She brings African American history to the consciousness of her readers just as Faye Kegley in Remembering Slavery through Toni Morrison’s Beloved agrees that she is able to do this ‘through non-western eyes by re-telling history through the lives of former American slaves’(3). The characters’ rememories in Beloved act as the novel’s purpose of bringing to light the experiences of the past and this ultimately empowers the characters and readers as well. Susan Bowers notes that the past that was too painful for just one character to remember alone can be remembered together. She also agrees that ‘Remembering is part of reversing the “dirtying” process that robbed slaves of self-esteem’ (106). One way to deal with the horrors of slavery as Morrison expresses in her works is to repress this painful memory.
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs strongly speaks to its readers by describing the brutalities of slavery and the way slave owners can destroy peaceful lives. After reading and rereading the story have noticed certain things regarding how Jacobs tries to educate her readers and her intended audience which is the women of the North. As if we do not know enough about how terrible slavery is, this story gives detailed examples of the lives of slaves and provokes an incredible amount of emotions. She uses several tactics in her writing to reach her desired audience and does so very well. The way she wrote the story does not seem as though she is emotionally connected.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a deeply symbolic narrative depicting the lives of a group of black slaves in southern America and the slave owners and slave hunters that followed them through their lives. Author Harriet Beecher Stowe, a white woman, uses her striking narrative to raise philosophical and moral questions about the implications of the institution of slavery in mid-19th century America. Her novel touches on the limits of the human spirit and the common human connection that brings together all people, whites, blacks, men and women alike. Her work was designed and intended to shock and horrify readers with its blatant and vivid descriptions of the atrocities that blacks endured during this both, both free and enslaved alike. Her work was written after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which made aiding any fugitive slave a federal crime.
In order to accomplish this Douglass must get his audience to relate to and identify with his life as a slave. He incorporated the same exploitive techniques used in the sentimental novel. This was an 18th century European novel style that engaged readers’ emotions to gain supporters for a particular cause. Frederick Douglass' Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass appealed to the sensibilities of his readers by evoking emotions of sympathy and compassion causing his readers to identify with slavery and label it unnatural. Fredrick Douglass throughout the novel is describing the horrific actions that maintain the institution of slavery.
The slave narrative genre is an important part of American history. These stories are not only portraits of individual history, but also of American history. By reading the stories of the past we can better determine the path of the future. The personal stories of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs are two excellent examples of the slave narrative genre in American literature. To be sure, bondage and oppression had a lasting and profound effect on both genders; however, men and women experienced slavery in different ways.
He treated him so bad that when George invented a machine for cleaning up the hemp, his master got upset about it and took him back to his plantation. Slaves basically had a fifty percent chance of getting a master who treated them nicely and getting a master who treated them horribly. Uncle Tom's Cabin is said to have been a book that tells the truths of slavery. It does this by telling the actual things that happened to many slaves. By publishing this book, Stowe made those who knew nothing of the evils of slavery realize how cruel it really was, and by doing this she made the South angry.
He frequently makes comments intended to enlighten us about the moral conclusions we should draw from its events. The issue of slavery was a hot and touchy subject when Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote her novel. She saw and heard for herself the stories of others and their experiences and decided that change needed to come, and wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin to address the problems and to encourage support to abolish slavery. She used symbolism, genre and tone to reach out to the readers and open their eyes to the many ways that slavery affected the country. She created characters the readers would get attached to and told their stories in a realistic way in order to inspire change.
Uncle Tom's Cabin 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."
Stowe, who had learned from former and fugitive slaves, wrote her novel about the atrocities they endured. Many say that this controversial novel aided the abolitionist cause and started the American Civil War before it even began. Stowe’s mid-19th century novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, changed the way many Americans thought about slavery and its evils through the use of her own background
Her novel, therefore, focused on the ghastly points of slavery, including the whippings, beatings, and forced sexual encounters brought upon slaves by their masters. She wrote the book to be a force against slavery, and was joining in with the feelings of many other women of her time, whom all became more outspoken and influential in reform movements, including temperance and women's suffrage. The main point of Harriet Beecher Stowe in the writing of Uncle Tom's Cabin was to bring to light slavery to people in the north. In this she hoped to eventually sway people against slavery. The novel Uncle Tom's Cabin focuses on the lives of two slaves, who both start under the ownership of a Mr. Shelby, who is known as a man who treats his slaves well.