Abolitionism In Uncle Tom's Cabin

“Scenes of blood and cruelty are shocking to our ear and heart. What man has nerve to do, man has not nerve to hear” (Stowe 349). This quote, written by Harriet Beecher Stowe in her novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, is found directly after the southern slaveholder, Simon Legree, killed his slave and main character of the novel, Uncle Tom. It was instances, such as those in Uncle Tom’s Cabin that shocked the North; Southerners treated their slaves horrifically, but responded with criticism and denial about the events portrayed. 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

Lyman Beecher took a very strong abolitionist stance after the Pro-Slavery Riots of Cincinnati in 1836. His views were greatly emulated through all thirteen of his children’s views (Bio.com). While living in Cincinnati, Stowe joined the Semi-Colon Club, a literary association, where she met her husband, Calvin Ellis Stowe, a seminary teacher. The couple married on January 6th, 1836 and moved to Brunswick, Maine. Stowe and her husband both shared a belief in abolition (Bio.com).

While living in Maine, Harriet Beecher Stowe began to write her most famous novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The first installment of this novel was published in the National Era in 1851. It was eventually published as a novel in 1852. This novel quickly became a bestseller, capturing the Nation’s attention, with more than three-hundred-thousand copies sold within the first year of publication. Uncle Tom’s Cabin also aroused hostility in the South