The Effect of Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Seldom does a one work of literature change a society or start it
down the road to cataclysmic conflict. One such catalytic work is Harriet
Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852). It is considered by many, one
the most influential American works of fiction ever published. Uncle Tom’s
Cabin sold more copies than any other previous fiction title. It sold five
thousand copies in its first two days, fifty thousand copies in eight weeks,
three hundred thousand copies in a year and over a million copies in its
first sixteen months. What makes this accomplishment even more amazing is
that this book was written by a woman during a time in history women were
relegated to domestic duties and child rearing and were not allowed
positions of influence or leadership roles in society. Legend holds that
when Abraham Lincoln met Stowe in 1682 he said, “So you’re the little woman
who wrote the book that made this great war”. The impact of Uncle Tom’s
Cabin did more to arouse antislavery sentiment in the N orth and provoke
angry rebuttals in the south than any other event in antebellum era.
Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896), born Lichfeild, Connecticut, was
the daughter, sister, and wife of liberal clergymen and theologians. Her
father Lyman and brother Henry Ward were two of the most preeminent
theologians of the nineteenth century. This extremely devout Christian
upbringing, focusing on the doctrines of sin, guilt, atonement and
salvation, had an undeniable impact in her writings. &nb…
… a disconnected view. Slavery was
no longer a Southern issue that had no impact on the life of those in the
north.
Once a majority of the northern population became polarized against
the institution of slavery it was only a matter of time before conflict
came to a head. Differing views about the institution of slavery
contributed to the growing rift between the north and south. This chasm
became the American Civil War. Uncle Tom’s Cabin gave a powerful and
moving voice to the Abolition movement. It shook out of complacently
northerners and southerners alike, and forced a nation to look within its
collective soul at the horrors of slavery and moral contradictions of the
institution itself. Stowe’s novel demonstrates the absurdity and
contradictions of slavery.