Slave trade played a huge role forming the modern world we live in. North America was developed almost entirely by slave labor and native exploitation. Slave trade was a practice accepted by society for many years, and there was no opposition. In 1852, a novel titled Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly, was published; it was an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Many adaptations to films and plays were developed, one of this was the television movie Uncle Tom’s Cabin(1987) directed by Stan Lathan and screenplay adapted by John Gay; the movie was filmed in Natchez, Mississippi, USA. Many people agree that the novel created grounds for anti-slavery movements around the world. Although the play was directed to the North American population, it had a huge worldwide success. Abolishing slave trade was just the beginning, but there was still much work to do, in order to completely abolish all aspects of slavery. A great justification is that maybe slavery was just "A necessary evil."
Harriet Beecher Stowe was born on June 14, 1811 in Litchfield, Connecticut. Although she was raised under a puritan formation, Stowe was believed to be a protestant; which played a great role throughout her life. After a life time of research and study, Harriet marries Calvin Stowe in 1835. The 1850’s law required turning in slaves, even in the “Free States”, this in turn inspires Harriet to write in what would become one of the most controversial book in time. In 1851 Uncle Tom’s Cabin is released; the book highly influenced the Civil War movement. Stowe’s work was translated to thirty two languages, and was adapted to theater plays until 1930. Beecher’s success is not so much directed to her literary abilities, rath...
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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."
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book Uncle Tom’s Cabin was an amazing read that was truly inspiring. It was evident to me and clearly evident to others as well, that the book was written for a specific purpose. This purpose was to inform the American public of the horrors of slavery. The novel was set in the early 19th century. During this time period, slaves took up approximately 13% of the American population and for the most part worked on large plantations. Since very few people were plantation owners, or owned slaves for personal use, most of the American public did not have a great understanding of the hardships that an average slave had to go through. Through her writing, Harriet Stowe managed to illustrate perfectly what the American people had been unable to see. Stowe’s novel inspired people to push for the end of slavery in a way that debates and speeches could not have. The response from the novel was so incredible that it has been considered by many to have caused or at least influenced the American Civil War. This novel shows that the power of literature can be used as a weapon. It’s up to the author to decide if they want to use this power for good or for bad. Harriet Stowe decided to use her power for good by attempting to convince people to join the abolitionist movement. This can be shown through Tom’s characteristics, religion, the response the novel received from the north and south and through the historical facts(generally one sided) shown through Stowes writing.
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.
Uncle Tom’s cabin was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852. It is an anti-slavery book that shows the reader the many sufferings endured by slaves in the period before the civil war. To the people of the modern day generation, these acts of slavery are unbelievable but the reader has to realize the fact that in those years, people suffered, to the point where they were just treated as property, where owners can do whatever they like and be disposed of or traded as if they were just material possessions and not even human. The book talks about the relationship between slaves and their masters as well as the role of women. As slavery was practiced during such times, Stowe tries to expose the difficult life people had in the past and how their faith in God helped them to endure all there hardships.
When one of Stowe’s child died a few months after his birth, she despaired over him and thought she knew what a slave mother would feel like if her child was taken away from her(Haugen 38). She used those feeling and wrote the book Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The book was written when the Fugitive Slave Act was known to public(Harriet Beecher Stowe). The book was based on her experiences, the underground railroad, and also the antislavery movement(The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center). Uncle Tom’s Cabin was a huge hit among Americans(Harriet Beecher Stowe). It was originally supposed to be just three to four sections in an antislavery newspaper. Eventually, the story got extended to more than 40 sections in the newspaper(Uncle Tom’s Cabin). When it was made into a book, stores ...
Uncle Tom’s Cabin is an anti-slavery novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1850s that “changed forever how Americans viewed slavery, the system that treated people as property”. (Harriet Beecher Stowe Center) This book “demanded that the United States deliver on the promise of freedom and equality, galvanized the abolition movement and contributed to the outbreak of the Civil War”. (Harriet Beecher Stowe Center) “The strength of Uncle Tom's Cabin is its ability to illustrate slavery's effect on families, and to help readers empathize with enslaved characters.” (Harriet Beecher Stowe Center) As Foner mentioned: “By portraying slaves as sympathetic men and women, and as Christians at the mercy of slaveholders who split up families and set bloodhounds on innocent mothers and children, Stowe’s melodrama gave the abolitionist message a powerful human appeal.” (472) With this novel, Stowe wanted to convince Christians that God doesn’t’ approve slavery, that it is evil which must be destroyed.
After a century and a half this classic anti-slavery novel remains an engaging and powerful work, read in college and high school courses dealing with literature, history, and issues of race and gender. Stowe 's words changed the world: her bravery as she picked up her pen inspires us to believe in our own ability to effect positive change. Uncle Tom 's Cabin, with its compelling story, challenges us to confront America 's complicated past and connect it to today 's issues. In 1873, Harriet and her family moved into their Victorian cottage on Forest Street in the Hartford literary and social reform community known as Nook Farm where she lived until she died. Over the course of a long career as an author, Harriet wrote over thirty books and essays, poems, articles and hymns. However, no work had the impact of her first novel. By picking up her pen, Harriet Beecher Stowe had created sympathy for people who lived in bondage and motivated her readers to abolish
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, has had a tremendous impact on American culture, both then and now. It is still considered a controversial novel, and many secondary schools have banned it from their libraries. What makes it such a controversial novel? One reason would have been that the novel is full of melodrama, and many people considered it a caricature of the truth. Others said that she did not show the horror of slavery enough, that she showed the softer side of it throughout most of her novel. Regardless of the varying opinions of its readers, it is obvious that its impact was large.
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom’s Cabin or, Life Among the Lowly. Ed. Ann Douglas. New York: Penguin, 1981.
Harriet Beecher Stowe, a northern abolitionist, published her best-selling novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852. Uncle Tom’s Cabin contracts the many different attitudes that southerners as well as northerners shared towards slavery. Generally, it shows the evils of slavery and the cruelty and inhumanity of the peculiar institution, in particular how masters treat their slaves and how families are torn apart because of slavery.
Even today, with literature constantly crossing more lines and becoming more shocking, Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin remains one of the most scandalous, controversial, and powerful literary works ever spilled onto a set of blank pages. Not only does this novel examine the attitudes of white nineteenth-century society toward slavery, but it introduces us to the hearts, minds and souls of several remarkable and unprecedented characters.
One Work Cited Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin in order to help bring the plight of southern slave workers into the spotlight in the north, aiding in its abolitionist movement.
Rarely is one work of literature so significant that it has the ability to change a society or cascade it down a path of ruinous conflict. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, is a work that provided such a catalytic occurrence. To this day, this work of fiction brilliance is considered one of the most instrumental American works to ever be published. Selling over a million copies in its first two years and being the second bestselling book next to the Bible, what makes this accomplishment even more incredible is the fact that a woman wrote this book during a period in history when women were not granted the ability to have roles of influence or leadership, in any society1. In 1852, when the book was published, women were nonetheless confined to domestic obligations. With the help of the books, Uncle Tom’s Cabin written by Harriet Beecher Stowe and Social Analysis: Linking Faith and Justice written by Joe Holland, one is able to understand how much of an impact Stowe had on America’s history with the way people viewed slavery. The percussion of Uncle Tom’s Cabin caused much conflict between the abolitionists and the antislavery citizens. This work is important to history because it created the idea of finding a place for religion in society, shone a light on how African American slaves were treated, pushed the United States to a realization with the idea of whether slavery could continue to be a cornerstone of American life and how it contributed to the beginning of the Civil War. As Abe Lincoln said of Stowe, “the little woman who started the Great War1.”
“So this is the little lady who made this big war.” Abraham Lincoln’s legendary comment upon meeting Harriet Beecher Stowe demonstrates the significant place her novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, holds in American history. Published in book form in 1852, the novel quickly became a national bestseller and stirred up strong emotions in both the North and South. The context in which Uncle Tom’s Cabin was written, therefore, is just as significant as the actual content. Among other things, Stowe’s publication of her novel was stimulated by the increasing tensions among the nation’s citizens and by her fervent belief that slavery was brutally immoral.