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Uncle Tom's Cabin

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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 African American slave around whose life the other characters, both fellow slaves and white slave owners, revolve. The novel dramatizes the harsh reality of slavery while also showing that Christian love and faith can overcome even such massive evil as slavery.

Uncle Tom's Cabin became the best-selling novel of the 19th century (and the second best-selling book of the century after the Bible)[1] and is credited with both helping to start the American Civil War and forcing an end to slavery in the United States. Despite this, the book also helped create and spread common stereotypes about African Americans, many of which endure to this day. Among the stereotypes in the book include the affectionate, dark-skinned female mammy, the pickanniny stereotype of black children, and the Uncle Tom, or African American who is too eager to please white people. These negative associations with Uncle Tom's Cabin have to a large degree overshadowed the historical impact of book.

Simon Legree abuses Uncle Tom

Origins

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

The story 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. 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.

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, though the novel's historical influence has been disputed. When Abraham Lincoln met Stowe after the beginning of the American Civil War, he reportedly said to her, "So you're the little lady whose book started this great war." 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.

Plot

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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 child, and Harry, the son of Emily Shelby’s maid Eliza — to a slave trader. Emily Shelby hates to do this because she had promised Eliza that Shelby would not sell her son, while her son, George Shelby, hates to see Tom go because he considers the slave to be his friend.

When Eliza overhears a conversation between the slave trader 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, where they are joined by Eliza's husband George, who had escaped earlier. He agrees to go with his wife and child to Canada, via the Underground Railroad.

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 a young white girl named Eva, who quickly befriends him. When Eva falls into the river, Tom saves her. In gratitude, Eva's father, Augustine St. Clare, buys Tom from Haley and take him with the family to their home in New Orleans.

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. Meanwhile, in New Orleans, St. Clare debates slavery with his cousin Ophelia, who opposes slavery but also hates black people. St. Clare, by contrast, says he feels no hostility against blacks but tolerates slavery because he is powerless to change it. To help Ophelia overcome her bigotry, he buys Topsy, a young black girl who was abused by her past master, and asks Ophelia to educate her.

After Tom has lived with the St. Clares for two years, Eva grows very ill. She eventually dies, but not before she has a vision of heaven, which she shares with the people around her. Her death has a profound effect on everyone. Ophelia resolves to love her slaves, Topsy says she will learn to trust others, and St. Clare decides to set Tom free as he promised to his daughter before her death. However, before he can do so St. Clare gets stabbed to death while trying to end a fight.

St. Clare’s cruel wife, Marie, sells Tom to a vicious plantation owner named Simon Legree. Tom is taken to rural Louisiana with other new slaves such as Emmeline, whom Legree purchased as a sex slave. Legree takes a strong dislike to Tom when he refuses Legree's order to whip a fellow slave. Tom receives a severe beating, and Legree resolves to crush Tom's faith in God. While at the plantation, Tom meets Cassy, who was Legree's previous sex slave. Cassy was previously separated from her daughter by slavery. When she became pregnant again she killed her child to save the child from the same fate.

At this time Tom Loker returns to the story. Loker is now a changed man after being healed by the Quakers. In addition, George, Eliza, and Harry obtained their freedom after they cross over into Canada. In Louisiana, Tom almost loses his faith in God due to the hardships of the plantation. However, he has two visions — one of Jesus and one of Eva — which renew his strength and faith. He encourages Cassy to escape, which she does so, taking Emmeline with her. When Tom refuses to tell Legree where Cassy and Emmeline have gone, the cruel master had him beaten to near death. As Tom is dying, he forgives Legree and Legree's overseers. George Shelby (Authur Shelby's son) arrives with money in hand to buy Tom’s freedom, but he is too late. He can only watch as Tom dies a martyr’s death.

On their boat ride to freedom, Cassy and Emmeline meet George Harris’s sister and travel with her to Canada, where Cassy realizes that Eliza is her long-lost daughter. The newly reunited family travel to France and eventually Liberia, the African nation created for former American slaves. George Shelby returns to the Kentucky farm, where, after his father’s death, he sets all the slaves free in honor of Tom’s memory. Before they go, he tells them to remember Tom’s sacrifice every time they look at his cabin and to lead a pious Christian life, just as Tom did.

Major Characters

Uncle Tom

Main article: Uncle Tom

Uncle Tom is the main character of the book (and the character from which the novel gets its name). Initially seen as a noble long-suffering Christian slave, in recent years his name has become an epithet directed towards African Americans because he represents the submissive slave who is punished despite his loyalty. Uncle Tom has come to represent African Americans who are accused of selling out to whites, thereby allegedly becoming bad role models for black society.

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)

Little Eva

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

Eva soon falls ill, however, and, on her deathbed, 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. As she dies, she convinces her father to free Tom, but circumstances intervene, and the deathbed promise never materializes.

Simon Legree

A villainous slave owner whose name has become synonymous with greed.

Topsy

A "ragamuffin" young slave girl who "just growed", but 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 promise Harry's mother Eliza that this would not happen.

George Shelby

Authur 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. Clare

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. 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). In more recent years, readers have criticized the book for what is seen as condescending racist descriptions of the book's black characters, especially with regard to the character's appearance, speech, and behavior and the passive nature of Uncle Tom in accepting his fate.

The novel's creation and use of common stereotypes about African Americans is important because Uncle Tom's Cabin was the best-selling novel in the world during the 19th century.[2] As a result, the book had a major role in permanently engraining these stereotypes into the American psyche.

Among the negative stereotypes in Uncle Tom's Cabin are:

  • The "happy darky" (in the lazy, carefree character of Sam);
  • The light-skinned tragic mulatto as a sex object (in the characters of Eliza, Cassy, and Emmeline);
  • The affectionate, dark-skinned female mammy (in the character of Mammy, who is a cook at the St. Clare plantation).
  • The pickanniny stereotype of black children (in the character of Topsy);
  • The Uncle Tom, or African American who is too eager to please white people (in the character of Uncle Tom).

In addition to the book's stereotyping of black people, some critics highlight Stowe's paucity of life-experience relating to Southern life, which lead her to create wrong descriptions of the region. For instance, she never set foot on a Southern plantation. However, 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 [the] 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." [3]

In the last few decades these negative associations have to a large degree overshadowed the historical impact of Uncle Tom's Cabin. From the viewpoint of history, the book was a vital antislavery tool that helped turn public opinion against slavery in the United States.

Anti-Tom literature

Main article: 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 subject matter of the Harriet Beecher Stowe novel was too sensitive for further film interpretation for several years. A German language version, directed by Géza von Radványi, appeared in 1965, 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.

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.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ E-Notes Introduction to Uncle Tom's Cabin.
  2. ^ Ibid.
  3. ^ University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Library. Special collection page on traditions and interpretations of Uncle Tom's Cabin.

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
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