Uncle S Cabin And Olaudah Equiano's Narrative Essay

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.

Equiano later explains his religious beliefs in chapter 10 of the Narrative. This has often been interpreted as a plot for Equiano to gain the trust of readers, who at this point in time placed high value in religion, however Professor Eileen Elrod views this as interpretation as dismissal of Equiano’s Christianity as a result of assimilation to the Western world. Elrod notes, “if we take the facile view that he is simply using religion to manipulate readers, or we see him as simply manipulated by religion, we ignore the earnest and consistent piety that sets the tone and establishes the purpose of the narrative” (Elrod, p.409). This purpose was to protest the violent treatment of captured and enslaved Africans. Equiano prompts readers to confront their hypocrisy, questioning how Christians could approve of violent, abusive behavior toward their fellow man. “…by the way of the authority of biblical texts, [Equiano] establishes a set of touchstones that allow him to condemn the Christianity of his experience and affirm in its stead an idealized Christianity, a biblical reality in which justice and compassion triumph” (Elrod, p.

As explained by author Carl E. Krog, “Some Northerners, if they did not disapprove of slavery, were uncomfortable with it, particularly with the slave trade and its consequent break-up of families in an age which idealized the family” (Krog, p. 253). Krog goes on to cite various examples of families being separated in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the first of which being the story of Eliza and Harry. Spurred by the fear of losing her son, Harry, Eliza flees captivity, taking refuge in the free state of Ohio. Once in Ohio, Eliza meets Senator and Mrs. Bird whom have lost a child and can understand Eliza’s pain. (Stowe 876-880). In a later scene, a slave being transported away from her family cries out in agony as white women, sitting with their own children, look on in disgust at her uncouth display of sadness. Another passenger on the ship calls out their hypocrisy, noting that if their children had been shipped away they too would be distraught. Stowe gives her characters something that swiftly taken away from real slaves, humanity. As noted in Ramesh Mallipeddi’s essay, slaves lost their identity at capture and were not trapped in a false, inhuman persona crafted by slave masters. Stowe pushes her characters out of the trope of uneducated animal allowing her readers to see slaves as they were,