“So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war!” is one of the most famous quotes said by President Abraham Lincoln to Harriet Beecher Stowe regarding the Civil War and her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. But was she really an abolitionist? Uncle Tom’s Cabin brought about great social change. With harsh visions of brutal slave beatings, it is hard to not feel compassion for the slaves. Uncle Tom’s Cabin became extremely popular in the North. According to the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, after the first year it had already sold 300,000 copies. Uncle Tom’s Cabin appalled many people and was considered inaccurate by southern plantation owners yet it sold thousands of copies (HBS Center 7).
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
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As he is laying there dying, his first master’s son arrives and sees Tom speak his last words. The novel ends with Eliza and George being reunited with some family that had been separated and they leave for Africa.
Most people today regard her to be an abolitionist because of the success of her novel in freeing the slaves. By today’s ideals, an abolitionist is someone who wanted to free all blacks from slavery and incorporate them into society. When looking at abolitionists from the Civil War era, it is important to realize that not all followed this definition but are still claimed to be abolitionists, which creates a serious problem of misrepresenting their ideals. While Harriet Beecher Stowe is credited as being an abolitionist today because of the impact of her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin she was in fact not because of her lifestyle, background, and belief in the necessity of slavery; her belief that blacks were inferior to the white race; and that former slaves could not be incorporated into society and should be returned to Africa.
An objection to the idea that Harriet Beecher Stowe was not an abolitionist lies in the fact of how successful her novel was in terms of freeing the slaves. This book is thought of as the greatest antislavery novel because it helped the abolition movement advance towards its goal and how could someone that was not an abolitionist write such a novel? The novel brought knowledge into the homes of the North, and
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.
In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe published the startlingly truthful and heart-wrenching novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. She was angered by the new and stricter Fugitive Slave Law and created this novel, emphasizing the cruel separation of families in order to inflame the North. She owed the creation of it to God and said “her anti-slavery sentiments lay in the evangelical religious crusades of the Second Great Awakening.” Stowe’s novel sold millions of copies, transformed into plays and opened the eyes of American people, to the injustice of slavery. Arguably, this novel even helped the North win the Civil War: It was read by a profuse amount of youth in the 1850’s who would inspired to fight because what Uncle Tom’s Cabin portrayed. Additionally, it was an impetus for people up North to not enforce the Fugitive Slave Law. Five years later to when this novel was published Hinton Helper’s novel, The Impending Crisis of the South made its debut. Helper was a non-aristocratic white in the South and his novel utilized statistics in order to help prove that the non-slaveholding whites were the real victims of the Peculiar Institution. This novel was banned from the South, however countless copies were sold in the North. This novel, as did its former, reduced the South’s ability to live under the same roof as their anti-slavery brothers up North.
Women in the civil war era. What image comes into your mind? A nurse? What about a nobel spy, or a leader to many? Even an abolitionist, a soldier, or maybe even a civil rights activist. Many women wanted to speak out for their beliefs, but remained quiet, for they feared it would not have a good outcome. But, some didn’t stay quiet. Harriet Beecher Stowe was one of those women who was not scared to speak for her, and many others, beliefs. Harriet was a passionate abolitionist, and her book ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ made her an international celebrity. She is even considered one of the causes of the Civil War. Her book personalizes the political and economic arguments about slavery. President Abraham Lincoln greeted her in 1812 and proclaimed, “So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that started the great war.” Harriet Tubman was a hero. She was a runaway slave who became a conductor in the
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.
Harriet Beecher Stowe is one of the most influential writers from the 19th century. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” brings up many ideals about history and culture. Stowe supports ideals of American exceptionalism such as slavery, christianity, and equality through earlier periods in American history. American identity has been created and explored in literature ranging from the days of the conquistadores and the early settlers to the middle of the nineteenth century. White Americans have had greater opportunities than anyone else since the beginning of time. This may seem racist, but it is the truth. In “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” the slave owners were all white. The slaves were African American. African-Americans weren’t allowed to own property, have their
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 Stowe was a famous abolitionist and author of her time. One of her main goals was to abolish slavery, and for that she participated in the Underground Railroad, a system of people who helped fugitive slaves escape to freedom. She also wanted to compile an accurate recollection of the
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
When Abraham Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe after the beginning of the American Civil War, he supposedly said to her, "So you're the little woman that wrote the book that started this Great War" ("Harriet's Life"). Lincoln was referring to Harriett Beecher Stowe's book Uncle Tom's Cabin. The quote implies that even the president of America had recognized and emphasized the impact of the novel on American Society as being the key cause to something as important as the Civil War.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, came to be one of the most influential antislavery books of the century. People claim Abraham Lincoln said it started the Civil War when he greeted Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1862 by saying "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.” Its anti-slavery message, in response to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, sparked revolutionary levels of serious differences throughout the North and South, serving as an advocate for sectional conflict. The emotional novel portrays the reality of slavery while also proclaiming that Christian love can conquer something as damaging as enslavement of other humans.
HARRIET: Hello, my name is Harriet Beecher Stowe and I was born in Litchfield, Connecticut on June 14, 1811 into a family whose patriarch was committed to social justice (Editors, Harriet Beecher Stowe Biography, 2016). My parents had high expectations of my brothers, sisters and me; they believed we should help change the world for the greater
Abraham Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe ten years after her book Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published. When he met her he told her that she was the little women “who wrote the book that made this great war.” Abraham Lincoln was not lying. Many few novels had grabbed the public spotlight and cause an uproar like the book Uncle Tom’s Cabin. In the north, people understood slavery in a more personal level. In the south, they were outraged about this book. Her story advanced the cause of Abolition north of the Mason- Dixon line and “promoted sheer indignation in plantation America. Her brother was Henry Ward Beecher. He was an outspoken Abolitionist. By the mid-1850, there “would become the driving force behind aiding the Free- Soil cause in Bleeding
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.
For the most part, the North took a laissez faire approach to slavery that it would figure itself out eventually. However, there was a population of people who wanted to end slavery at all cost and they were called abolitionist. Harriet Beecher Stowe was an abolitionist and she published one of the best books in American history, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, in 1852. The book detailed the poor treatment of slaves and the depicted their everyday life. This depiction enraged many Northerners who were unaware of the horrible treatment slaves endured daily. Stowe based her depiction off runaway slaves who ran to the North and told their story as a slave. Runaway slaves were another inevitable aspect of the Civil War (Roark 481,484-485).
Not many books can claim to have altered the course of history, even less proclaim to have started an entire war. The book Uncle Tom’s Cabin written by Harriet Beecher Stowe is the only exception. The novel provides a combination of realistic and fictional views of slavery that exposes into the consciousness of Americans the images of brutal beatings and unfair slave practices. Uncle Tom’s Cabin follows the lives of two slaves, Tom, and Eliza. The book “… opens on the Shelby plantation in Kentucky as two enslaved people, Tom and 4-year old Harry, are sold to pay Shelby family debts.” Eliza, the mother of Harry, overhears Mr. Shelby discussing the issue with his wife and decides to attempt a daring escape. Eliza and her young child Harry make