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Uncle Tom's Cabin Controversy

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Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin caused controversy between Northern abolitionists and Southern slaveholders when it was published in 1852. Stowe had a bit of life experience with slavery when writing Uncle Tom’s Cabin. At age 21, she moved with her family to Cincinnati. Cincinnati, being across the Ohio River from Kentucky which is a slave state, Stowe was exposed to slavery. The connection only runs deeper. Though she only went to Kentucky once for a brief period of time, she knew slaves, both free and fugitive. Some of her friends and acquaintances were conductors in the famous Underground Railroad, and she talked about slavery with former slaves and read abolitionist papers. When she learned of the Fugitive Slave Act, it …show more content…

The North, for the most part, found Stowe’s novel to be a great resource to aid in the goal of the abolitionist movement. Although some “Northerners felt Stowe portrayed the slaveholding South too kindly, ...most Southerners believed Stowe condemned their way of life”(Uncle 298). Stowe meant for the book to aid in abolition, writing it after the passing of the Fugitive Slave Act. Her intention was not to sugar coat slavery. The way Stowe’s son put it in her biography was “...the novel was slowly evolved, thought over as a long-planned contribution to the abolition movement”(Uncle 298). Nevertheless, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Evil, Affliction, and Redemptive Love, Josephine Donovan says “Uncle Tom’s Cabin is probably the most influential novel ever written, and certainly the most effective political novel…”(Donovan 11). It is influential in the general sense because it got people talking. It was influential politically because it is said to have kickstarted the civil war. When President Abraham Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1862, he is reported to have remarked “‘So this is the little lady who brought on this big war’”(“Uncle” 298). By “big war” he means the United States Civil War. President Lincoln was saying he believed that Uncle Tom’s Cabin helped to start the Civil War. And Southerners said things that the Northerners would dispute with things they said. Southern whites called it an exaggeration of the conditions slaves were kept in and the abuse they were put through. They were also in an uproar because Stowe made the typical slave owner Legree. Legree is the exceptionally cruel slave owner. Then, Mr. Shelby is the nice owner, although they say he was too weak, caring too much for his slaves. They also say this about him because at the end of the novel, Mr. Shelby freed all of his slaves in the name of Uncle Tom(Cumberland

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Her family’s abolitionists beliefs and activity in the “ Underground Railroad” directed her to where she was in 1852 when she wrote a novel telling the stories of three slaves that would split the country into controversy. Uncle Tom’s Cabin told the stories of Uncle Tom, Eliza, and George. In her book Harriet displayed the struggles of runaway slaves and the troubles black slaves had to face everyday with slavery. In only two weeks it’s popularity had grew and it became the outbreak of the nation.

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Harriet Beecher Stowe strongly disproved the lies the South had through the novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”. Stowe explained throughout her book the true struggles of a slave and how slaves were treated in the South. Stowe's book was directed toward the North to inform them that the South's political

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Grimke shared a common belief of many abolitionists at this time: slavery is naturally immoral and a sin that cannot be justified. The publication of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1851 had an enormous impact on perception of slavery. The bestseller introduced the injustices of slavery to many and influenced the growth of antislavery movements (Doc J). Stowe was able to effectively convince readers that the institution of slavery was naturally hateful and immoral. Another abolitionist, who was able to have an influential impact on perception through his eloquent writings was eminent antislavery leader, Frederick Douglass.

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Later Uncle Tom’s Cabin was then published in book form in 1852. Though the novel is essentially inspired by the Fugitive Slave Act, she uses a lot of her own troubles experiences and emotion is this novel. Many called Uncle Tom’s Cabin an “anti slavery novel”. The target of the book was to educate northerners on the horrific things that happened in the South. She signed a contract with The National Era to “paint a picture of slavery” with Northerners.

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Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin certainly attacks slavery as hard as Brown’s raid did, but it targeted pre-existing sentiments for its Northern audience. Lines such as, “Ain’t yer mine now body and soul?” (doc 2) filled Northerners with a sympathy toward slaves and anger at slaveholders that was different from their previous practical economic arguments. Anti-slavery feelings had already been present in the North before Stowe’s book but they found an outlet there and grew. The tensions created by Stowe’s book certainly led to the war: when Lincoln met her he said, “So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war,” but it only lent fuel to a fire that was already

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With the arrival of 1832, Harriet moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where she learned of slavery debates, the Underground Railroad and fugitive slaves. Armed with this awareness,

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In 1849 the death of her son. In 1850 her family moved to maine in 1852 stowe wrote Uncle Toms Cabin before the civil war her most celebrated work sentimental. In 1850 congress passed the fugitive slave law prompting distress and distress in abolitionist stowe decided to express her feeling through a literary representation of slavery.

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The UNCLE TOM'S CABIN is a novel that Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote. This novel was published march 20, 1852. This novel was translated over 60 other languages. As people sated to read the novel, people say this novel was the little kick start of the civil war. The whole war was about slavery and blacks rights.

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When Stowe was in Ohio, she heard a story of a woman who ran across the Ohio river from Kentucky. The woman fled from Kentucky because she does not want her son to be sold and taken away from her. This story also inspired her to write Uncle Tom`s Cabin. Within her first week of publishing, she sold over 10,000 copies. Uncle Tom`s Cabin taught many people that slavery was

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Pro Stowe or No Stowe: The Correct Answer It is nigh impossible to find a more influential piece of literature in American history than Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. It provided one of the first moral arguments against slavery and sold so many copies that the only other book at the time to outsell it was the Bible. It is even considered to have sparked the Civil War. Although the impact that she had is undeniable, Stowe’s effectiveness as an author is questionable.

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Harriet Beecher Stowe was a major figurehead of the abolitionist movement, because she knew that the men and women that were held captive in the

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When Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin because she wanted to stir up an anti-slavery statement. Slavery was already the unpopular choice for Northerners, but Harriet Beecher Stowe made the Northerners even more opposed to slavery. Slavery even became less popular in the Southern states. The novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin made many Northerners realize how unjust slavery was for the first time, and increased the differences between the North and the South.

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Alex Walker Mrs.Saluan 3/16/16 5th-6th Uncle Tom’s Cabin Book Talk Uncle Tom’s Cabin is written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. The settings of the book are Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio and Canada. The book begins on a farm in Kentucky, with two white men sitting discussing a cruel sale of human life.

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Louis Zhou Murray MacMillan (G11) Pre-AP English Lang & Comp March 19, 2017 Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Men and Women As a female writer, it was very hard for Harriet Beecher Stowe to be neutral on the gender issues. Just as what she mentioned in 1869: “Position of a married woman ... is, in many respects, precisely like that of the negro slave (Homestead 29).” , she still tried to warn the citizens that the position of women in the American society was like that of the African slaves. She tried to demonstrate that women had the ability to do what men could do by portraying women as the powerful and kind figures in Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

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John C. Calhoun once referred to slavery as a “positive good,” and, as awful as it may seem now, the moniker stuck. Southern citizens truly believed that the slaves benefited because they bore witness to a “civilized” way of life, and the plantation owners profited from a cheap and efficient means of production. Thus, Stowe realized that she must not only prove that African Americans are equal, she must also show that slavery is not, in fact, a positive good. According to the Ohio History Central article “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” “...Stowe realized that most Northerners had never witnessed slavery firsthand. Most Northern whites had no idea of how brutal slavery could be.”

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