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Evil In Uncle Tom's Cabin, By Harriet Beecher Stowe

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Slavery’s Evil in Uncle Tom’s Cabin In the era of slavery, blacks desired the freedom America promises to anyone who resides in America. Instead, those who came willingly were greeted as lesser men not even men but property that white people own and abuse. A white Puritan woman named Harriet Beecher Stowe witnessed the effects of slavery firsthand. Using her Puritan background and beliefs, Stowe writes a novel called Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and causes a great debate in American history. In times of slavery, a woman named Harriet Beecher Stowe exposes the effects of slavery, deems it evil and uses her Christian beliefs to expose it’s evil.
To understand Stowe’s point, her background is required to understand just who she was. Harriet Beecher Stowe …show more content…

It is also evident that it was popular: When the novel was published in 1852, it set all-time records: ten thousand copies in the first week and three hundred thousand in the first year (“Slavery”). Stowe’s novel had become so popular that, “At the time, the only book to sell more copies than Uncle Tom’s Cabin was the bible” (“Slavery”). Stowe’s inspiration for her novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin came from the events during her time period. One reason is that “She developed the idea of writing a novel about the horrors of slavery after the Fugitive Slave Law Act was passed in 1850” (Cumberland 312). Another reason is that ”Stowe combined her religious background with her political beliefs by writing a book about a saintly slave who forgave his tormentor, just as Jesus Christ forgave his” (Cumberland 312). These are the main two reasons as to why she wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin. It was to use a protagonist who would just as Jesus, forgive his tormentors sins in which the tormentors represent slavery. Stowe didn’t plan to make a continuation of sequel to Uncle Tom’s Cabin but, because The South charged her with slander, and a number of ‘anti-Tom’ novels appeared as a challenge to the book. But Stowe defended herself with A Key to Uncle Tom 's Cabin: Presenting the Original Facts and Documents upon which the story is founded (Crowfield 535). A Key to Uncle Tom 's Cabin: Presenting the Original Facts and Documents upon which the story is founded is to show what she used to write the original Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Uncle Tom’s Cabin then started a heated debate over slavery where she was praised in the north by some, “but criticized by abolitionists for being too lenient; In the south she was reviled” (Crowfield 535). Southerners and pro slavery writers “believed that Stowe exaggerated the condition of slaves in the south” (Cumberland 312). Stowe was not the first to create anti-slavery works,

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Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) was one of America's most acclaimed writers. Arguably, her most memorable book was an anti-slavery novel, "Uncle Tom's Cabin", published in 1852. Looking into deeper into Stowe's life... Known as "Hattie" by her seven brothers and three sisters, Harriet was born in Litchfield, CT in 1811. Her father was a noted and respected minister, Lyman Beecher, who taught his children to be actively involved in life's pressing issues of the day. While a teenager, Harriet attended an all-girls school in Hartford, CT run by her older sister, Catharine.

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Uncle Tom's Cabin, a novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852, influenced many Northerners to fight against slavery. At the age of 21, Harriet Stowe traveled to Ohio, the place she would gain information from slaves about their horrible lifestyles. Because of Stowe's hate towards the Fugitive Slave Act, she decided to inform others about slave cruelty, and wrote of Tom, a slave of Simon Legree, and was beaten to death by his owner. In response to this novel, Northerners quickly began the journey of ending slavery, as Southerners believed it was just another book attempting to tarnish their image. Uncle Tom's Cabin was the one of the first writings that greatly impacted the ideas put upon slavery.

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If I give you money, it will only be taken from you. But I tell you solemnly, and before God, that I will keep trace of you, and bring you back as soon as I can command the money;-and, till then, trust in God,” (page 111, paragraph 4), this shows there was a ‘bad’ and ‘good’ as well, proving that there was no biased opinions in this book about the South. As for the Southern Literary Messenger to say Stowe’s work is nothing but fiction, is profoundly nonsense. Stowe herself wrote how the novel is indeed “authentic to some extent,” and how “many sayings are word for word (page 466, paragraph 2).” Uncle Tom’s Cabin was also influenced by Josiah Henson’s memoir which is said to be, “one of the first slave narratives,” along with his home being the “real” Cabin.

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Uncle Tom 's Cabin, written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, has had a huge impact on American literature, since it was published in 1852. This novel, the second-best selling book just after the Bible, had over 300,000 copies sold after the first year. Uncle Tom 's Cabin caused so much controversy when it was published because of its anti-slavery views. The impact of this book on the issue of slavery was very powerful that when President Lincoln met Stowe, he supposedly said, "So this is the little lady who made this big war." Today, however, many believe Stowe 's attempts to expose the horrors of slavery ended up romanticizing this horrible occurrence and was seemingly racist through the use of many racial slurs.

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