Uncle Tom's Cabin as written by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Uncle Tom's Cabin as written by Harriet Beecher Stowe

The novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin as written by Harriet Beecher Stowe and published in the United States in 1852. The novel depicted slavery as a moral evil and was the cause of much controversy at the time & long after. Uncle Tom’s Cabin had impact on various groups & publics. It caused outrage in the South and received praise in the North. It is in opinions and historical movements that the impact of this novel can be justified and shows how its publication was a turning point which helped bring about the Civil War.

When Abraham Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852 after the beginning of the American Civil War, he supposedly said to her, “ So you’re the little woman that wrote the book that started this Great War.” Lincoln was referring to Stowe's novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. It recounts the struggles of several African American slaves to preserve their families and survive the experience for slavery. This quote immediately implies that even the President of America had recognised and emphasised the impact of the novel on American Society as being the key cause to something as important as the Civil War.

When Stowe began working on her fictional account of slavery, it was published in 1851 in weekly instalments in an anti-slavery newspaper. This meant that primarily it did not reach all types of audiences, it would at first only be read by abolitionist groups and Northern publics. It was primarily a morality tale meant to sway public opinion in the North. The character Uncle Tom is an African American who retains his integrity and refuses to betray his fellow slaves at the cost of his life. His firm Christian principles in the face of his brutal treatment made him a he...

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...act that the war was needed to end all conflict.

In Conclusion, Uncle Tom’s Cabin was revolutionary in 1852 for its passionate documentation the tragic break-up of black Kentucky families “sold down the river.” Its political impact was immense, and its emotional influence immeasurable. In a time when most people sat back and accepted slavery as a way of life, Harriet Beecher Stowe portrayed it as a long slow death. Because she dared to be different, her fame will eternally endure. Like most white writers of her day, Harriet Beecher Stowe could not escape the racism of the time. Further divisions in opinions were therefore perpetuated by the book, as it was a turning point in the sectionalism of the North and South of America. She was scorned in the South because of her protestations of slavery, yet it pleased the North and in the long run, that is its significance.