Analysis Of Uncle Tom's Cabin, By Harriet Stowe

Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published in 1851-1852. The author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin was a white abolitionist who believed in the anti-slavery movement. Her name was Harriet Beecher Stowe. From when Harriet Beecher Stowe was in her twenties she became familiar with stories about slaves and runaways passing through the area. She had hoped it would convince the South and the North that slavery was wrong, but sadly more people supported slavery then against.

The Fugitive slave act declared that escaped slaves are still property no matter where they go, the enforcement of this law benefitted the slave owners. Northerners opposed the slave act, they thought it was a way to expand slavery therefore they didn't support it. The Fugitive Slave Act and the increasingly negative treatment of slaves, lead to abolitionist such as Harriet Beecher Stowe to rise. Stowe wrote “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” in 1852 from the point of view of a slave called Uncle Tom, with the intensions of protesting the Fugitive Act of 1850. In her book she focused on the treatment and feelings on the slaves. Harriet Stowe and her writing helped raise awareness of the underlying issues of slavery and helped change Americans prospective on slavery. Stowe contributed to the events that lead to the Civil war, Stowe also raised the tension between the states and emphasized the division of beliefs within the nation which is why “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” is an important impetus of the Civil War.

In the history of the United States, slavery was and is considered one of the most inexcusable

Imagine reading about the cruel, harsh realities of the lives of slaves and going through a rollercoaster of emotions while reading a novel. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe is “a work of literary fiction that seeks to elucidate a social problem with a primary or secondary purpose of functioning as propaganda,” (“Common Description of the ‘Social Protest Novel’ Literary Genre”) otherwise known as a social protest novel. Despite Uncle Tom’s Cabin connecting to the content that is learned during US History I, the book should not be in the curriculum for students to read because

In order to be successful as an author and engage readers effectively, one must incorporate certain elements. Ernest J. Gaines included multiple stylistic elements in his novel, “A Lesson Before Dying”, therefore, he is quite effective as a storyteller. One rhetorical device included in the novel was metaphor. Another device Gaines used in “A Lesson Before Dying” was personification. Furthermore, Ernest used allusions throughout the novel.

Stowe, herself being a white woman strongly sympathized with the black slaves and became an active abolitionist by working for the cause of antislavery war. This novel is one of her attempts for the cause of the Blacks in the civil war and highlights the evil and immorality in practice of slavery; besides reflecting Stowe’s unflinching faith in Christianity as the sole redeemer of individual and society. Will Kaufman says: ‘‘The novel helped lay the ground work for the civil war.” Stowe was an active abolitionist and wrote the novel in response to the second Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which declared that all runaway slaves should be brought back to their masters. It is credited to have fuelled the abolitionist cause in the 1850s (Goldner 84).

Though more than a century divides the creation of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) and Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1987), the immense similarities between them can persuade one to read them accompanied with each other. In Uncle Tom's Cabin and Beloved there is an underlying theme of the importance of the influential role of mothers in African American slavery culture and in white culture. They both address the issue of a mother’s rights with the role of strong and influential female characters. Instead of encouraging the belief that women are less than men, the idea is to promote that they are more than obedient and submissive homemakers. Stowe and Morrison do this

During the early 1800’s, President Thomas Jefferson effectively doubled the size of the United States under the Louisiana Purchase. This set the way for Westward expansion, alongside an increase in industrialism and overall economic growth. In fact, many citizens were able to thrive and make a better living in the agricultural business than anywhere else. All seemed to be going well in this new and ever expanding country, except for one underlying issue; slavery. Many African Americans were treated as the lowest of the classes, even indistinguishable from livestock. To slave owners. many saw their slaves as nothing more than property. Slaves were represented as lazy and uneducated in this time period, sparking the typical Sambo stereotype.

“Uncle Tom’s Cabin” is a novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. The book is about a man named Tom who works for plantation owner. His plantation owner orders him to whip a slave named Lucy but he refuses and gets punished. This novel deeply affected the feelings of the north and it greatly changed peoples views of slavery. Her book angered southern plantation owners who own slaves. Even though not all plantation owners treated their slaves with cruelty or treated them as property.

Harriet Beecher Stowe covered many topics throughout her book "Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly". Stowe's purpose of this book was to provide readers with an insight into the atrocities of slavery and the kindness of owners of the time. She argues this through a few lines of effort, women's role during this time period, and religion being twisted and bent to the whim of the states to beautify slavery ultimately portraying how evil slavery truly was.

Later Uncle Tom’s Cabin was then published in book form in 1852. Though the novel is essentially inspired by the Fugitive Slave Act, she uses a lot of her own troubles experiences and emotion is this novel. Many called Uncle Tom’s Cabin an “anti slavery novel”. The target of the book was to educate northerners on the horrific things that happened in the South. She signed a contract with The National Era to “paint a picture of slavery” with Northerners. This book was an immediate bestseller and became popular in many countries. To be exact the book became a bestseller in the U.S, Britain, Europe, and Asia. The book was such a bestseller because Stowe caught the nation’s attention with her emotional description of the impact of slavery, predominantly on families and children. I wrote what I did because as a woman, as a mother, I was oppressed and broken-hearted with the sorrows and injustice I saw, because as a Christian I felt the dishonor to Christianity - because as a lover of my county, I trembled at the coming day of wrath." Stowe is just telling us that this book is written from her heart, and this book has so many strong emotions. The book had a strong ability to get readers to feel the same emotion as slaves and to display how families were affected by

Harriet A. Jacobs was born a slave in North Carolina in 1813 and became a fugitive in the 1830s. She recorded her triumphant struggle for freedom in an autobiography that was published pseudonymously in 1861. As Linda Brent, the book 's heroine and narrator, Jacobs recounts the history of her family: a remarkable grandmother who hid her from her master for seven years: a brother who escaped and spoke out for abolition; her two children, whom she rescued and sent north. She recalls the degradation of slavery and the special sexual oppression she found as a slave woman: the master who was determined to make her his concubine.With Frederick Douglass 's account of his life, it is one of the two archetypes in the genre of the slave

Throughout history, slavery has always been a problem and it still exists today. The United States does not have slavery due to amendments in the constitution. Although there is no amendment that completely states no slavery, there are however, three specific instances in the constitution that prevent slavery from happening. One of them is the three-fifths compromise. Another is the fugitive slave clause, and the last one is the 13th amendment. All three of these are located in the constitution and are the reason why slavery does not exist in the United States today.

Despite the fact that the Constitution did not employ the term “slavery”, Article IV provided for the return of persons who escaped from their masters “held to service or labor” such as fugitive slaves. After 20 years of the confirmation of the Constitution in 1808, Article I provided the end of the slave trade. Many questions were left non responsed by the Constitution, especially, about the statue of slavery in the new territories obtained by the United States. (ibid)

The beginning of the 17th Century marked the practice of slavery which continued till next 250 years by the colonies and states in America. Slaves, mostly from Africa, worked in the production of tobacco and cotton crops. Later , they were employed or ‘enslaved’ by the whites as for the job of care takers of their houses. The practice of slavery also led the beginning of racism among the people of America. The blacks were restricted for all the basic and legally privileged rights. Not only them but others outsiders (to America) such as Asian-Americans , native Americans etc.