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Uncle Tom's Cabin, By Harriet Beecher Stowe

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Critical Analysis: Uncle Tom’s Cabin Have you ever wondered how cruel African slaves were treated back in the nineteenth century? Uncle Tom’s Cabin written by Harriet Beecher Stowe is one of those anti-slavery novels that played an important role for speaking on behalf of all African American slaves. Although Stowe was Caucasian, she was one of many advocates that was religious and believed everyone was created equally. The overall theme of the book was on slavery and how inhumane people can mistreat one another just by the color of their skin. Treating human beings as nothing more than property has caused a lot of controversies throughout the 1800’s and that portrayed in Uncle Tom’s Cabin has made it one of the top sellers. This novel has …show more content…

Haley did not think Tom was adequate enough to pay for the Shelby family’s debt. Overhearing the deal that was made for them to be sold, Eliza quickly warned Tom and his family. Eliza knew what would happen to his son if they were to be separated so she decided to runaway. George did not stay with Eliza because another man down the road owned him. He had already left for Canada because he could not stand the suffering anymore. Hoping to reunite with her husband again, Eliza did whatever it took to get her son up north. Tom stayed back and agreed to go with Mr. Haley only because if he were to runaway more slaves including his family would have to be sold. This is where the story splits up into two different perspectives, Eliza’s journey to the north and Tom’s journey to where ever Mr. Haley takes him. Tom Loker, a slave hunter, was hired by Mr. Haley to find Eliza and George. While Loker was pursuing them, Mr. Haley had other plans to sell Tom at a slave auction. On the way to being sold to another slave owner, Tom meets an innocent girl by the name of Eva, on a boat, who was always filled with spirit and joy. She was the daughter of a wealthy white man, Augustine St. Clare, who happens to buy Tom after he rescued his daughter when she went over board off the boat. She jumped off on purpose without anyone knowing so that her father would buy Tom, because she knew he would be the only person to rescue her. Tom and Eva shared a common interest, …show more content…

It made me furious at those that treated slaves as nothing more than dirt and sad that there was no hope for humanity at the time. To treat human beings as property and not as a human being disappoints me. This has to be one of the best novels that I have ever read solely on the fact of how visual the portrayal of the life of slaves were. I could imagine every scene that was being described in the book, from the whippings that were embedded on the back of the slaves to the joy of hearing what Eva had to say, it felt like I was with them. For example in the novel it was quoted, “Mas’r, if you was sick, or in trouble, or dying, and I could save ye, I’d give ye my heart’s blood; and, if taking every drop of blood in this poor old body would save your precious soul, I’d give ‘em freely, as the Lord gave his for me.” (Ch. 40, pg. 410) If there were one thing that I could include to the novel since it seemed like it was left out, would have to be the perspective of all those prejudice characters such as Simon Legree and Marie. Just so that we, as the reader, know why they have so much hate for African slaves. Since Stowe did not include there perspective in the novel, the reader does not know if Simon Legree, as an example, saw an African slave murder his family as a child or if Marie was raped by a slave when she were young. Stories like that would cause the reader to slightly sympathize with them as well rather then just

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This book became known as “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”. It highlighted the everyday horrors and injustices of slavery. The author Harriet Beecher Stowe took it upon herself to write this call for justice when reading a letter from her sister in Boston. Her sister had wrote of the terrible things she’d seen happen to African Americans during the time of the Fugitive Slave Act. She described “slave catchers prowling the streets, pouncing on African Americans without warning, breaking into their houses, destroying their shops and carrying them off.”

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Even though not all plantation owners treated their slaves with cruelty or treated them as property. I chose to do my project on this novel because I believe that it is one of the main causes to the Civil war and is important to history. For my project I drew and colored one of the many covers of “Uncle Tom's Cabin” and made it into a booklet

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It is evident that the author intended this effect, which made it extremely prominent when reading the story. Finally, this book helped spark the American Civil War, which is a powerful testament to what a well-written piece of literature can do. This book was interpreted as “slanderous” and “absurd” by southern slave keepers at the time, whereas northerners viewed the book’s contents as possible and even probable. This only heightened the division that had already been formed

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The book had a strong ability to get readers to feel the same emotion as slaves and to display how families were affected by

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In the first week 10,000 copies were sold, and 300,000 copies were sold by the end of 1852 (H. Stowe and Yellin xx), making Uncle Tom’s Cabin the world’s first best-selling novel (H. Stowe and Yellin vii). Although well-liked in the North, the book was “excoriated & suppressed in the” southern states (H. Stowe and Yellin xxii). Both blacks and whites questioned Stowe’s “treatment of race and Christianity” (H. Stowe and Yellin xx). In 1853 (H. Stowe and Yellin xxxiii), Mrs. Stowe wrote A Key to ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ in response to her Southern critics who questioned her “factual accuracy” of the incidents that she had included in her book Uncle Tom’s Cabin (H. Stowe and Yellin xx). In the book’s Introduction, Mrs. Stowe explained that her reason for writing Uncle Tom’s Cabin was to address the “subject of slavery”; to show that the question of owning slaves was a “moral and religious” one (H. Stowe and Yellin xxii).

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The purpose of this paper is to discuss the impact of Harriet Beecher Stowe and the reasoning behind publishing her book on slavery. Harriet Beecher Stowe impacted America socially and politically by polarizing the anti-slavery movement through her book ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’, which forced America to see the need for change. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin,’ also known as ‘Life Among the Lowly,’ depicted life under slavery through the eyes of Uncle Tom, whose real name was Josiah Henson. He was a slave from the time he was born until he was whipped to death after refusing to reveal the location of two runaway slaves. Stowe came in contact with many fugitive slaves and learned about life in the

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"Uncle Tom 's Cabin" was abolitionist propaganda, but it was also a brilliant novel that intertwined the stories of a host of memorable characters: the long-suffering slave Uncle Tom, the sadistic overseer Simon Legree, the defiant fugitive George Harris, the antic slave girl Topsy, the conscience-stricken slave owner Augustine St. Clare, and a teeming cast of abolitionists, Southerners and African-Americans. By presenting an array of emotive story lines—e.g., the bonding of Uncle Tom with St. Clare 's saintly daughter Eva, Tom 's fatal persecution at a Louisiana plantation, and the dramatic flight of the Harris family to freedom in the North—the author Harriet Beecher Stowe rendered American slavery as a soul-destroying system of grinding injustice and, for the first time in American literature, depicted slaves as complex, heroic and emotionally nuanced individuals. Did you like it? Why or why not?

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Tom’s response to his master’s question disperses any idea that the white men are doing any favors for the slaves. Fancy clothes or a nice bed hardly make up for a life with no freedom. Master St. Clare was a very generous and kind man. Tom feels very attached to the St. Clare family, but he would rather have his freedom than all the riches they could give him. Tom, however, is a much more gentle and pious character than his fellow slave named George.

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What caught me off guard was that the author was a white female who is an active abolitionist. She was inspired to write this novel after reading a narrative called The Life of Josiah Henson. Henson was a black slave who played the same role as Tom did in the novel. There were some differences from the book to the narrative, but it still captures the realness on what Henson experienced.

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In addition, it shows us how the 19th century people think about slavery. One of the thoughts that the writer used it is how the people deal with slaves in different ways. For example, Mr. Shelby and Mrs. Shelby deal with slaves in a good way. Unlike Mr. Haley who deals with them badly. Moreover, she shows us how Tom is faithful.

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Booker T. Washington says, “You can’t hold a man down without staying down with him.” Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, demonstrates this idea by showing the tragic condition of slaves and the slave system in the South; she portrays that the owner cannot free himself from his own sins until he frees his slaves. In Stowe’s fictional, yet accurate depiction of slavery, she also showcases the effects and power of women in the system; characters such as Cassy, Eliza, and Mrs. Shelby choose their own path by protecting themselves, others, or, in the instance of Cassy, their character. Both Mrs. Shelby and Eliza act as Stowe’s vehicle for demonstrating the value of one person showing kindness to another. After Mr. Shelby sells

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1746 Words | 7 Pages

Stowe used some of her own experiences and feelings to write the novel. The story humanizes slavery by portraying the lives of individuals and families. She describes the physical, emotional, and sexual abuse that enslaved people were forced to

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He is touched by her beauty and somberness. He proceeds to rescue her from drowning. At Eva's plea Tom is bought from Haley. Tom journeys with the family to their New Orleans home. Eva's mother, is a spoiled and prejudiced woman.

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Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was a devout Christian. As an outstanding psator of Congregational Church, Mrs. Stowe detested the slavery. African people were treated like cattles and goods, which can be tortured, bought and perchased. In 1850, the Federal Parliament passed the slave code, which confirmed that the black slaves were the legal properties of their owners. Mrs. Stowe and her novel were highly influenced by feminism.

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The novel Uncle Tom's Cabin written by Harriet Beecher Stowe depicts the reality of slavery while simultaneously pushing the idea to Christian audiences that they should show compassion and put an end to slavery. Stowe exercises the Christianity of the character Uncle Tom to strengthen the idea that acting as a Christian can abolish the institution of slavery itself. In addition, the destruction of slavery is narrated through the character George Harris who's a runaway slave. In particular, Stowe sets up the scene where Harris walks into a bar under the alias of Henry Butler passing in society with his "Spanish complexion" appearing equivalent to the Caucasian community (Stowe 151). However, Harris expressing to his former boss Mr. Wilson his

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