Uncle Tom's Cabin

On 1/10/1776, Thomas Paine published a 48 page pamphlet titled Common Sense, which was an argument for freedom from British rule. In 1851, Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom’s Cabin as an argument for the freedom of all slaves in the United States. Both books ignited a firestorm of debate. Stowe’s book sold over 300,000 copies in its first year. Only a year previous, the United States passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 prohibiting aiding and abetting escaping slaves. President Millard Fillmore and Congress passed that law as a compromise between the North and the South to avoid hostilities. What were they thinking? Luckily, many Northerners didn’t heed the law, especially the Quakers. Stowe met President Lincoln at the White House in 1862. He called her “the little woman who started this great war.” According to Stowe the characters were drawn from real life, and the incidents described are real. That’s explosive information because this book was (and still is) an emotional time bomb in disguise. She was asked many times whether the narrative was a true one, and her general answer was “The separate incidents that compose the narrative are, to a very great extent, authentic, occurring, many of them, either under her own observation, or that of her personal friends. She or her friends have observed characters the counterpart of almost all that are here introduced; and many of the sayings are word for word as heard herself, or reported to her.”

The character Uncle Tom is probably one of the most enduring of all time in the world of literature. Who could forget this honest, loyal, and pious Christian slave, who is so maltreated? Stowe fashions Uncle Tom’s trials and tribulations to that of Jesus Christ. Who can overlook the angelic and tragic life of little Eva, the daughter of the kindly white estate owner, Augustine St. Clare? The slave Eliza carrying her baby across the Ohio River, dashing over ice chunks while being pursued by slave catchers is a documented fact. The slaves Cassy and Emmeline are two of the best side characters that I’ve come across covering all genres of writing. Then we have the most infamous and scurrilous character of all time, Simon Legree, the hated owner of a cotton plantation in New Orleans. The empathy and revulsion that the reader experiences reading this novel are monumental.

As Uncle Tom passes from one slave owner to next, the reader hopes for the best. The slave owners see nothing wrong with breaking families up at auction, ripping away a child from its mother, and selling the crying child to a different plantation! Woe is me! Yet the slaves held on to the hope that Jesus Christ would save them. According to Stowe, she believed that the slaves would eventually be “no longer despised and trodden down...” because to paraphrase ”of their gentleness, affection, and facility of forgiveness”. Even the kind owners of the slaves did them wrong by not protecting them from unforeseen factors. If a considerate owner suddenly died without preparing freedom papers for his slaves, his widow would auction the slaves off to pay the estate’s debts, thus breaking up families again. This happens many times in this saddest of sad novels. On page 475, Stowe writes “We have walked with our humble friend (Uncle Tom) thus far in the valley of slavery; first through flowery fields of ease and indulgence, then through heart-breaking separations from all that man holds dear.” Uncle Tom was sold the first time because the estate owner, Mr. Selby was heavily in debt, and Tom was his most valuable asset. So his reward for loyalty is to be sold away from his wife and children! Woe is me!

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s brilliant novel is actually two stories in one. You already know about the trials of Uncle Tom. The parallel story is that of Eliza, her baby, and her husband George Harris, a mulatto slave from a neighboring estate. Eliza is also on the estate of the troubled Shelbys and finds out that Mr. Shelby has sold her baby to the despicable slave trader, Dan Haley. That evening she tells Uncle Tom that she is fleeing to Canada! Meanwhile, her husband on a different estate has had enough of abuse and also heads for Canada. Their adventures occupy many chapters and the final result is most rewarding to the reader. Uncle Tom didn’t try to escape because Eliza also heard Mr. Shelby say that if he couldn’t sell Tom, he would have to sell all the other slaves instead. That’s something our hero, Uncle Tom, wouldn’t abide. So poor Uncle Tom is separated from his wife Aunt Chloe, his two sons, and his baby! Woe is me! Will he ever see them again? I’m not going to tell you. This is the most meaningful novel that I’ve ever read. Do yourself a favor and read this piece of American history. It is an awesome event!

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

Comment: Gradesaver says: “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…” Folks you must read this novel. According to America’s Story: “Harriet Beecher Stowe cared deeply about human rights. Her family was active in the Underground Railroad, helping slaves escape to freedom in the North. (The Underground Railroad was a system formed by a group of people who were against slavery. These people helped escaped slaves secretly reach the North.) For 18 years she observed a slave-holding community in Kentucky just across the Ohio River from where she lived in Cincinnati. She didn't like what she saw.” Was she a great lady, or what? Her last book was The Poor Life published in 1890. She died in Hartford, Connecticut at the age of 85. God Bless her.