Uncle Tom's Cabin Research Paper

Slavery is one of the many flaws that makeup the “dark side” of America’s history. Starting in 1526, 12.5 million people in Africa were uprooted and shipped across the Atlantic‒‒in a very barbaric manner‒‒to the Americas. Upon arrival they were sold and enslaved, as if pieces of property, to endure a lifetime of pain, suffering and humiliation caused by white slave owners.The struggle for freedom by African Americans lasted a long 245 years, until 1865 when slavery was abolished. This brutal past that blacks faced was not easily forgotten, as it was depicted in American fiction during the Age of Realism . Mid-to- late 19th century, the “Age of Realism” arose as a way to depict the civil war as it was‒‒which was not pleasant . Realists are

Stowe followed a realist style of writing as she depicts the travels of two slave men. One aspect of Slavery covered in Stowe’s novel, was the slave auction. One conflict that came up in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was when a young slave boy, named Henry, was to be sold and separated from his mother. During the 1800s, this was a common issue that came up, despite the fact that it was morally wrong and unethical. Because U.S. laws did not recognize blacks as people, but as property, slaveowners were free to buy, sell, and trade slaves as they wished. Most of the time, slaves were sold due to economic related issues, like paying off debts; in fact, many times slaves were sold off as apart of their owner’s assets when they died. A third of slave families were torn apart into different parts of the country due to the slave market. Also in Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, many white slave owners were called out for how they mistreated their slaves. Stowe mentions throughout the book that whites were acting in a “non-christian” manner; especially, Uncle Tom’s master, who went as far as to ultimately kill Uncle Tom. This created a massive uproar from slaveowners, in the south, and this alone may be one of the factors that sparked the start of the civil war. Because Stowe’s narrative was written the the Realist style, it was very much accurate

Starting early 1800s, an organized system for runaway slaves arose, it was called the underground railroad. It was an organized-unorganized route to northern parts of the states and Canada, which was ideal as blacks were treated better, and considered free. Safe houses were places along journey where escaped slaves could hide and rest for the long day ahead of them. Along with providing safe houses Abolitionists, people who opposed slavery, helped make it possible for slaves to successfully reach their destination. Some 100,000 southern blacks escaped slaves between by 1850; in fact, the increase in escaped slaves added to the growing tension the south had with the north. Harriet Jacobs is a writer of the Age of Realism, who wrote a narrative essay, Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl”, which portrayed the struggle a Slave woman, Linda, faced as she attempted to head north. She (Linda) says, “I went forth into the