Uncle Tom's Cabin

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Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, to inform her readers that slavery is evil in order to persuade Northerners to violate the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 by depicting detailed descriptions of slaves suffering, family separations, brutal masters and the act of good-hearted human beings being harshly punished. Stowe describes the evils of slavery by incorporating into her novel many scenes of slaves suffering. The suffering is not only physical, but also mentally, for instance when George Harris loses all hope, because his master decided to move him from the factory to the cruelest toils on the farm (57). Another example is when Uncle Tom starts to hesitate about his religion, because he’s growing weary through his master harassment, and the painful labor work (552). Uncle Tom gets tested about his faith from the time he becomes one of Legree slaves. Uncle Tom often gets beaten up nearly to death by two overseers, because he refuses to flog a woman named Lucy (507). The cause of Uncle Tom’s death was because Legree and the overseers severely beat Tom again, for not telling his master where the fugitive slaves escaped too (583). George Harris and Tom got whipped intensely from no wrong doings which at times resulted in them losing hope. Men weren’t the only ones that suffered; Stowe also incorporated into her novel scenes of women dealing with afflictions. Many women that were slaves were used as prostitutes. One woman named Prune was used to breed children for her master to sale at a slave market (323). In another type of situation a woman named Cassy was her master slave mistress, until Legree bought Emmeline a young beautiful girl who was to become the new mistress (490). Stowe emphasizes that these women had to painf... ... middle of paper ... ...rk is painful, but also enduring a mean master. Lastly Stowe portrays that slavery is wrong by describing the moral qualities in slaves. A good example is Uncle Tom a hardworking, trustworthy, good-hearted man who was sold into slavery (42). Uncle Tom was also a religious man that truly believed in God, and because of his beliefs he obeyed his master, except when it was immoral (507). Though Tom was such a down to earth man, he was still beaten because he didn’t give into his master Legree wrongdoings when he told him to beat a woman (507). Therefore Stowe describes through Uncle Tom that slaves are human beings with wonderful characteristics. The author wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin intentionally to provide information on how slavery’s evil, by describing scenes with harsh treatment, separations of family members, cruel masters, and the good moral character in slaves.

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