in the century, following only the Bible. It was said that this novel “led to the civil war”, or “the straw that broke the camel’s back”. After one year, 300,000 copies were sold in the U.S., and over 1 million were sold in Britain.
Uncle Tom’s cabin was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852. It is an anti-slavery book that shows the reader the many sufferings endured by slaves in the period before the civil war. To the people of the modern day generation, these acts of slavery are unbelievable but the reader has to realize the fact that in those years, people suffered, to the point where they were just treated as property, where owners can do whatever they like and be disposed of or traded as if they were just material possessions and not even human. The book talks about the relationship between slaves and their masters as well as the role of women. As slavery was practiced during such times, Stowe tries to expose the difficult life people had in the past and how their faith in God helped them to endure all there hardships.
...away slaves. Harriet Beecher Stowe published a book called Uncle Tom’s Cabin. It was the most influential document of the abolitionist literature. The book showed emotions of slaves that were treated cruelly by Uncle Tom. Although abolitionism was dividing both sides knew the amount of damage slavery was doing by dividing America. They knew slavery had to be extinguished.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin is an anti-slavery novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1850s that “changed forever how Americans viewed slavery, the system that treated people as property”. (Harriet Beecher Stowe Center) This book “demanded that the United States deliver on the promise of freedom and equality, galvanized the abolition movement and contributed to the outbreak of the Civil War”. (Harriet Beecher Stowe Center) “The strength of Uncle Tom's Cabin is its ability to illustrate slavery's effect on families, and to help readers empathize with enslaved characters.” (Harriet Beecher Stowe Center) As Foner mentioned: “By portraying slaves as sympathetic men and women, and as Christians at the mercy of slaveholders who split up families and set bloodhounds on innocent mothers and children, Stowe’s melodrama gave the abolitionist message a powerful human appeal.” (472) With this novel, Stowe wanted to convince Christians that God doesn’t’ approve slavery, that it is evil which must be destroyed.
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.
In the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, one of the main themes is religious faith; specifically Christian faith. Stowe’s characterization of this was that Christian faith is a strong force of love that has the ability to invalidate slavery. This was shown in many characters like Uncle Tom and Eliza. As a result of their strong Christian faith and values, Uncle Tom and Eliza were able to
“So this is the little lady who made this big war.” Abraham Lincoln’s legendary comment upon meeting Harriet Beecher Stowe demonstrates the significant place her novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, holds in American history. Published in book form in 1852, the novel quickly became a national bestseller and stirred up strong emotions in both the North and South. The context in which Uncle Tom’s Cabin was written, therefore, is just as significant as the actual content. Among other things, Stowe’s publication of her novel was stimulated by the increasing tensions among the nation’s citizens and by her fervent belief that slavery was brutally immoral.
For instance many of the characters in the book have become the stereotypes of slavery in the South. An example of this is Uncle Tom himself, whose name was eventually degraded into a nickname for blacks who were too subservient to whites. He became the stereotype of the passive slave who would do anything his master told him, because it was his duty as a slave. However few remember how the strength of his faith was what allowed him to tolerate the horrors that were enacted upon him.
Although Tom is a slave, it seems that he is very different from his other enslaved peers. Uncle Tom is known for his kindness, honesty, and his strong religious beliefs. Unlike other slaves, Uncle Tom shows true resilience when it comes to the institution of slavery. For example, even when Uncle Tom was on the verge of death, he pleads with his devilish master Simon Legree, to not go through with killing him. Uncle Tom states “Mas’r, if you was sick, or in trouble, or dying, and I could save ye, I’d give ye my heart’s blood; and, if taking every drop of blood in this poor old body would save your precious soul, I’d give em freely, as the Lord gave His for me. O Mas’r! Don’t bring this great sin on your soul! It will hurt you more than ‘twill me! Do the worst you can, my troubles “ll be over soon; but, if ye don’t repent, yours won’t never end” (410). This quote is the best example of Uncle Tom’s character traits. Although he is most certainly going to die, he still wants the best for even the person that will eventually kill him. With all of the events Uncle Tom went through, he remained true to his beliefs. Although he was upset when he had to leave the comfort of the Shelby’s, Uncle Tom did what he could to make the best out of the situation. Stowe’s portrayal of Uncle Tom makes the reader believe that Uncle Tom is not only a