The Effect of Uncle Tom's Cabin
Seldom does a one work of literature change a society or start it
down the road to cataclysmic conflict. One such catalytic work is Harriet
Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852). It is considered by many, one
the most influential American works of fiction ever published. Uncle Tom's
Cabin sold more copies than any other previous fiction title. It sold five
thousand copies in its first two days, fifty thousand copies in eight weeks,
three hundred thousand copies in a year and over a million copies in its
first sixteen months. What makes this accomplishment even more amazing is
that this book was written by a woman during a time in history women were
relegated to domestic duties and child rearing and were not allowed
positions of influence or leadership roles in society. Legend holds that
when Abraham Lincoln met Stowe in 1682 he said, "So you're the little woman
who wrote the book that made this great war". The impact of Uncle Tom's
Cabin did more to arouse antislavery sentiment in the N orth and provoke
angry rebuttals in the south than any other event in antebellum era.
Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896), born Lichfeild, Connecticut, was
the daughter, sister, and wife of liberal clergymen and theologians. Her
father Lyman and brother Henry Ward were two of the most preeminent
theologians of the nineteenth century. This extremely devout Christian
upbringing, focusing on the doctrines of sin, guilt, atonement and
salvation, had an undeniable impact in her writings. Each of her
characters displays some aspect of these beliefs. Although he is unjustly
and ignorantly vilified by contemporary Black society, the character Uncle
Toms is given a Christ like persona. Tom forgives his oppressors, turns
the other cheek to blows, blesses those who curse him, and prays for those
who sin against him. At the end of the story he even gives his life to save
his people. Beecher's upbringing is readily apparent in the formation and
characterization of Uncle Tom's Cabin. She even goes as far as to credit
God with authorship, only allowing herself to be viewed as God's instrument
against the evils of slavery.
Before the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin, information regarding
the evils of slavery and the treatment of slaves was readily available, but
little of this information was read outside anti-slavery circles. The
narratives of escaped slaves, as well as the work of other writers,
documented stories relating real occurrences of plantation barbarity.
Fredric Douglas of the North Star, and William Lloyd Garrison, publisher of
The Liberator, two fervent abolitionists, contributed greatly to the body
of anti-slavery writings. Uncle Tom's Cabin was originally published in the
anti-slavery newspaper National Era, in weekly installments, from the
summer of 1851 to the spring of 1852. In it original form, it too did not
attract much attention outside of anti-slavery circles. This all changed
when it was published in 1852 for the first time between hard covers.
Uncle Tom's Cabin succeeded where other anti-slavery writings had
failed because it made a deep emotional impact and humanized the slave,
elevating the him to a level where he could be understood to have thoughts
and feeling comparable to any other member of the human race. Using the
character of George Harris, Stowe gives flesh to the shallow skeletal views
of slave humanity that many Americans held. She also brought to view the
inhuman disintegration of families that the institution of slavery
perpetuated. Slaves families were often separated, as family members were
sold off, for profit or necessity, in different directions sometimes never
see each other again. In her novel one mother, Eliza, bravely escapes the
south by crossing the icy Ohio River to guarantee the safety of her child
while another, Cassy, commits infanticide rather than force her child to
endure the indignities of slave life. A third mother, Lucy, commits
suicide when her ten-month-old son is sold away from her. Stowe uses the
Victorian sanctity of the family to appeal directly to the heart of her
readers. The publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin coupled with the offensive
and invasive nature of the Fugitive Slave Act (1850), changed northerners
so they could no longer view slavery with a disconnected view. Slavery was
no longer a Southern issue that had no impact on the life of those in the
north.
Once a majority of the northern population became polarized against
the institution of slavery it was only a matter of time before conflict
came to a head. Differing views about the institution of slavery
contributed to the growing rift between the north and south. This chasm
became the American Civil War. Uncle Tom's Cabin gave a powerful and
moving voice to the Abolition movement. It shook out of complacently
northerners and southerners alike, and forced a nation to look within its
collective soul at the horrors of slavery and moral contradictions of the
institution itself. Stowe's novel demonstrates the absurdity and
contradictions of slavery.Partner sites: Study Spanish in Quito, English Bulldog, and Free Hamlet Essays