Uncle Tom's Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote this novel during the time of the debates that lead to the Civil War and near the time of the Compromise of 1850. The book provides a defiant protest against the social and political conditions of that era. The division between the northern industrial states and the southern agrarian states was very prominent and apparent. There was fierce competition between them.
This lead to differing viewpoints about slavery. The competition helped the
South justify it and gave the North reason to denounce it. Information like this is not provided by the author because her target audience at the time she wrote the story was living through these conflicts. To make up for this, I would suggest that before reading this work you have at least a minimal knowledge of the aspects of slavery and its geographical distribution in early
America. Also, it is important to have basic understanding of the Christian faith and its two major kinds of believers at the time. There were those who believed that all were equal and that all had souls that were to be treated with compassion, and those who argued that God had created them superior to all blacks. Keep in mind that Mrs. Stowe was living through all of what is in her story. So while providing social, political, and religious commentary, she also spatters her work with racism and subtle bigotry that would not be found in most modern writing.
Uncle Tom's Cabin is a novel about how trust in God can conque...
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”).
Document A supported that after the War of 1812 the government was losing a sense of purpose. Unlike before, farmers are losing money. In contrast manufacturers are making more money. The Tariff of 1816 increased the amount of manufactures. Served to raise revenues to operate the national government and to protect U.S. manufactured items from overseas competition. This brought up serious issues as there were many different ways everyone wanted to run the government. This also gave people different views on how congress should regulate commerce and handle taxes. Document F talks about the Missouri Compromise. Missouri was thought to disturb the thoughts on slavery. The Missouri Compromise was done in order balance of power in Congress between slave and free states. Missouri was a slave state while Maine was a free state. This shows sectionalism as this thought on slavery distinctly separates the nation into Southern beliefs and Northern beliefs. This Compromise shows the gap between the north and
They denied the importance of the Church or Bible but had a naïve faith in reason and nature
Russell B. Nye: Fettered Freedom: Civil Liberties and the Slavery Controversy, 1830-1860. East Lansing, Mich., 1949
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.
Going back to the quote, "The 1850's was a time of attempted compromise when compromise was no longer possible." During the 1850's compromise was attempted by both the North and South and failed. It failed because both sides wanted different things, and this made compromise impossible. This quote is just another way of saying that the Civil War was going to occur no matter what either side, the North or South, did to try to stop it.
Roark, J.L., Johnson, M.P., Cohen, P.C., Stage, S., Lawson, A., Hartmann, S.M. (2009). The american promise: A history of the united states (4th ed.), The New West and Free North 1840-1860, The slave south, 1820-1860, The house divided 1846-1861 (Vol. 1, pp. 279-354).
...as their self-righteousness. They believed entirely that they were right, and Hale was not enough to convince them to dispose of their own pride and beliefs.
Minkema, Kenneth P., Stout, Harry S.. "The Edwardsean Tradition and the Antislavery Debate, 1740-1865." Journal of American History 1(2005):47. eLibrary. Web. 17 Jan. 2012.
“Political and Social Milestones 1800-1860”. Elements of Literature: Fifth Course. Austin: Hold, Rinehart and Winston, 2008. 160-161. Print.
William Arthur Ward once said, "Real religion is a way of life, not a white cloak to be wrapped around us on the Sabbath and then cast aside into the six-day closet of unconcern." Religion is the one thing that people can usually tolerate but never agree upon. Each faith seems to have an ordained assumption that they have the correct thoughts on how to life one's life or how to think about things or the way to act in certain situations. Still, each religion has its own "sub-religions." If someone refers to Christianity, there are several different religions that are blanketed under that umbrella: Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, Pentecostal, and Presbyterian are just a handful. The inconsistencies that are associated with everyone's belief about religion run into deeper ruts of confusion. This confusion leads people to have distorted views as to what they believe and what their religion is all about. This is no different from the feelings about slavery by Christians in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Throughout the novel, Christianity presents itself in a few different lights; as a twisted and deformed glimmer of what religion is supposed to be with undertones of bigotry and prejudice, an innocent yet naive child that brings joy to everyone he or she meets, and as Uncle Tom himself, the standard for what a Christian is supposed to be. These different portrayals of Christian living come from Stowe's own beliefs about Christians and brings them into the light.
believers of a simple idea. An idea, a way of life which even he felt would be
building a well-devoted believers of God. As they struggled to attain order in England, they left
In the years of 1830 through 1860, a breach in the unity between the North and the South of the United States occurred. They faced an
William Booth once said that “God loves with a great love the man whose heart is bursting with a passion for the impossible.” This quote expresses the range and extent of religious faith through the strength of passion and love. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, with relation to this kind of religious faith. Her novel repeatedly highlights the faith in God through the main character, Uncle Tom. Stowe ridicules northern abolitionists and southern slave owners who think of Christianity as legalistic. She asserts that Christian faith is a strong love.