Uncle Tom's Cabin Case Study

STUDY GUIDE Economics of slavery

The growth of the Southern economy begins after the invention of the cotton gin in 1793. The cotton gin made cotton a hugely profitable cash crop in the South. In 1790, the South produced just 3,000 bales of cotton. By the 1850s, production had soared to more than 4 million bales a year. Cotton brought new wealth to the South. Whether they owned slaves or not, white Southerners understood that their economy depended on cotton. They also knew that cotton planters depended on slave labor to grow their profitable crop. For planters with few or no slaves, however, the prospect of owning slaves became less likely as the demand for, and the price of, slaves rose. High prices were both good and bad for the men and

It is about a saintly slave known as Uncle Tom, and his cruel and inhumane master.

Racing home, Stowe scribbled down what she had imagined. Her vision of Uncle Tom's death became part of a much longer story that was first published in installments in an abolitionist newspaper. In one issue, readers held their breath as the slave Eliza chose to risk death rather than be sold away from her young son. Chased by slave hunters and their dogs, Eliza dashed to freedom across the ice-choked Ohio River, clutching her child in her arms. In a later issue, Stowe's readers wept as they read her account of how the character of Uncle Tom died at the hands of Simon Legree.

In 1852, Uncle Tom's Cabin was published as a novel. Plays based on the book toured the country, thrilling audiences with Eliza's dramatic escape to freedom. No other work had ever aroused such powerful emotions about slavery. In the South, the novel and its author were scorned and cursed. In the North, Uncle Tom's Cabin made millions of people even more angry about the cruelties of slavery. Ostend Manifesto

Kansas -Nebraska Act-reason for creation, controversy and violence it