Skill 6: Summarize how the publication of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin had a tremendous influence on the nation debate about slavery.
Uncle Tom's Cabin: by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher grew up around slavery and in her time the Fugitive Slave Act, which forced non-slave owners in the free North to return already owned slaves back to the South, was an ongoing issue. As a young child Stowe traveled with her father and brother. The family made it to Cincinnati where Beecher’s hatred for slavery only grew as she watched the boats being filled with slaves, so they could be shipped to markets. Stowe eventually found that she could express herself and her morals through writing.
As a result of her early childhood, memories, and incredible talent for writing, Uncle Tom’s Cabin was written. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was first seen in weekly installments in an antislavery magazine. The actual novel came out in 1852 and sold over a million copies by the middle of 1853, making it America’s first best-seller. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was written in a melodramatic state to snatch the attention of the readers (especially white women) and get the point across that slavery was wrong. The main character of the novel, Uncle Tom, was a well behaved slave that worked with a strong will and devotion throughout his life. He was sold by his second master into the hands of a cruel and abusive man that would eventually beat Tom to death with a slave-whip. The son of his first master appears and promises Tom that from then on his life would be committed to the abolishing of slavery.
Reactions to the book were revolutionary. Uncle Tom's Cabin was acknowledged by both the North and South. The Northerners believed the book was a great thing and that abolition was what was morally correct. The Southerners saw Uncle Tom's Cabin as a fraud and full of lies and thought of the novel as an attack on the South. Beecher's book helped gain more abolitionists and was a push away from slavery. The book itself changed the way people thought about slavery and caused people to think and question what was morally right. It is said that when Abraham Lincoln met Stowe during the Civil War he greeted her with, "So this is the little lady who started this great war." ~ Abraham Lincoln
As a result of her early childhood, memories, and incredible talent for writing, Uncle Tom’s Cabin was written. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was first seen in weekly installments in an antislavery magazine. The actual novel came out in 1852 and sold over a million copies by the middle of 1853, making it America’s first best-seller. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was written in a melodramatic state to snatch the attention of the readers (especially white women) and get the point across that slavery was wrong. The main character of the novel, Uncle Tom, was a well behaved slave that worked with a strong will and devotion throughout his life. He was sold by his second master into the hands of a cruel and abusive man that would eventually beat Tom to death with a slave-whip. The son of his first master appears and promises Tom that from then on his life would be committed to the abolishing of slavery.
Reactions to the book were revolutionary. Uncle Tom's Cabin was acknowledged by both the North and South. The Northerners believed the book was a great thing and that abolition was what was morally correct. The Southerners saw Uncle Tom's Cabin as a fraud and full of lies and thought of the novel as an attack on the South. Beecher's book helped gain more abolitionists and was a push away from slavery. The book itself changed the way people thought about slavery and caused people to think and question what was morally right. It is said that when Abraham Lincoln met Stowe during the Civil War he greeted her with, "So this is the little lady who started this great war." ~ Abraham Lincoln