Uncle Tom’s Cabin Book Review

Did Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin Open up the Realities of Slavery to the Entire World?

The issue of slavery is widely discussed the social issue, and Uncle Tom’s Cabin might be one of the best novels where this topic is most vividly pictured. Harriet Beecher Stowe was able to brilliantly portray the lives of men and women that were treated as objects, which their owners can sell or exchange.

Every scene of the book appeals to the reader’s better self-pointing out that slavery is hellish, and there's absolutely no place because of it in the civilized society. While upon this subject, the novel is all about the “destructive power of slavery and the ability of Christian like to overcome it” (SparkNotes Editors). The author emphasizes that even yet in the most favorable living conditions slaves suffer. For instance, needy for money though quite a good owner, Shelby has to sell Uncle Tom thereby wrecks his family (H. Stowe).

In those days popular belief claimed that owners serve the interests of slaves comparing them to young ones who need constant mentorship and supervision. Stowe in her book refutes this idea stressing that the very best for a slave would be to win freedom. Uncle Tom’s Cabin had a significant influence on the culture and politics of times. Thus, its publication gave a new impetus to the abolitionist movement and changed public opinion. When Abraham Lincoln met Stowe in the very beginning of the Civil War, he said, “So here is the little lady who started this Great War” (C. Stowe). Furthermore, according to historian Will Kaufman this novel “helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War” (Kaufman).

Although Uncle Tom’s Cabin brilliantly describes the truth of slavery, it implanted into the public consciousness several stereotypes, most importantly, a powerful image of Negro endurance and pious humility. The characters of Beecher Stowe’s novel became a like-kind canon of depicting African Americans in literature.

Taking everything into consideration, it is worthy to mention that Uncle Tom’s Cabin provoked heated discussions, by that helped people to begin to see the problem of slavery in a brand new life.

Works Cited

Kaufman, Will. (2006). The Civil War In American Culture. 1st ed., Edinburgh Academy Press, 2006. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt1s4740q.
SparkNotes Editors. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. ” SparkNotes.com, SparkNotes LLC, 2007, www.sparknotes.com/lit/uncletom.
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or Life Among the Lowly. S. French, 1858.
Stowe, Charles Edward, and Lyman Beecher Stowe. Harriet Beecher Stowe: the Story of Her Life. General Books LLC, 2012.