Uncle Tom's Cabin

Uncle Tom's Cabin is a novel by American abolitionist author Harriet Beecher Stowe which treats slavery as a central theme. The work was first published on March 20, 1852. The story focuses on the tale of Uncle Tom, a long-suffering Afro-American slave, the central character around whose life the other characters—both fellow slaves and slave owners—revolve. The novel dramatizes the harsh reality of slavery while also showing that Christian love and faith can overcome even something as evil as enslavement of fellow human beings.

Uncle Tom's Cabin was the best-selling novel of the 19th century (and the second best-selling book of the century after the Bible)Introduction to Uncle Tom's Cabin Study Guide, accessed May 16, 2006. and is credited with helping to fuel the abolitionist cause in the United States prior to the American Civil War. In the first year after it was published, 300,000 copies of the book were sold. The comparison to the Bible, in noting the novel's popularity, is significant, since Harriet Beecher Stowe was herself a strongly committed Christian, the daughter of the president of a Christian seminary, and the wife of a professor on its faculty. The churchgoing readers of the day would respond favourably to Uncle Tom's Cabin because it was steeped in the values which the Bible taught. The reception of its message today is problematic.

The book has been used as the basis for spreading several common stereotypes about Afro-Americans, many of which endure to this day, loosely based on characters in the novel. These include the affectionate, dark-skinned mammy; the Pickaninny stereotype of black children; and the Uncle Tom, or dutiful, long-suffering servant faithful to his white master or mistress. In recent years, the negative associations with Uncle Tom's Cabin have to a large degree overshadowed the historical impact of the book. But these one-dimensional portraits, popularized in a culture still polarized by racial issues in the 21st century, do not reflect the skillful, multi-faceted treatments given by the author to each participant in the story. Unfortunately, many have obtained their opinion of the book from hearsay, rather than reading the novel for themselves.

Origins

Stowe wrote the novel as an angry response to the 1850 passage of the second Fugitive Slave Act, which punished those who aided runaway slaves and diminished the rights of fugitives as well as freed slaves.

Some historians believe that Stowe was inspired by the autobiography of Josiah Henson, a slave who lived and worked on a 3,700 acre tobacco plantation in Maryland owned by Isaac Riley."Historic Uncle Tom's Cabin Saved" by Susan Logue, VOA News, January 12, 2006. Accessed May 16, 2006. Henson was one of the first escaped slaves in the United States to write a memoir and Harriet Beecher Stowe evidently acknowledged that Henson's writings inspired Uncle Tom's Cabin. When Stowe's book became famous, Henson republished his memoirs as The Memoirs of Uncle Tom and traveled extensively in America and Europe."Historic Uncle Tom's Cabin Saved" by Susan Logue, VOA News, January 12, 2006. Accessed May 16, 2006.

Prior to the Civil War, Harriet Beecher Stowe and her husband made their home in Ohio, in an area where the Underground Railroad, thanks to local abolitionist sympathizers, was active in efforts to help runaway slaves on their escape route from the South. Stowe amassed a large quantity of research from oral and written sources, which she incorporated as story material for the novel.

Publication

Uncle Tom's Cabin was first published as a 40-week serial, Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly published in the National Era, an abolitionist (or, more precisely, a Free Soil) periodical, starting in the 5 June 1851 issue, and was published in book form March 20, 1852.

In the first year after the book was published, 300,000 copies of Uncle Tom's Cabin were sold. The book eventually became the bestselling novel in the world during the 19th century (and the second best-selling book after the Bible), with the book being translated into every major language.Introduction to Uncle Tom's Cabin Study Guide, accessed May 16, 2006.

Because the copyright laws of the time did not place any limits on stage dramatizations of fictional works, stage dramatizations, soon known as "Tom shows", began to appear during the period while Stowe's original work was still being published serially.

World Reaction

When Abraham Lincoln met Stowe after the beginning of the American Civil War, he reportedly called her "the little woman who made this great war."Uncle Tom's Cabin, introduction by Amanda Claybaugh, Barnes and Noble Classics, New York, 2003, page xvii. (It should be noted, though, that in a letter Stowe wrote to her husband a few hours after meeting with Lincoln no mention of this comment was made.)Uncle Tom's Cabin, introduction by Amanda Claybaugh, Barnes and Noble Classics, New York, 2003, page xvii. Since then, many writers have credited this novel with inflaming the passions of residents of the northern half of the United States to work towards the abolition of slavery;

In addition, some have claimed that the book so affected British readers that it kept Britain from joining the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy. In his 1985 book Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture, Thomas Gossett observed that "in 1872 a biographer of Horace Greeley would argue that the chief force in developing support for the Republican Party in the 1850s had been Uncle Tom's Cabin."

The book is also credited with aiding anti-slavery efforts around the world. For example, Alamayahu Tana translated the novel into Amharic around 1930, in support of Ethiopian efforts to end slavery in that nation.Richard Pankhurst, Economic History of Ethiopia (Addis Ababa: Haile Selassie I University Press, 1968), p. 122.

Plot

Tom owned by Arthur Shelby

The book opens with a Kentucky farmer named Arthur Shelby about to lose his farm due to massive debts. Even though he and his wife (Emily Shelby) believe they have a benevolent relationship with their slaves, Shelby decides to raise money by selling two of his slaves — Uncle Tom, a middle-aged man with a wife and children, and Harry, the son of Emily Shelby’s maid Eliza — to a slave trader. Emily Shelby hates to do this because she had promised her maid that her child would never be sold; Emily's son, George Shelby, hates to see Tom go because he considers the slave to be his friend.

Eliza and Harry escape

When Eliza overhears a conversation between Mr Shelby and his wife, she warns Uncle Tom, then takes Harry and flees to the North. The slave trader, Mr. Haley, pursues Eliza but she escapes capture by crossing into the free state of Ohio, so Haley hires a slave hunter named Tom Loker to bring Eliza and Harry back to Kentucky. Meanwhile, Eliza and Harry arrive in a safe Quaker settlement. There Eliza's husband George, who had escaped earlier joins them. He agrees to go with his wife and child to Canada, via the Underground Railroad.

Tom is 'Sold down the river'

While all of this is happening, Uncle Tom is sold and taken down the Mississippi River by the slave trader to a slave market. On the boat, Tom meets and befriends a young white girl named Eva. When Eva falls into the river, Tom saves her. In gratitude, Eva's father, Augustine St. Clare, buys Tom from Haley and takes him with the family to their home in New Orleans. Tom and Eva come to relate to one another in a very special way, sharing a deep Christian faith between them.

George, Eliza and Harry escape

As George and Eliza attempt to reach Canada, they are cornered by Loker and his men, causing George to shoot Loker. Worried that Loker may die, Eliza convinces George and the Quakers to bring the slave hunter to a nearby Quaker settlement for medical treatment.

Tom owned by Augustine St. Clare

Back in New Orleans, St. Clare debates slavery with his cousin Ophelia who, while opposing slavery, is deeply prejudiced against black people. St. Clare, however, is not biased against blacks but accepts slavery because he is unable to stop the entrenched system. In an attempt to show Ophelia that her views on black people are wrong, St. Clare purchases Topsy, a young black girl. St. Clair then asks Ophelia to educate Topsy.

After Tom has lived with the St. Clares for two years, Eva grows very ill. Before she dies she experiences a vision of heaven, which she shares with the people around her. As a result of her death and vision, the other characters resolve to change their lives, with Ophelia promising to love her slaves more, Topsy saying she will better herself, and St. Clare pledging to free Tom.

Tom is sold to Simon Legree

Before St. Clare can follow through on his pledge, he is fatally stabbed while intervening in a fight. His wife reneges on her late husband's vow and sells Tom at auction to a vicious plantation owner named Simon Legree. Legree (who is not a native southerner but a transplanted Yankee)takes Tom to rural Louisiana where Tom meets Legree's other slaves, including Emmeline (whom Legree purchased as a sex slave). Legree begins to hate Tom when Tom refuses Legree's order to whip a fellow slave. Tom receives a severe beating, and Legree resolves to crush Tom's faith in God. But Tom refuses to stop reading his Bible and trying to comfort the other slaves as best he can. While at the plantation, Tom meets Cassy, who was Legree's previous sex slave. Cassy was previously separated from her son and daughter when they were sold to different owners. When Cassy became pregnant again she killed her child to save him from the same fate.

At this point Tom Loker returns to the story. Loker has changed as the result of being healed by and living with the Quakers. In addition, George, Eliza, and Harry obtained their freedom after they crossed over into Canada. In Louisiana, Tom almost succumbs to hopelessness as his faith in God is stretched to the limit, due to the hardships of the plantation. However, he has two visions — one of Jesus and one of Eva — which renew his resolve to remain faithful to Christ, even unto death. He encourages Cassy to escape, which she does, taking Emmeline with her. When Tom refuses to tell Legree where Cassy and Emmeline have gone, the cruel master orders his overseers to kill Tom. As Tom is dying, he forgives the overseers who savagely beat him. Humbled by the character of the man they have murdered, both men make commitments to become Christians. George Shelby (Arthur Shelby's son) arrives with money in hand to buy Tom’s freedom, but it is too late.

Final Section

On their boat ride to freedom, Cassy and Emmeline meet George Harris’ sister and accompany her to Canada. Once there Cassy discovers that Eliza is her long-lost daughter. Now that their family is together again, they travel to France and eventually Liberia, the African nation created by former American slaves. George Shelby returns to the Kentucky farm. After his father dies he frees all the slaves to honor the memory of Tom’s sacrifice. Before the slaves leave, George tells them to remember Tom’s sacrifice and his belief in the true meaning of Christianity every time they look at Tom's cabin.

Major characters

Uncle Tom

Uncle Tom, the title character, was initially seen as a noble long-suffering Christian slave. In more recent years his name has become an epithet directed towards certain Afro-Americans because he was derided as being a submissive slave who is punished despite his loyalty. Uncle Tom has come to represent Afro-Americans who are accused of selling out to whites, thereby allegedly becoming a bad role model for black society. Ironically, Stowe clearly intended to portray Uncle Tom as a praiseworthy person. Throughout the book, far from allowing himself to be exploited, he stands up for his beliefs and is grudgingly admired even by his enemies.

Eliza

A slave (personal maid to Mrs. Shelby), she escapes to the North with her five-year old son Harry after he is sold to Mr. Haley. Her husband, George, eventually finds Eliza and Harry in Ohio, and emigrates with them to Canada, then France and finally Liberia.

The character Eliza was inspired by an account given at Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati by John Rankin to Stowe's husband Calvin, a professor at the school. According to Rankin, in February, 1838 a young slave woman had escaped across the frozen Ohio River to the town of Ripley with her child in her arms and stayed at his house on her way further north. (Hagedorn, pp. 135-39)

Eva

Eva, whose real name is Evangeline St. Clare, is the daughter of Augustine St. Clare. Eva enters the narrative when Uncle Tom is traveling via steamship to New Orleans to be sold, and he rescues the 5 or 6 year-old girl from drowning. Eva begs her father to buy Tom, and he becomes the head coachman at the St. Clare plantation. He spends most of his time with the angelic Eva, however.

Eva constantly talks about love and forgiveness, even convincing the dour slave girl Topsy that she deserves love. She even manages to touch the heart of her sour aunt, Ophelia. Some consider Eva to be a prototype of the character archetype known as the Mary Sue.

Eventually Eva falls ill. Before dying, she gives a lock of her hair to each of the slaves, telling them that they must become Christians so that they may see each other in Heaven. On her deathbed, she convinces her father to free Tom, but because of circumstances the promise never materializes.

Simon Legree

A villainous and cruel slave owner—a Northerner by birth—whose name has become synonymous with greed. It is Tom's Christianity which enrages him.

Topsy

A "ragamuffin" young slave girl of unknown origin (she claims to have "just growed"). She was transformed by Little Eva's love. Topsy is often seen as the origin of the pickanniny stereotype of Black children.

Other characters

Arthur Shelby

Tom's master in Kentucky. Shelby is characterized as a "kind" slaveowner and a stereotypical Southern gentleman. When Shelby experiences a financial crisis because of gambling debts, he sells Tom and Harry to save his plantation.

Emily Shelby

Mr. Shelby's wife is a deeply religious woman who strives to be a kind and moral influence upon her slaves. She is appalled when her husband negotiates to sell his slaves with a slave trader, especially since she promised Harry's mother, Eliza, that this would not happen. As a woman, she had no legal way to stop this, as all property belonged to her husband.

George Shelby

Arthur and Emily's son. At the beginning of the novel he is thirteen years old and teaches Tom to read. He vows to find Tom when he is sold. He eventually does this, but not until years later when Tom is near death. Inspired by Tom, young Shelby frees the slaves on his deceased father's plantation.

Augustine St. Clair

Tom's third owner, father of Little Eva; of the slaveowners in the novel, the most sympathetic character. St. Clare recognizes the evil in chattel slavery, but is not quite ready to relinquish the wealth it brings him.After his daughter's death he become more religious and he started to read the bible to Tom and the words sank deep into his heart which affected him and made him feel that he is close to what his young daughter used to believe in . His sometimes good intentions ultimately come to nothing: upon his death, Tom and his other slaves (excepting only Topsy) are put on the auction block.

Criticism and Stereotypes

When Uncle Tom's Cabin first appeared, it was roundly criticized by Southern slave owners and others who supported slavery (see the Anti-Tom literature section below for more information). Today, it is roundly criticized by those who reject the use of common stereotypes about African Americans. The book's immense popularity, and the huge numbers of theatregoers who attended the various theatrical versions of the play, all contributed to the fact that the novel and its characters became household names. These later took on a life of their own, permanently engraining stereotypes, never envisioned by the author, into the American psyche for generations.Introduction to Uncle Tom's Cabin Study Guide.(This is similar to criticisms levelled against Song of the South.)

Stowe always said she based the characters of her book on stories she was told by runaway slaves in Cincinnati, Ohio, where Stowe lived. It is reported that, "She observed firsthand several incidents which galvanized her to write famous anti-slavery novel. Scenes she observed on the Ohio River, including seeing a husband and wife being sold apart, as well as newspaper and magazine accounts and interviews, contributed material to the emerging plot." [http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/Library/special/exhibits/clastext/clspg149.htm University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Library. Special collection page on traditions and interpretations of Uncle Tom's Cabin.Charges were made that Stowe had never even set foot on a Southern plantation and that her descriptions of Southern life were exaggerated.

Anti-Tom literature

In response to Uncle Tom's Cabin, writers in the Southern United States began producing a number of books to rebut Stowe's novel. This so-called Anti-Tom literature generally took a pro-slavery viewpoint, arguing that the evils of slavery as depicted in Stowe's book were overblown and incorrect. The novels in this genre tended to feature a benign white patriarchal master and a pure wife, both of whom presided over child-like slaves in a benevolent extended-family-style plantation. The novels either implied, or directly stated, the racist view that African Americans were a child-like people unable to live their lives without being directly overseen by white people.

The two most famous anti-Tom books are The Sword and the Distaff by William Gilmore Simms and The Planter's Northern Bride by Caroline Lee Hentz. Simms' book was published a few months after Stowe's novel and it contains a number of sections and discussions that are clearly disputing Stowe's book and her view of slavery. The Planter's Northern Bride by Caroline Lee Hentz offers a defense of slavery as seen through the eyes of a northern woman — the daughter of an abolitionist, no less — who marries a southern slave owner.

In the decade between the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin and the start of the American Civil War, between twenty and thirty anti-Tom books would be published. Among these novels are two books titled Uncle Tom's Cabin As It Is (one by W.L. Smith and the other by C.H. Wiley) and a book by John Pendleton Kennedy.

Today this Anti-Tom literature is generally seen as lacking literary merit and as pro-slavery propaganda.

"Tom shows"

Given the lax copyright laws of the time, stage plays based on Uncle Tom's Cabin—"Tom shows"—began to appear while the story itself was still being serialized. These plays varied tremendously in their politics—some faithfully reflected Stowe's sentimentalized antislavery politics, while others were more moderate, or even pro-slavery. Eric Lott estimates that at least three million people saw these plays, ten times the book's first-year sales. Some of these shows were essentially minstrel shows loosely based on the novel and their grossly exaggerated caricatures of black people further perpetuated some of the stereotypes that Stowe used.

Stowe herself never authorized dramatization of her work, because of puritanical distrust of drama (although she did eventually go to see George Aiken's version, and, according to Francis Underwood, was "delighted" by Caroline Howard's portrayal of Topsy). Asa Hutchinson of the Hutchinson Family Singers, whose antislavery politics closely matched those of Stowe tried and failed to get her permission to stage an official version; her refusal left the field clear for any number of adaptations, some launched for (various) political reasons and others as simply commercial theatrical ventures.

All "Tom shows" appear to have incorporated elements of melodrama and of blackface minstrelsy. The first serious attempt at anything like a faithful stage adaptation was a one-hour play by C.W. Taylor at Purdy's National Theater (New York City); it ran for about ten performances in August–September 1852 sharing a bill with a blackface burlesque featuring T.D. Rice. Rice, famous in the 1830s for his comic and clearly racist blackface character Jim Crow, later became the most celebrated actor to play the title role of Tom; when Rice opened in H.E. Stevens play of Uncle Tom's Cabin in January 1854 at New York's Bowery Theatre, the Spirit of the Times' reviewer described him as "decidedly the best personator of negro character who has appeared in any drama."

The best-known "Tom Shows" were those of George Aiken and H.J. Conway. Aiken's original Uncle Tom's Cabin focused almost entirely on Little Eva (played by child star Cordelia Howard); a sequel, The Death of Uncle Tom, or the Religion of the Lonely told Tom's own story. The two were ultimately combined in an unprecedented evening-long six-act play. According to Lott, it is generally faithful to Stowe's novel, although it plays down the black trickster characters of Sam and Andy and variously adds or expands the roles of some farcical white characters instead. It also focuses heavily on George Harris; the New York Times reported that his defiant speech received "great cheers" from an audience of Bowery b'hoys and g'hals. Even this most sympathetic of "Tom shows" clearly borrowed heavily from minstrelsy: not only were the slave roles all played by white actors in blackface, but Stephen Foster's "Old Folks at Home" was played in the scene where Tom is sold down the river. After a long and successful run beginning November 15, 1852 in Troy, New York, the play opened in New York City July 18, 1853, where its success was even greater.

Conway's production opened in Boston the same day Aiken's opened in Troy; P.T. Barnum brought it to his American Museum in New York November 7, 1853. Its politics were much more moderate. Sam and Andy become, in Lott's words, "buffoons". Criticism of slavery was placed largely in the mouth of a newly introduced Yankee character, a reporter named Penetrate Partyside. St. Clare's role was expanded, and turned into more of a pro-slavery advocate, articulating the politics of a John C. Calhoun. Legree rigs the auction that gets him ownership of Tom (as against Stowe's and Aiken's portrayal of oppression as the normal mode of slavery, not an abuse of the system by a cheater). Beyond this, Conway gave his play a happy ending, with Tom and various other slaves freed.

Among the pro-slavery "Tom shows" was Uncle Tom's Cabin as It Is: The Southern Uncle Tom, produced in 1852 at the Baltimore Museum. Lott mentions numerous "offshoots, parodies, thefts, and rebuttals" including a full-scale play by Christy's Minstrels and a parody by Conway himself called Uncle Pat's Cabin, and records that the story in its many variants "dominated northern popular culture… for several years".

According to Eric Lott, even those "Tom shows" which stayed relatively close to Stowe's novel played down the feminist aspects of the book and Stowe's criticisms of capitalism, and turned her anti-slavery politics into anti-Southern sectionalism. Francis Underwood, a contemporary, wrote that Aiken's play had also lost the "lightness and gayety" of Stowe's book. Nonetheless, Lott argues, they increased sympathy for the slaves among the Northern white working class (which had been somewhat alienated from the abolitionist movement by its perceived elitist backing).

The influence of the "Tom shows" could also be found in a number of other plays through the 1850s: most obviously, C.W. Taylor's dramatization of Stowe's Dred, but also J.T. Trowbridge's abolitionist play Neighbor Jackwood, Dion Bouicault's The Octaroon, and a play called The Insurrection, based on John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry.

Cinematic versions

Uncle Tom's Cabin has been made into several film versions.

The earliest was in 1903, directed by Siegmund Lubin and starring Lubin as Simon Legree. Another version, also released in 1903, was a 13-minute short directed by Edwin S. Porter.
In 1910, a version was directed by Barry O'Neil and starring Frank Hall Crane as Uncle Tom, Anna Rosemond as Eliza, Marie Eline as Little Eva and Grace Eline as Topsy.
Another version in 1910 was directed by J. Stuart Blackton and adapted by Eugene Mullin. It starred Florence Turner, Mary Fuller, Edwin R. Phillips, Flora Finch, Genevieve Tobin and Carlyle Blackwell Sr.
A 1913 release was directed by Otis Turner and adapted by Allan Dwan. It starred Edward Alexander, Margarita Fischer, Harry A. Pollard, Iva Shepard and Gertrude Short.
Another 1913 release was directed by Sidney Olcott and starred Anna Q. Nilsson.
A 1914 version was directed by William Robert Daly. It was adapted Edward McWade from the play adaptation by George L. Aiken. It starred Sam Lucas, Teresa Michelena, Marie Eline (again), Roy Applegate and Boots Wall.
A 1918 version was directed and adapted by J. Searle Dawley. It starred Marguerite Clark (as both Little Eva and Topsy), Sam Hardy, Florence Carpenter, Frank Losee and Walter P. Lewis.
A 1927 version was directed by Harry A. Pollard and adapted by Pollard, Harvey F. Thew and A.P. Younger, with titles by Walter Anthony. It starred James B. Lowe, Virginia Grey, George Siegmann, Margarita Fischer (again) and Mona Ray.

The subject matter of the Harriet Beecher Stowe novel was judged too sensitive for further film interpretation for several years. A German language version, directed by Géza von Radványi, appeared in 1965 and was presented in the United States by exploitation film presenter Kroger Babb, but there was no other film version until a television broadcast in 1987. That version was directed by Stan Lathan and adapted by John Gay. It starred Avery Brooks, Phylicia Rashad, Edward Woodward, Jenny Lewis and Endyia Kinney.

Characters from the novel were used in a 1919 Mack Sennett comedy directed by Edward F. Cline and Ray Hunt, with Ben Turpin as Uncle Tom and Marie Prevost as Eliza.

A highlight of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I (1951) is a ballet, "Small House of Uncle Thomas", in traditional Siamese style which has been organized by Tuptim, on the subversive theme of Eliza's escape.

In Gangs of New York (2002), set during the Civil War, Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day-Lewis's characters attend a play adaptation of Uncle Tom's Cabin in which an actor is suspended in mid-air (with his body apparently backwards) to address the blackface actors. However, an audience member interrupts him, yelling, "Leave the nigger dead!" as the nativist audience members begin throwing objects at Lincoln and rioting to calls of "Down with the Union!"

Notes

References

Lott, Eric. Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. ISBN 0195078322. The information on "Tom shows" comes from chapter 8: "Uncle Tomitudes: Racial Melodrama and Modes of Production" (p. 211-233)
Hagedorn, Ann. Beyond The River: The Untold Story of the Heroes of the Underground Railroad. Simon & Schuster, 2002. ISBN 0684870657

External links

1852 novels | Banned books | History of slavery in the United States | Novels dealing with slavery

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