Much like the purpose of Thomas Paine’s pamphlet titled Common Sense, the book Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe was written for the purpose of spreading the message that racism against the blacks and slavery had to stop. This book, based on real people and factual evidence is considered by many to be the event that started the Civil War in America between the North and the South. This was the piece of information that opened the eyes of a nation who claimed that they did not know that the racism and slavery issue went so far. A leading statement in the novel is said by a character named St. Clare. There is a scene where he is talking to Miss Ophelia, his cousin, arguing that the business of slavery and owning slaves to be morally wrong. Then, there comes a point where he says, “Quashy shall do my will, and not his, all the days of his mortal life, and have such chance of getting to heaven, at least, as I find convenient. This I take to be about what slavery is. I defy anybody on earth to read our slave-code, as it stands in our law-books, and make anything else of it. Talk of the abuses of slavery! Humbug! The thing itself is the essence of all abuse!” (Stowe, 224) St. Clare could not be any more correct. How can someone own the life of another? How can one be so blind as to find this logic not twisted or sick? Slavery is the essence of all abuse. The theory of this is the soul of abuse, not even the practice. There is nothing right or funny about this concept. Harriet Beecher Stowe is screaming out at the reader that this obviously has to stop now. There are also passages in the book that show the sacrifices and chances that had to be made to escape from the slave states. One of the most moving of these descriptions... ... middle of paper ... ...rong, but don’t do anything about it. The last thing she says in the book is where she relates it to the Church and to God. She says that both the South and the North have sinned before God, and that if they don’t repent and make things right, they will feel the “wrath of Almighty God!” (Stowe, 451) Stowe’s polemic style of writing seems to be very effective. She builds a scenario for her readers and then approaches them in a very humanistic way. She writes so that if they don’t see the situation her way, then they are wrong. She appeals to them both intellectually and emotionally. To do this, she utilizes universal themes, so that on top of her argument, the people reading the book can relate to it as well. Once she has the people won over, she keeps them in the story, and by the end, she has converted them to a new school of thought, one without racism or slavery.
Both Stowe and Douglass expressed their concern for those ignorant of the true meaning of slavery. In their writings, they both exhibit their frustration for people who call themselves Christian and continue to engage in slavery practices. Stowe brought to life the reality of the humanity of slaves, which may or may not have been realized by the majority of slaveholders. Eliza, the main character in chapter five, was a slave to Mr. and Mrs. Shelby. Mr. Shelby sold Eliza's only son to save his property. Mr. Shelby is depicted as a businessman who happens to own slaves and Eliza's son is apart of a business deal. Mr. Shelby, like many slaveholders, was thought of as a good man who generally treated his slaves well....
Stowe Debate: Rhetorical Strategies in Uncle Tom's Cabin. Eds. Mason I. Lowance, Jr., Ellen Westbrook, and R. C. Prospo. University of Massachusetts Press: Amherst, 1994.
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.
Uncle Tom's Cabin is one of the most famous and popular pieces of Civil War literature. It was drawn from selected pieces of a real life memoir done by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin was a book that drew many people into the fight over the institution of slavery. Northerners hailed the book saying it exposed the truth, while southern slaveholders and plantation owners claimed that it had many falsehoods in it. President Lincoln, when he met Stowe called her, "the little lady who started this big war."
Uncle Tom’s cabin was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852. It is an anti-slavery book that shows the reader the many sufferings endured by slaves in the period before the civil war. To the people of the modern day generation, these acts of slavery are unbelievable but the reader has to realize the fact that in those years, people suffered, to the point where they were just treated as property, where owners can do whatever they like and be disposed of or traded as if they were just material possessions and not even human. The book talks about the relationship between slaves and their masters as well as the role of women. As slavery was practiced during such times, Stowe tries to expose the difficult life people had in the past and how their faith in God helped them to endure all there hardships.
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
Published in the early 1850’s, Uncle Tom’s Cabin had a huge impact on our nation and contributed to the tension over slavery. It was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, a woman who was involved in religious and feminist causes. Stowe’s influence on the northern states was remarkable. Her fictional novel about slave life of her current time has been thought to be one of the main things that led up to the Civil War. The purpose of writing it, as is often said, was to expose the evils of slavery to the North where many were unaware of just what went on in the rest of the country. The book was remarkably successful and sold 300,000 copies by the end of its first year. It is even rumored that upon President Lincoln’s meeting Stowe, Lincoln said, “So this is the little lady who made this big war.”
The abolitionist wanted to end slavery and give the slaves their rights as an equal American. They believe that slavery was a sin and it "contradicted the values enshrined in the Declaration of Independence." (Foner 466) The movement had a chance to expand due to the development of technology and the increase of literacy. Many pamphlets, articles and books were published to help spread the abolishment of slavery. Uncle Tom's Cabin was a book that Stowe wrote in this time period to promote the abolishment of slavery. In the novel she explicitly expresses that slavery is evil and the power of Christian love could end it. After the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, Stowe found it ironic that it mandated "people in the free states to act in violation of the conscience of a Christian." (Brown 1331) Stowe felt that anybody could pass a law, but a "true" Christian would and should not be able to obey it. This is why Sen...
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe is a classic novel that some people claimed evoked the American Civil War. Stowe motivated people to take sides over the issue of slavery by discussing the issue and showing the cruel aspects of it. The main focus of the novel was to show whites that African American’s have souls and feelings like any other human; it was common for whites at the time to view blacks as cattle. Families were separated, and the white people’s reasoning was that blacks did not feel the loss the same way a white person would. Stowe’s basic argument is that it is wrong to mistreat blacks because they suffer just as much as whites.
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 evils in this story was clear to anyone who reads it. Stowe shows the world in the eyes of slaves and the readers gain an understanding of how slaves were treated and how they had to survive in those years. Sadly that is the true evil in the world the fact slavery went on for hundreds of years. This was the evils that Stowe wanted to depict in this story and was successful. Slavery was evil and wrong and as we look to the future that evil will be tainted on our beings the ability to enslave one another as
Harriet Beecher Stowe, a northern abolitionist, published her best-selling novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852. Uncle Tom’s Cabin contracts the many different attitudes that southerners as well as northerners shared towards slavery. Generally, it shows the evils of slavery and the cruelty and inhumanity of the peculiar institution, in particular how masters treat their slaves and how families are torn apart because of slavery.
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.
"There is no use in my trying to make this child a Christian child, unless I save her from all the chances and reverses of slavery;" (288) Faith and religion offer persuasive opposition to the hardships of slavery throughout the book.
One Work Cited Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin in order to help bring the plight of southern slave workers into the spotlight in the north, aiding in its abolitionist movement.