Uncle Tom’s Cabin was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe in order to encourage the abolition of slavery. Many question why a white female would write a novel about slavery, but Stowe discusses how her exposure to runaway slaves provided her with an enormous amount of sympathy for slaves. Stowe claims that the idea of being torn away and sold from her family is unthinkable and she had heard many horror stories that the slaves had shared with her. For these reasons, Stowe began writing about plantation slaves. Not only does this novel discuss the hardships that slaves had to overcome but it also discusses the affects that slavery has on slave owners. Uncle Tom’s Cabin is an eye-opening novel that talks about the corruption of slave-owners, the impact slavery had on family, marriage, and children; and the greatest evils of slavery.
Slavery impacted family life, marriage, and childhood in many ways. For example, a continuous threat to slave families included family separation through the action of sale. A numerous amount of slaves were sold to other owners forcing the families to disconnect and abandon each other. In Uncle Tom’s Cabin, this same situation occurs when Arthur Shelby sells Tom to Mr. Haley; separating him away from his “wife” Chloe. Ripping up family ties is an awful action; however,
Stowe publicized how owning a slave can change a moral human being into an immoral slaveholder. She also showed that family life as a slave is threatened everyday by multiple reasons. Although Stowe had a few misconceptions in her story, she achieved her main purpose of writing the novel which was to support abolition and reveal the horrors of slavery. Slavery is an immoral and sinful act; fortunately, Stowe was able to reveal this publically through her
Harriet Beecher Stowe and Fredrick Douglass experienced completely different events in their lives that led them both to write in protest of the slave society that they experienced. Harriet Beecher Stowe was a white woman raised in a Puritan society. She was outwardly opposed to slavery. She told her story for the purpose of bringing attention to the issue of the cruelties of slavery. Ms. Stowe's story is fiction, although I believe that it is an accurate depiction of slave life. She had no experience being a slave, but she witnessed slavery through the eyes of slaveholders. Her story is more objective concerning slave life than Fredrick Douglass' narrative. Douglass was a slave himself and he suffered physical as well as mental anguish from his experiences. His story is told from a more subjective point of view. He shared more graphic and alarming details in his story. He shared every detail he could recall of the outrageous cruelties that he had both witnessed others go through and endured himself.
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.
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...
In this essay I intend to delve into the representation of family in the slave narrative, focusing on Frederick Douglas’ ‘Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave’ and Harriet Jacobs ‘Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.’ Slave narratives are biographical and autobiographical stories of freedom either written or told by former slaves. The majority of them were ‘told to’ accounts written with the aid of abolitionist editors between 1830 and 1865. An amount of narratives were written entirely by the author and are referred to as authentic autobiographies. The first of more than six thousand extant slave narratives were published in 1703. Primarily written as propaganda, the narratives served as important weapons in the warfare against slavery. Slave narratives can be considered as a literary genre for a number of reasons. They are united by the common purpose of pointing out the evils of slavery and attacking the notion of black inferiority. In the narratives, you can find simple and often dramatic accounts of personal experience, strong revelation of the char...
The illumination of the brutal treatment of the slaves, both physically and mentally, are also apparent in the works of Stowe and Jacobs. Stowe, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, uses the stories of Eliza, Harry, Uncle Tom and Cassy to show how slavery, with both cruel and kind masters, affects different members of the slave community. In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Jacobs focuses her work on the how the institution is “terrible for men; but is far more terrible for women” (B:933), adding sexual abuse to the atrocities of slavery. Douglass’ Madison gives the reader a masculine perspective on the
Many plantation owners were men that wanted their plantation ran in a particular manner. They strove to have control over all aspects of their slaves’ lives. Stephanie Camp said, “Slave holders strove to create controlled and controlling landscapes that would determine the uses to which enslaved people put their bodies.” Mary Reynolds was not a house slave, but her master’s daughter had a sisterly love towards her, which made the master uncomfortable. After he sold Mary he had to buy her back for the health of his daughter. The two girls grew apart after the daughter had white siblings of her own. Mary wa...
Stowe and her siblings were involved in various reform movements and even “...reformed Puritanism itself by challenging some of its harshest creeds” (Reynolds, 2011, p.6). Stowe was uninterested in the political issue created by slavery, she wanted to bring light upon the emotional and religious problems caused by it. Stowe was able to receive testimony from former slaves because of the close interaction she had with them. One of her housekeepers, Eliza Buck, was a fugitive slave and was able to tell her story. Eliza Buck, along with Stowe’s mother’s sister, were able to influence Stowe in her creation of the characters for Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The immense cultural importance produced by Uncle Tom’s Cabin is created through its emotional appeal. Stowe’s book aid “...rectify
... faced, nor the terrible people he becomes involved with to change him as a true Christian, keeping his faith in religion and believening God to make all things better for him through time. His death could be seen as Toms salvation, allowing for him to finally come to peace and live freely. Lastly, Stowe shows the importance of women in a time when nobody was truly giving womens rights and abilitities much thought, instead in a way suppressing them much like they did the slaves. In a time when slavery was the main issue, Stowe was able to lay the framework for womens rights, though we would not see much progress for years to come. All of the important issues Stowe saw in her life were put forth in this book, allowing Stowe to speak freely and help shed light on these issues so others could see the true problems and what was truly going on, in these horrid times.
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.
The most important character in Uncle Tom’s Cabin is Uncle Tom himself. Uncle Tom is a middle aged black man who is very honest and intelligent. Uncle Tom is entrusted with many important dealings of the house, even large sums of money, by his master Mr. Shelby. Uncle Tom has many opportunities to escape, but he always returns, feeling that he cannot violate his master’s trust by running away with his money. Uncle Tom’s story resembles the biblical story of Joseph and his enslavement in Egypt. Joseph’s master Potiphar entrusts Joseph with all his belongings just as Mr. Shelby does with Uncle Tom.
...spiritual growth. When Stowe wrote her most famous publication, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, she used those emotional experiences to relate to the feelings of the slaves she was writing about. Upon reading the book, one is almost drawn into it because the emotional aspects of the characters seem so real. The main reason for this is that Stowe was in a somewhat fragile emotional state and her emotions were very real and very strong when she was writing the book. The things Stowe went through were tough enough to break anyone down, but through her family and her faith she was able to make it through and make an impact on many people through her writing. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s life experiences- discrimination, exhaustion, and loss- gave her the ability to relate emotionally to slaves which allowed her to write a book that effected public opinion by tugging at people’s emotions.
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, though fictional, did more to change the hearts of Americans who were standing on the edge abolitionism than any other work at that time. In fact, near the conclusion of the Civil War she was invited to the White House in order that President Lincoln might meet the “little woman that started this big war.” Stowe felt that she had an obligation to inform the world of what really went on in the South, what life was really like for slaves.
It proved to be very effective propaganda for the abolitionist cause, which Stowe openly supported. Stowe is trying to prove to the reader that slavery is wrong and nothing short of evil and cruel. She does an effective job at proving her point, while delivering a superb novel at the same time. Stowe is constantly tying to prove that slavery is evil. She opens the novel, by showing two slave owners, making a business deal.
Even today, with literature constantly crossing more lines and becoming more shocking, Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin remains one of the most scandalous, controversial, and powerful literary works ever spilled onto a set of blank pages. Not only does this novel examine the attitudes of white nineteenth-century society toward slavery, but it introduces us to the hearts, minds and souls of several remarkable and unprecedented characters.
Since the 17th century when African slaves were brought over by Dutch slavers, Christianity has been used to justify the act of enslavment. Missionaries sailed with slavers and tried to convert the Africans sold into slavery many times. During the 19th century Christianity was a great factor in helping institutionalize and even justify the suffering of the slaves. Slaves were made to believe through verses of the Bible that if they suffered in their current lives, they would have a better existence after they passed on. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, puts forth the lives of many different slaves and their masters in a way that was one of the contributing factors to igniting the civil war. The book focuses on the tension between the morality of religion and how religion was used to institutionalize slavery, particularly for the main character, Tom. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin presents the interpretative tension between religion and how it was used by the white slaveholders to rationalize Tom’s bondage and servitude for him and themselves.