Stowe wrote for a predominantly religious audience, and being Protestant herself, she took great care to properly illustrate how the moral code of Christianity greatly opposes the system of slavery. She enforces, through different actions and dialogue between her characters, that slavery and Christianity, especially Protestantism, contradict each other to such an extreme, that they simply cannot coexist. In the novel, the characters that embody Christian values are also the characters who oppose slavery; the more Christian-like they are, the more they protest. Though several of Stowe’s characters possess Christian values, many biblical references can be made to the characters Tom and Eva, who are the cornerstone of Christianity in Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Eva St. Claire, “the child whose whole heart and soul seemed absorbed in works of kindness,” (Stowe 261), is a devout Christian, and by far the most morally perfect character in the novel. Eva is the only white character in the novel who cannot understand why any person would see a difference between whites and blacks. Her father, Augustine St. Claire is not a Christian like his daughter; however he is a kind and compassionate man who treats his slaves well. Augustine St. Claire’s love and kindness contrasts greatly with his Brother Alfred’s “hands-on” ownership of slaves; a difference that can be attributed to the presence of Eva in Augustine’s life. Both brothers were raised the same, both had similar opportunity, and both own land and slaves; the only difference between the two is Eva. Augustine St. Claire has his evangelical daughter Eva to fill his life with love and kindness and model the moral code of Christianity. In this relationship, Stowe emphasizes the influence Christianity and love can have on a person’s life. She implies that Augustine St. Claire’s moral and Christian like behavior is a result of his daughter’s influence, and that his Brother Alfred’s cruelty results from his lack of Christian morals and goodness in his life. A scene symbolic of Stowe’s Christian ideals and the role Eva played in bringing those beliefs to her reader is found in Chapter 26, when Eva dies. Eva calls all of the servants into her room and professes her love and concern for them (Stowe). Upon her death bed, Eva asks to “speak to [them] about [their] souls…” (Stowe 287), and she begs them to become Christians so that she may later see them in heaven (Stowe). Eva also cuts a lock of hair to give to each of the servants (Stowe), a gesture symbolic to that of Christ when he breaks the bread and gives a piece to each disciple, as a representation of giving his body to them.
Just as Eva is a representation of Christ, so too is the slave Tom. From the very beginning of the novel, Stowe depicts Tom as a martyr, unwavering in his Christian faith. When Tom learns that he is to be sold to a slave owner in the South and taken from his wife and children; instead of fleeing with Eliza and her son Harry to Canada, he chooses to be faithful, honest, and uphold his Christian values. Tom says that he “never [has] broke trust, nor used [his] pass no ways contrary to [his] word and [he] never will,” (Stowe 37). Tom understands that his master is selling him to settle a debt, and if he flees then all of the slaves, including his wife and children may, “go to rack,” (Stowe 37). This is act of courage truly shows Tom’s trust in God, and though it is his first act of martyrdom in the novel, the most dramatic and symbolic comes much later, in chapter 40.
Tom had been sold by Mr. St. Claire’s wife to the evil and abhorrent Mr. Legree whose cruelty towards Tom and his other slaves is difficult for a reader to stomach. Tom is able to endure the cruelty and abuse of Mr. Legree by staying true to his Christian faith, though when broken and nearly defeated his faith is tested by a promise for better treatment if he were to convert to his master’s church (Stowe). In the end, however, Tom is able to maintain his faith in Christ, and ultimately assists two of Legree’s slaves, Emmeline and Cassy, in escaping. Legree learns of Tom’s knowledge and assistance and threatens his life if he does not divulge their whereabouts. In the face of Legree’s fury and wrath, Tom maintains eerily calm and insists that he would rather die then give Legree an ounce of information about the girls (Stowe). His true character and Christian faith is also exposed in this instance, when Tom states, “Mas’r, if you was sick, or in trouble, or dying, and I could save ye, I’d give ye my heart’s blood…don’t bring this great sin on your soul! It will hurt you more than ‘twill me!” In the face of certain death, Tom expresses his desire to save his master’s soul, even through all of the torture Legree has brought upon him. Later, upon Legree beating Tom half to death, Tom looks up at him and says, “Ye poor miserable critter! There an’t no more ye can do! I forgive ye, with all my soul!”(Stowe 411). On his death bed, he too forgives both Sambo and Quimbo, two men that assisted in his fatal beating, though unlike Legree, Sambo and Quimbo are moved by Tom’s faith in Jesus, and accept Christ into their hearts as Tom lay before them dying (Stowe 412). Tom’s death parallels that of Christ’s crucifixion. Tom forgives his murderers just as Christ did, and prays for their souls. It would have been easy for Tom to betray the trust of Emmeline and Cassy in order to save his own life, though his Christian faith was more important to him than his own life. Tom died in order to save others, just as Christ did.
Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, is highly criticized today for its literary style, its stereotypical representation of African Americans, and it obvious Protestant platform (Hill, 2007). Shortly after its publication however, the response was much different. Stowe was commended by abolitionists, and the black community for speaking out on their behalf and giving slavery a voice, whereas slaveowners in the south were outraged at her humanization and compassionate portrayal of slaves (Hill, 2007). Criticism, whether good or bad, is the mark of an influential novel, and whatever the opinion held, few could refute the impact and influence Uncle Tom’s Cabin had on the slavery in the United States and the brewing Civil War. It would be difficult to give Harriet Beecher Stowe the credit for ending slavery, however in writing a novel which revealed how the evils of slavery contradicted Christian morality, she opened the eyes of many influential people who banned together and collectively fought to end slavery.
Works Cited
Hill, Patricia R. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin as a Religious Text.” Wesleyan University.
2007. < >.
Jehlen, Myra. Readings at the Edge of Literature. Chicago: Chicago Press, 2002.
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom’s Cabin. New York: Buccaneer Books, 1935.
“The Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act.” Africans in America. PBS.
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