Uncle Tom's Cabin By Harriet Beacher Stowe

I had originally read Uncle Tom’s Cabin in my Honors U.S History class, during my first semester at TCC. The novel is known for being the bestselling novel of the entire 19th century. It has also been recognized as a piece of American Literature that contributed to the rise of abolitionist protest during the Civil War Era. Since the book carried such a huge title, I assumed it must have been a firsthand account story of slaves struggle through slavery. However I was later surprised when I found it was a non-fiction novel. When I began to read the story again, I felt the same way about the writing as I did the first. I genuinely appreciated the fact that the story was an easy read with an interesting storyline. It allowed me to understand the

Many of the characters are used to represent very specific personality traits associated with different situations that occurred in 19th century America during slavery. The main protagonist Tom is seen as the epitome of a virtuous man with the strongest Christian morals, he represents the moral figure of the story. The book also focuses on bad characters like Simon Legree who is described as the as a villain and represents one of the worst parts of slavery. The novel followed the journey of a noble slave named Tom, and a family Eliza, Harry, and George through the struggles of slavery. After reading the book twice, I was able to notice how the writing in the novel made me stop many times and put myself in the situations that the people I was reading about where in. I pictured my own mother being Eliza, a slave who decides to flee the only home she has ever known in order to protect her child from being sold to a slave trader. I think the scenes in the story were written with the intent to evoke compassion for the slaves, so the reader could have sympathy and be more invested in the characters. Although the emotional scenes were important I also liked that there was small details added about the behavior of the slaves. A scene showed how slaves would put a small acorn inside a horse’s saddle to cause discomfort until it finally threw off whoever was riding it. The scene was very comedic as it

The opening scene sets up the entire story to what it will ultimately climax to. The first scene describes the deal made between Mr. Shelby the noble and kind master, and Mr. Haley the evil slave trader. It shows Mr. Shelby having to sell Tom and Harry in order to repay a bad business deal he has made. The rest of the novel describes the various horrible situations that everyone involved must suffer through. Tom ends up being beaten to death on one of the worst plantations in the south, while Eliza, Harry and George must flee and live in fear while trying to hide from slave hunters. The novel shows that no matter how kind a master is, or in what context, slavery is evil. The Novel was such as success that it was able to coin its own phrase in the context of civil rights. In today’s society, the term “Uncle Tom” is used to describe someone who blindly obeys systematic racism and at times acknowledges their own inferiority. After so many years, the novel still serves as an important body of work that can be used to have conversations about race in