Slavery : Harriet Beecher Stowe, William Garrison, And William Wells Brown

The anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe was written at a time when slavery was a largely common practice among Americans. It not only helped lay the foundation for the Civil War but also contained many themes that publicized the evil of slavery to all people. The book contains themes such as the moral power of women, human right, and many more. The most important theme Stowe attempts to portray to readers is the incompatibility of slavery and Christianity. She makes it very clear that she does not believe slavery and Christianity can coexist and that slavery is against all Christian morals. She believes no Christian should allow the existence or practice of slavery.

Since the beginning of writing, literature has played a pivotal role in shaping the history of the world. The same holds true when referring to the early American history topic of slavery. Many abolitionists wrote in hopes that their views will persuade people in America to take a stand against slavery. While there were many authors that led the anti-slavery movement, the most successful writers were the slaves that lived through this atrocious time period and were able to recall their experiences. Two prominent authors during this time period were Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs. While the two writers shared many common experiences due to their time being a slave, they also had had a variety of differences. Harriet Jacobs wrote mostly wrote in a way that appealed to people’s emotions and focused on what a woman goes through as a slave; whereas Douglass focused on freedom and manhood.

    In “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” christianity and faith are an important themes. Stowe was a committed christian woman. Her book

Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote a book called Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which brought up the horrible aspects of slavery into many Americans minds. She brought up many horrifying points about slavery and it is said to have inspired Northern abolitionists to protest against the Fugitive Slave act.

Harriet Beecher Stowe not only tried to abolish slavery before the Civil War by writing Uncle Tom’s Cabin, but also helped during the Civil War by help convincing President Abraham Lincoln to sign the Emancipation Proclamation(Haugen 82).When the Civil War started from the attack on Fort Sumter, Abraham Lincoln wanted to defeat the South as quickly as he could. Stowe had criticized Lincoln for not freeing the slaves since Lincoln didn’t include as part of his plan in defeating the rebels. She had a meeting with Lincoln in the White House. Stowe wanted to convince Lincoln to sign the Emancipation Proclamation, which released slaves in the South from the seceded states. Lincoln had signed the

William Lloyd Garrison was a leader among the American abolitionists, a self-made journalist, and social reformer. He was world renown, considered one of the most vocal opponents of slavery before the Civil War. Garrison made an impact on the abolitionist movement by promoting non-violent and non-political resistance, calling for the immediate end to slavery as well as equal rights for black Americans.

The 1830s marked a drastic change in character in activists, when instances went from being small and ineffective, to great, nation-changing campaigns. The abolitionists’ movements after the 1830s irrefutably had huge impacts in the United States in various aspects, aspects such as politics, society/equality, and even in culture. The abolitionists were more fervent in their expression of disproval with slavery, and many abolitionist icons expressed themselves through literature. William Lloyd Garrison and Fredrick Douglass along with their publications in the newspaper, the Liberator, sparked a flame against slavery in the hearts of many Americans that may have had either a neutral position or even a proslavery opinion thus turning the tides towards abolition. Another person who, through literacy, aided in the strengthening of the abolitionist party was Harriet Beacher Stowe with her publication of the illustrious novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” This book not only changed the views of countless people but also influenced the literary aspect of the nation, for to

Harriet Jacob’s narrative is both inspiring and exemplary to other slaves in existence and yet unborn. This story shows the

During the early 1800’s slavery in America was under stiff opposition from abolitionists, men and women such as William Lloyd Garrison and Harriet Beecher Stowe published or wrote prominent anti-slavery essays in periodicals. It was under these conditions that Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs escaped slavery to help the movement with their stirring slavery narratives entitled Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl respectively. Frederick Douglass was well known on the lecture circuit. He, along with other abolitionists, toured around America telling his story by word of mouth; he is known to have been a great orator, a fact that is mirrored in his writings. Harriet Jacobs

Slavery was introduced to America in the 1620s and was not abolished until 1865, lasting over 240 years. Before the civil war in 1861 which was fought by the Northern and Southern states, slavery was extremely popular and supported by much of America’s white population. Due to the fact that slavery was supplying cotton and other marketable materials that were significantly beneficial to the economy, people often forgot or chose to ignore the barbarous and inhumane conditions that slaves had to endure everyday of their lives. People believed so strongly in this diabolical institution that they would say or do anything to convince others that this practice was perfectly just. Three examples of people who demonstrate this would be Richard H. Colfax, William John Grayson, and George W. Freeman. These slavery defenders used several appeals and arguments to persuade people into believing that slavery was beneficial to all, including the slaves themselves. These claims were dauntlessly refuted by escaped slave and open abolitionist Frederick Douglass who wrote about his life and the vivid accounts proving how slavery truly was; his autobiography, the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass An American Slave, proves that the arguments of the slavery supporters were completely irrational.

     Published in the early 1850’s, Uncle Tom’s Cabin had a huge impact on our nation and contributed to the tension over slavery. It was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, a woman who was involved in religious and feminist causes. Stowe’s influence on the northern states was remarkable. Her fictional novel about slave life of her current time has been thought to be one of the main things that led up to the Civil War. The purpose of writing it, as is often said, was to expose the evils of slavery to the North where many were unaware of just what went on in the rest of the country. The book was remarkably successful and sold 300,000 copies by the end of its first year. It is even rumored that

This book made a great impact in American and the worldwide talking about antislavery movement. People all over the world could read this book and learn about the things that happen in the past. Harriet Beecher Stowe had a big accomplishment of writing this book about the African American slaves. The book presents a major impact about evil in humanity as well as the civil war and the argument of political and economic. Stowe was against slavery and she had the most influential novel in history. The novel help people review what happen to the slaves and help end the slave movement.

As previously mentioned, Stowe composed Uncle Tom’s Cabin to express the various views of slavery, and how it impacted the lives of those affected by this lifestyle. Growing up in this century, Stowe found the institution of slavery to be corrupt, with “the country requiring her complicity in a system she thought was unjust and immoral” (Uncle Tom’s Cabin). As Stowe did not believe in the Fugitive Slave Law—which required everyone to aid in the capture of fugitive slaves—she chose to hide runaway slaves, and her family promoted her drive to aid those in need. Stowe accomplished this feat through housing, feeding, and smuggling slaves to legal freedom in Canada, because it was the Christian thing to do.

It is extremely difficult for the modern reader to understand and appreciate Uncle Tom’s Cabin because Harriet Beecher Stowe was writing for an audience very different from us. We don’t share the cultural values and myths of Stowe’s time, so her novel doesn’t affect us the way it affected its original readers. For this reason, Uncle Tom’s Cabin has been heavily scrutinized by the modern critic. However, the aspects of the novel that are criticized now are the same aspects that held so much appeal for its original audience.

During the slavery period a number of African slaves wrote stories, and poems about their daily hardships that they had to withhold by being a slave and everything else that happen throughout their life’s. Not many Black writers had the resources or support from their owners to publish what they wrote or anyone to care about what they wrote, lucky slaves did reach success when they published their work. Knowing where they came from or where they grew up from is important, the type of work that each individual accomplished when they published their work to the public. The massive impact that Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglas, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Jacobs, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Abraham Lincoln had in the black community and how they helped change the way they were being treated completely.