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Uncle Tom's Cabin By Harriet Beecher Stowe

716 Words3 Pages

Uncle Tom’s Cabin was one of the most popular books of its time; second only to the Bible, this novel helped fuel the civil war and changed American history as we know it. In this novel, Harriet Beecher Stowe writes about the lives of slaves and their relationships to their slave owners and other slaves. Stowe intended to reveal the inhumanity behind slave ownership and push political boundaries against slavery. This essay discusses the historical significance of Uncle Tom’s Cabin and why it should be taught and recognized in American schools today. After its publication in 1852, Uncle Tom’s Cabin was extremely controversial for its time. The novel exposed the realities of slavery and the cruel treatment of African American slaves. The novel …show more content…

The majority of America’s success was carried out on the backs of slavery and other minority groups that helped secure a foundation for present-day America. It is critical for books like Uncle Tom’s Cabin to be acknowledged and taught not only because of their historical significance but because in doing otherwise would be disrespectful towards African American history. The teaching of slavery in American public schools is often overlooked in an effort to “soften” hard history but in doing so students are left with fragments of American history and cannot understand the impact African Americans had on creating a successful America. Consequently, students cannot effectively learn and understand the feats African Americans accomplished after the abolishment of slavery. For that reason, a novel like Uncle Tom’s Cabin should be taught in classrooms across America in order to help students comprehend the meaning behind slavery (white supremacy) and evidently the majority of American …show more content…

Prior to the novel’s publication, pre-civil war America had already been facing tensions between the north and the south since the Missouri Compromise of 1820 admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state. A later turning point of the time was the Compromise of 1850 preventing further expansion of slavery to new American territories but fortifying the Fugitive Slave Act making fugitive slaves return to the south. When Uncle Tom’s Cabin was initially published in 1852 the American public had finally become aware of the horrors behind slavery and incidentally, demanded its abolition in the north while protesting the novel as slanderous in the south. Understanding the history surrounding the novel will help students to better grasp Stowe’s intentions for writing the novel (to uncover the truth behind slavery) while also putting themselves into the perspective of american citizens at the time who read the book for the first time and why it was so

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