Uncle Tom's Cabin Abolition

The U.S. Constitution was written with great vision to create a strong nation. The Bill of Rights was written to provide all humans with unalienable rights. Thomas Jefferson wrote himself “all men are created equal” but he owned slaves. Despite that, the Southern States believed the federal government should not intervene with the issue of slavery because slavery was a state issue. Slavery had an immense effect on our country. Slavery, then went on to cause the War between the North and the South known as the “Civil War.” Despite that slavery was generally accepted by the majority in some societies, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, depicts the religious component of anti-slavery and abolition to argue that slavery is evil and intolerable in a civil society.

Stowe's inspiration for writing this novel was the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. This law made it a crime to help runaway slaves. The impact of Uncle Tom's Cabin had done more than spark tensions between the North and South. Between the summer of 1851 and the spring of 1852, the novel's awareness and sales skyrocketed. Its power lies in the strong message it delivered during the days of injustice. The name "Uncle Tom" has become identified based on everything cowardly and worthless. Benjamin Hudson discusses this idea in that "it is used to designate a person who, through fear or desire for personal gain, betrays the trust of whom he represents, and who is always lacking moral courage" (Hudson 1). However, the "Uncle Tom" created by Harriet Beecher Stowe, had none of those characteristics. The Uncle Tom in the novel is known for his goodness and ongoing faith in God. "Stowe creates a hero, the one being, the only being, who can both end the suffering of slavery and bring Stowe's burgeoning narrative to an end," (Lant 2). Using this heroic creation, Stowe aimed Uncle Tom's Cabin at the heart of the middle class, Protestant, and family centered Americans. She presents slavery by retelling the story