Introduction
Ranked among the all-time famous female American writers, Harriet Beecher Stowe was born in 1811 in Litchfield, Connecticut. The platform for her literary achievements was laid by Stowe’s interaction with her learned aunt Harriet Foote who instilled in her ward the value of deep thinking and cultural beliefs. It was the combination of two events that led to Stowe’s everlasting fame as a writer. Both took place in 1850. The first was Stowe’s first-hand interaction with African American slaves in Cincinnati. After several visits to them Stowe witnessed with her own eyes the abysmal plight of the slaves and the grossly unfair treatment meted out to them by Southern whites.
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The second event was the Fugitive Slave Act passed by Congress in 1850 that criminalized harboring or assisting runaway slaves; even to an impartial bystander the Act denoted a stamp of approval by Congress for the ongoing cruel and barbaric practice of slavery festering in the South. Both events combined to spark off tumultuous reactions in the creative writer that resulted in her publishing “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” in 1852.
The book was such a tremendous success that Stowe was emboldened to write “The Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin” in 1853, and another anti-slavery novel “Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp” in 1856. Harriet Beecher Stowe died in 1896, 6 years before the first film adaptation of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was made (Kirjastoc.sci.fi).
The basic theme of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” is the evil of slavery. The novel concentrates on the character of protagonist Uncle Tom, an African-American slave. The tales of the novel’s other characters, ranging from his fellow slaves to slave owners, slave hunters and other white people, revolve around him. Against the background of buying and selling of slaves, the hard work they are forced to do, the inhuman, degrading treatment meted out to them, and the riches made from them by most of the whites in Southern United States, Stowe’s portrayal of slaves reveal the evil practice of slavery in all its harsh reality. Uncle Tom is a long-suffering but dutiful servant, loyal to those who own him.
He is a good and pious man, “honest and faithful and Christian” (Stowe, 406). Tom’s wife Chloe is a hard-working, jovial simpleton. Mammy {“the best creature living” (Stowe, 157)} constantly brims with kindness and affection. Sexual misconduct with female slaves is depicted by young black women Cassy and Emmeline, sex slaves of their white owner Simon Legree; Cassy, having being bought and sold several times earlier, was also sexually used by previous owners to bear children.
Slave children are mercilessly separated from their parents and sold to the highest bidder – like the many children of Cassy who becomes so distraught that she poisons one of her children rather than having to undergo the pain of separation again. Some slaves dare to undertake heroic deeds for the sake of their fellow slaves such as Eliza Harris who flees with her son Harry, making “desperate leaps on blocks of ice” (Stowe, 57) to cross River Ohio, her husband George Harris who shoots Tom Loker when he endangers his family, and Uncle Tom who prefers to die from merciless beating by Simon Legree and his overseers Sambo and Quimbo (Stowe, 383), rather than reveal the escape route of Cassy and Emmeline.
The barbarity of slavery is well depicted in events featuring slave traders, slave hunters and slave owners. Slave traders like Mr. Haley and slave hunters like Tom Loker are ruthless individuals who have a simple motto: “Treat ‘em [blacks] like dogs” (Stowe, 100). The remorseless cruelty of most slave owners is epitomized by Simon Legree, the “glaring, greenish-eyed” (Stowe, 314) vicious master of Tom whose barbaric treatment of slaves spawns violence and hatred among them.
The callousness of most white women is depicted in the character of Marie St. Claire, shown as a self-centered, petty and foolish woman who haughtily declares: “[As if} Mammy could love her dirty little [black] babies as I love Eva” (Stowe, 162). The hypocrisy of several whites who sympathize with blacks but are hesitant to air their views openly for fear of endangering businesses and high-profile jobs is depicted by Arthur Shelby and Augustine St. Claire who hesitate because they run lucrative slave plantations, and Senator John Bird who hesitates because “there are public interests involved” (Stowe, 75)}.
Stowe also shows true sympathizers of the suffering slaves among the Southerners. Emily Shelby is a morally virtuous woman who does her best to help her husband’s slaves. Mary Bird is another virtuous woman who tries to better the lives of slaves, even daring to go against the law by “aiding and abetting” the escaping Eliza and her son (Stowe, 74), defiantly declaring: “Nobody shall hurt you here, poor woman” (Stowe, 77).
Ophelia St. Claire overcomes her initial prejudice against blacks, and eventually looks upon them as equal human beings, even going to the extent of teaching the slave girl Topsy to read (Stowe, 244). Eva is an angelic child, a totally moral human being who in her innocence sees no difference between whites and slaves. George Shelby has a kind heart and steely determination, who acts on his principles. After the death of Uncle Tom, George grants freedom to all the slaves on his Kentucky plantation: “You are now free men and free women. I shall pay you wages for your work, such as we shall agree on” (Stowe, 406).
Conclusion
In conclusion, the impact of the novel’s basic theme was so pronounced that the book is credited with having a huge effect on the existing attitude towards slavery in the U.S., not only among non-slave owning Northerners, but also among abolitionist Southerners .
Stowe’s book is widely credited with having fuelled sectional conflict that ultimately culminated in the American Civil War. This view was vindicated when U.S. President Abraham Lincoln famously commented upon meeting Stowe: “So this is the little lady who made this big war” (Kirjasto.sci.fi).
In my opinion, Stowe’s novel ranks among the all-time great anti-slavery books ever published. Not only does it lays bare the stark realities of slavery at its barbaric worst, but the manner in which this is done – with poignant simplicity and down-to-earth realism – contributes hugely to the novel’s unprecedented appeal to readers of all ages and in different time periods. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” is one of the rare ‘evergreen’ books that will never lose its appeal.
While it is no coincidence that the book earned the formidable reputation as the best selling novel of the 19th century, as well as the best selling book of the same century, it certainly is a coincidence that there is such a close link with the Bible because Stowe has gone on record to declare that she got divine inspiration to write her record-breaking book: “I could not control the story, the Lord himself wrote it” (Kirjasto.sci.fi).
References used
- “Harriet Beecher Stowe (1891-1896).” Kirjasto. 2002. Web.
- Stowe, Harriet Beecher. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” U.K: Wordsworth Editions Ltd. 1999.