Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Uncle Tom’s Cabin is the response of writer Harriet Beecher Stowe to the conditions of slavery in the United States. Specifically, it is a rebuttal to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. This federal law mandated that all northerners assist in the capture and pursuit of alleged runaway slaves and northern judges be paid a bonus if they ruled in favor of returning the slaves to their owners in the South. Through her effective use of religious imagery Stowe performs an outstanding job in both criticizing slavery and making powerful arguments in an effort to convince northerners to not cooperate with slave catchers.

Stowe identified the root problem of slavery as the common racist perception of the black race. This dehumanization was a necessary prerequisite for the institution of slavery to be both created and perpetuated. It is very difficult for one group to brutalize and oppress another unless the victims are made out to be less human and less deserving of compassion then those doing the oppressing. Stowe sought to create a common link between white and blacks through the use of religion in her novel. If she could show that black slaves were as capable of being religious and embracing Christianity as whites, she felt that she could break the grip of racism, and in effect give humanity to blacks in the eyes of whites. If she could accomplish this, she would force whites to rethink their views of blacks, and in turn their attitudes towards slavery.

The first step in accomplishing this deed was by establishing that slaves were capable of appreciating and truly embracing Christianity. She did this through several of her main characters in her novel. The best example would be the slave known as Tom. Tom was perceived by all who came into contact with him as being one of the most pious and religious people that they had met. He was a devout Christian who not only read the bible, but as was constantly demonstrated, one who practiced its teachings in his everyday life. It could be argued that he was the most devout Christian in the novel.

Once it was established that slaves were capable of being members of the Christian faith, Stowe moved on to next step of further humanizing the slaves. She showed that blacks were able to feel pain and joy just like their white counterparts. She put her characters, both white and black through situations of pain and loss. She showed that both blacks and whites feel the same emotions, cry the same tears and bleed the same blood. One of the primary examples was the pattern of parents losing or being separated from their children. The pain, anguish and helplessness that St. Clare felt towards losing his daughter Eva was a direct parallel to the novel’s depiction of the slave parents experiences in losing or being separated from their children. This showed that both races have similar emotions and that a white person would react similarly to a slave who lost their child. The white reader who would have felt sympathy to St. Clare’s loss could not help but also feel the same about the slaves’ loss. By doing this, Stowe was able to reveal to the reader another example of the similarities of the white and black race.

To further add to her argument Stowe used the child Eva to depict a truly innocent pious white character. Because of her purity, Eva was colorblind to all she met; and she loved everyone the same, regardless of their race. For example, she immediately befriended Tom when she met him. Both of the characters grew very close, and Eva and Tom both reflected on the Bible together. Eva was also the only character that felt true compassion for Topsy, a black slave that was a truly hated by most others in the novel. She was able to change Topsy’s life by recognizing that all she needed was to feel loved, and by providing this love.

Furthermore, the most religious people in the book were those that were also the ones that acted most honorably and most selflessly. Tom was a deeply religious person and never hurt a soul throughout the novel and always put other people’s needs first. The Quakers repeatedly risked bodily harm to help those in need, including slaves and even the slave catcher Tom who fell and got injured attempting to capture George and his family(215). Mrs. Shelby, Eliza’s owner and another deeply religious character did all she could to try to stop Eliza’s child from being sold. Then when Eliza and her child escaped from the farm, she did all she could to stop the slave catcher Haley from catching her, even though it meant breaking the law. Yet another religious character was Mrs. Bird who first challenged her husband, the Senator on his support for fugitive slave legislation, and then did all she could, with her husbands help to assist Eliza on her journey to freedom.

One main criticism of Uncle Tom’s Cabin is the allegation that character from whom the book’s title is derived is fitting of the modern definition of the term ‘Uncle Tom’. In the modern definition, an ‘Uncle Tom’ chooses to live a life of relative comfort close to his racial master instead of living and working with the rest of his counterparts. Going along with this, an Uncle Tom feels above his peers and is in other words a race traitor or collaborator.

I disagree with this interpretation for several reasons. First of all, Tom is trusted and is close with his first two masters for no other reasons besides the fact that Tom’s intense religious character makes him unable and unwilling to do anything that will harm his honor or bring shame to himself. His motivations for choosing too stay with his first master instead of running away are also called into question. I believe he chose this path because he was simply unable to violate his master’s trust. Also as he points out, if Eliza, her child and Tom had all runaway, all of the rest of the slaves would have suffered, when this could have been avoided if Tom went along with the man who had bought him.

Also, a so called “Uncle Tom” would be expected to use his position of power to further his own interests and feel better than the rest of his race. There absolutely no point in the story where Tom does anything to remotely raise suspicion of this. Instead, on numerous occasions Tom goes out of his way to protect his fellow slaves. He feels nothing but respect and compassion for them. The most powerful example of this would be Tom’s refusal to whip the mulatto girl. Tom is unable to hurt another human being, and as he declares, he would rather die than do so. Sadly, this decision ends up costing him his life, but in the end his soul and his pride remain unbroken.

Finally, it is important to point out the author’s motivation in creating Tom in this image. The author goes out of her way to create many different characters and personalities for the slaves in her book. This further emphasizes the humanity and diversity of the black race, just as the white race contains individuals with greatly varying personalities. Stowe has already created the character George Harris who is willing to stand up to the whites and escape slavery. Furthermore, he is willing to fight and kill in order to keep himself from being captured. This proves that the author’s intention is not to paint all slaves as docile and submissive as some may allege. Instead, in Tom, she creates a character whose religious beliefs and dedication are above question.

The final and most powerful rebuke of slavery and The Fugitive Slave Act is the natural culmination of Stowe’s powerful arguments. It is my belief that Stowe convincingly establishes to any sane reader that slaves are capable of being Christian, and by extension of being human and capable of experiencing common human emotions. She argues that because God’s laws transcend that of man, all men and women, slaves and whites are first obligated to God’s laws, then to mans. And although it can be said that Southerners would still not accept this argument, it wasn’t primarily directed towards them in the first place. Its primary goal was to reveal the true horrors of slavery to the northerner who would otherwise only hear a filtered, watered down version. I believe Stowe wished to create a Christian revival within the north similar to what St. Clare experienced; a discovery of an interpretation of Christianity that directed him to “..think no man can consistently profess it without throwing the whole weight of his being against this monstrous system of injustice that lies at the foundation of all our society; and if need be, sacrificing himself in the battle(332).” And although she didn’t quite achieve this, and some may argue that Stowe’s vision of racial equality and acceptance has still not been achieved today, her novel made enough of a difference that sold tens of thousands of copies, and was credited by Abraham Lincoln himself with being at least a contributing factor to the start of the Civil War.