Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” opened the eyes of millions of people worldwide. The book portrayed the brutal life of the black slaves. It went on to sell millions of copies and was given the title “The Greatest Book of the Age”. (pg. 616) It is had been commented that this book had helped “lay the groundwork for the Civil War”, according to Will Kaufman, and is widely regarded to one of the reasons of the Civil War. Langston Hughes refers to this book as a "moral battle cry for freedom." The characters in her book debated the causes of slavery, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, the future of freed persons, individualism and racism. The Civil War arose from a combination of causes counting regional conflicts between the Southern and Northern states, economic forces, and humanitarian concerns for the welfare of enslaved people. The four year war opposed one section of the country against each other and nearly rescinded the United States of America. It is no wonder why when Abraham Lincoln met Stowe, he responded that she was “the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war” and I would agree with that statement of his. Whether this is true or not, the gush highlights the public linking between Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Civil War. In the novel, Harriet Beecher Stowe introduces a housemaid slave, Eliza, who was promised her son would not be sold, however, when the poor economic conditions had hit her slave owners, they did not keep up with the promise of keeping Eliza’s son. One night she overheard them planning to sell her son, so Eliza escaped to help her son. “Eliza made her desperate retreat across the river just in the dusk of twilight. The gray mist of evening, rising slowly from the river, envelope... ... middle of paper ... ...f Americans to do something about it and it sparked the Civil War. That is why I agree with Abraham Lincoln’s comment on Harriet Beecher Stowe that she was, “the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war”. Works Cited • Impact of Uncle Tom's Cabin, Slavery, and the Civil War. (n.d.). The National and International Impact of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Retrieved May 5, 2014, from https://www.harrietbeecherstowecenter.org • Editorial Team. (2008, November 11). Uncle Tom's Cabin. Shmoop.com. Retrieved May 9, 2014, from http://www.shmoop.com/uncle-toms-cabin/ • Stowe, H. B., & Kazin, A. (1981). Uncle Tom's cabin. Toronto: Bantam. • Tindall, G. B., & Shi, D. E. (2013). America: a narrative history (9th ed.). New York: W.W. Norton & Co. • Uncle Tom's Cabin. (2014, August 5). Wikipedia. Retrieved May 8, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Tom's_Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe was born on June 14, 1811. Her father was Lyman Beecher, pastor of the Congregational Church in Harriet’s hometown of Litchfield, Connecticut. Harriet’s brother was Henry Ward Beecher who became pastor of Brooklyn’s Plymouth Church. The religious background of Harriet’s family and of New England taught Harriet several traits typical of a New Englander: theological insight, piety, and a desire to improve humanity (Columbia Electronic Library; “Biography of Harriet Beecher Stowe”).
When Abraham Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe, he said, “So, this is the little lady who made this big war”(“History.com Staff”2). After Stowe published Uncle Tom’s Cabin, there was a rumor that this book led to the Civil War. Uncle Tom’s Cabin turned a lot of people in the North against slavery. The people in the North wanted slavery to end which caused them to fight the South. The most important topic of Uncle Tom’s Cabin is that slavery was worse in the South than in the North. Slavery was worse in the South than in the North because of the hard labor, the freedom policy, and the treatment of the slaves.
Tindall, George Brown, and David Emory Shi. America: A Narrative History. New York: W.W. Norton Co., 1997.
Tindall, George, and David Shi. America: A Narrative History. Ed. 9, Vol. 1. New York: WW. Norton & Company, 2013. 185,193. Print.
Henretta, James A., and David Brody. America: A Concise History. Vol. 1. Boston/New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2009.
Tindall, G.B. & Shi, D.E. (2010). America a narrative history 8th edition. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. p.205-212.
I never thought that I would read a book over the summer, but over the course of these past two months, that changed. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” forever changed how I view slavery. I loved reading it. Throughout the whole novel, Stowe uses her experience and knowledge to portray the terrible hardships and struggles that slaves endured everyday. Not only does this book express the thoughts of the slaves and their faith in God, but also of the people around them. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” wanted so badly for America to give freedom and equality for all people, and that is what I enjoyed most while reading.
Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” in 1852. This anti-slavery book was the most popular book of the 19th century, and the 2nd most sold book in the century, following only the Bible. It was said that this novel “led to the civil war”, or “the straw that broke the camel’s back”. After one year, 300,000 copies were sold in the U.S., and over 1 million were sold in Britain.
Mightier than the Sword: Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the Battle for America is written by David S. Reynolds. Reynolds is a Distinguished Professor of English and American Studies at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. In this book, the author analyzes and discusses the effect of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” in society. American history has been influenced through different works. However, as Reynolds claims, Uncle Tom’s Cabin helped shape the world’s public opinion about slavery and religion in more than one way. Therefore, no book could have more powerfully molded American history than Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Tindall, George Brown and Shi, David Emory. America: A Narrative History. 8th Ed. Brief. (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2010).
Tindall, George, and David Shi. America: A Narrative History. Ed. 9, Vol. 1. New York: WW. Norton & Company, 2013. 544. Print.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Remembering Everyone’s Beloved Uncle Former President Abraham Lincoln living up to the nickname “Honest Abe” says “So this is the little lady who started this big war”. To whom this not too subtle remark is concerned is none other than Harriet Beecher Stowe. Stowe was an American abolitionist and author during the 1800s who published more than thirty novels in her time. What Lincoln is of course referring to when he “faults” Stowe is what is known in history as the Civil War.
Tindall, George B., and David E. Shi. America: A Narrative History. 7th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 2007.
George Brown Tindall and David Emory Shi, America: A Narrative History, Ninth Edition, Volume One, (New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013), 504.
Charles Dudley Warner in The Story of Uncle Tom 's Cabin, refers to the question that many modern day critics and scholars ask about the novel’s tremendous success, “Was this only an "event," the advent of a new force in politics; was the book merely an abolition pamphlet, or was it a novel, one of the few great masterpieces of fiction that the world has produced” (311)? Looking back we can see that Uncle Tom’s Cabin wasn’t simply an “event” or political pamphlet, but a full-scale and highly successful literary attack on the evils of slavery that trumped even the power and influence of the politicians and government of the time. It is well-known that Abraham Lincoln even greeted Stowe in 1862 as ‘the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war’, referring to the Civil War, which ended the institution of slavery in the United States. But, Stowe did not write her novel simply for political reasons. As Tompkins explains, Stowe wrote her novel as a tool to turn the world from the rule of force to the rule of “Christian love”, and to bring about the “institution of the kingdom of heaven on earth” (141). This is what the everyday American of Stowe’s time could connect with, instead of just a political plea, but is also what causes