Uncle Tom's Cabin By Harriet Beecher Stowe

In Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe uses the character of Augustine St. Clare to play a very important role in expressing her views of abolition to the reader throughout the novel. St. Clare is, in himself, a huge contradiction of a character, as his way of life is supported by the same system that he despises, slavery. St. Clare professes multiple times in the book that slavery is wrong, yet he holds slaves and refuses to release them, making him a hypocrite whose morals are right, mainly because of his mother, but he is unwilling to do the right thing. St. Clare symbolizes some of the southern slave owners at the time who knew that slavery was a sin and an act against God, but refused to stand up and stop it. St. Clare is such an essential character in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and he is an important part of the overall message of the novel and Stowe’s interjection of her abolitionist views that are throughout the novel.

I did not expect that I would like To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee as much as I do. Written from the perspective of Scout, a young girl in the 1930’s, this book takes a look at many issues, including racism and sexism, all from the innocent eyes of a child. This book reveals many of the issues and struggles faced during the Great Depression. So far, this book is excellently written.

Caring and noticeable is Harper Lee's, To Kill a Mockingbird take readers to the source of humans action, through faults and experiment, kindness and trouble, hatred and love, and the struggle between blacks and whites. Atticus Finch is a lawyer and a single parent at Maycomb town in the 1930’s. He was set by the judge to defend the guy who was charged with raping a white woman: Tom Robinson(Black man). Friends and neighbors of Atticus Finch were not happy with the fight Atticus was putting up to defend the man who was charged for raping a white woman. Not only does Atticus enjoy being a lawyer, Atticus even enjoy being a father of Jem and Scout. Atticus Finch is a excellent character who is known for certain accomplishment and superior. He is known for many stuff. Atticus Finch has remained a hero in modern days for american literature for decades and an honorable figure due to his honesty as a parent, a lawyer, and a respectable community members.

Abraham Lincoln is quoted as saying, “So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.” upon meeting Harriet Beecher Stowe for the first time. The book that the former president is referring to is Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a 1850s book about the moral wrongs of slavery. It has been said to be the most influential anti-slavery book that has ever been written. Harriet Beecher Stowe is an effective author. She uses numerous literary devices such as facile characters, character foils, and symbolism to highlight her abolitionist views and constructs a persuasive argument against slavery.

Imagine a world without law, surrounded by anarchism and people who can do whatever they please. A world without law would result in a corrupt and unfair society, ruled by the authoritative elite. In the narrative, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, law is a major theme in society that controls the actions of the people and the destiny’s of the wrongdoers. A world without law is a world of chaos and calamity; therefore, laws are established to keep order and safety in the world that God created.

Whites have always considered themselves superior to blacks, no matter if they were slave owners or not. Blacks were considered lower than humans, making them a main target of oppression of whites. So even when a small group of blacks were given their freedom, they weren’t truly liberated from the chains of slavery and oppression. Blacks were freed in the early 1800s, giving a limited amount of blacks the freedom they deserved. These blacks were usually rural, uneducated, and unskilled domestic servants who had to work hard to survive in the society that shunned them. Free blacks were still given restrictions and laws because of their status in society. In the early 1830s, a law in Virginia was made to prohibit all blacks from getting their education. They even took it to the level where free blacks who went out of state to educate themselves were not able to come back and return to their own state. The worst restriction was that blacks could not testify in court. When a slave owner claimed that a free black was their slave, they could not defend themselves, and would have to conform back to their slavery. Despite the terrible treatment given to blacks, some rose above the oppression and became successful, therefore achieving their goals and potentials of being a free black man, leaving a huge impact on society in the 1800s.

“Captive African and their descendants paid with their blood and sweat for the phenomenal expansion of human possibilities in the Atlantic world”(Rice, 62). Among many groups of people that migrated to America are the African Americans. At first it was by choice, but that gradually changed to being captured and forced to migrate to America to work in the plantation fields. African Americans faced racial oppression and prejudice in a land that put in its constitution “all men are created equal.” They were treated with disrespect, hostility, and cruelty and made inferior to their fellow beings. Despite the abolishment of slavery with the thirteenth amendment, African Americans still faced prejudice and racial hostility from all around.

Enslaved African Americans were treated like animals in the south, without any rights, received no pay for their long hours of daily work, could not have a day off unless their master allowed them to therefore they were very irritated, angry, rebellious, and attacked their masters for this. This is why the African Americans fled up north early before all blacks were granted

Most people don’t even five it a second thought, probably not even you. All of those people who died in the Civil War, and the humans that lost family and friends in those awful years. From 1861 to 1865, people were dying that were all Americans. If you don’t care, this shows why you should care. Most likely, you’re an American reading this article, and this is your history that you should learn and be appreciative that slavery is gone from our great country. The Civil War was caused by slavery that was wanted in the South, but no wanted in the North. They struggled over the issues of states’ rights. The Underground Railroad allowed Southern slaves to run away to the North and gain freedom. Harriet Tubman wrote Uncle Toom’s Cabin and later

Blacks however always got the short end of the stick. Slavery has never been more important to any other country than the United States. The controversy against black and white has been around for centuries. White as the higher class. Black as the lower class. But, how this controversy affected the black people the North America in 1619. The colonists were in need of labor which pushed them to withhold slaves. Whites began to believe blacks were not their equals and made it known. “In North America, slavery became widespread substitute for paid labor. At the same time, whites came to believe that blacks were not their equals”(Zinn 23). Then on, blacks would suffer from mistreatment for 350 years in society from the americans. They would hold slaves auctions selling off black women, men, and children. In transport the slaves were chained and were forced to walk from Africa to the coast, many died on these walks. Aboard the slaves ships they were put in boxes in the dark as small as coffins. “Some died for lack of air in the crowded, dirty cargo holds of the ships. Others jumped overboard to end their suffering”(Zinn 31). Over a third of the slaves died at sea. In the 1800’s there were around 10 million black slaves brought into America. Africa had lost about 50 million humans to slavery. Not all black people were slaves some were servants. Some white people were servants too, but had very different treatment than the black servants. Example, when white servants tried to escape they would get a very light punishment, whereas a black servant would experience a lot harsher punishment. Starting in 1663, black and white servants and slaves began to fight for their freedom. They were given some benefits, but the struggle continued. “ A web of historical threads trapped blacks in American slavery. These threads were the desperation of the starving settlers, the helplessness of Africans torn from their homeland, the

Throughout history, blacks have been treated the poorest out of all races. Although everyone under God is to be treated equal, whites thought of themselves as being the superior race. In 1619 a Dutch ship brought 20 slaves to America and it took nearly 240 years for slavery to end in 1865(Ronald, , para. 3).These helpless slaves were taken to America and put to work growing anything from cotton to tobacco. Slaves had absolutely no rights. They were simply property of their “Massa’.” Being disrespectful to a white man could get a Negro killed and they just accepted the facts of the matter. The south was the most notorious in its treatment of slaves and slaves would run away. It was a big risk, but a slave that made it to a

Harriet Beecher Stowe tells the story of slaves from Kentucky and Louisiana, but escapes to Ohio and other Quaker settlements in the north, that finally makes them end up in Canada. Uncle Tom, whom at the begging is pro-slavery experiences a more cruel and harsh environment by a slave owner that made him have a sudden change of heart. He went from being the one who would withhold slaves for his own good, to helping them escape so that they could have the chance for a better life. Once Uncle Tom started questioning his religion and faith, who knew then that, the risk he was taking was for the greater good. Uncle Tom was one of the most known nation wide names, and because he was a slave owner who freed slaves in a time you couldn’t, he revealed a major sign of hope in America, and a key story that helped free slaves in America.

One of the most influential novels that had been written in the American history is Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which is also known as Life Among the Lowly; written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, who is being addressed as Madam Stowe. The story was written in the 1850’s, around the time of the American Civil War. The inspiration of the novel is an autobiography by Joseph Henson, a former slave who had escaped to Canada.

As many people say history was written by the victors, we need to remember there would be no victors without the struggle and turmoil of those that lost. This is what Harriet Beecher Stowe’s compelling novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin has taught us in regards to the war on slavery. In the midst of the 1800’s, Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote her best-selling novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, to address the various issues regarding race during this century. Throughout her novel, readers learn the lives of slaves, slave masters, and their families, which leads to the understanding of a unique lifestyle among the characters. As her novel is important in today’s society, it made an even greater impact during the nineteenth century as it portrays the ideology of the Civil War and the abolitionists.

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin was a novel written in times of unrest where slavery was a controversial topic and women 's rights were still suffering. Uncle Tom’s Cabin showed the grim reality of slavery and showed the importance for women to gain a societal role beyond the domestic domain. The reading contains a number of major characters throughout the novel. The two most notable characters we will discuss is Mrs. Shelby and Marie St. Clare. Throughout this paper we will compare and contrast these two characters and give specific examples to illustrate the similarities and differences between these two unique individuals.