Based on an autobiography written by Rev. Josiah Herson—one of the few literate slaves at the time—Stowe began working on a series of slaves under heavy physical and emotional assault. Three slaves were depicted more than anyone else in her works—one of them was Eliza, a gorgeous fugitive who evades the clasp of bounty hunters; being hunted like a wild animal, moving across the frozen Ohio River with her baby in her arms. The other is Cassie, whose pride and noble mannerisms are quickly broken by the cruel Simon Legree; the terrifying instances of mistreatment and sexual abuse suffered by her shed light on how owners often treated their slaves. Last but not least, there is Uncle Tom—a generous and docile man, who gets increasingly more abuse from his owners as he is sold further and further South, eventually becoming subject to the cruelty of the very Simon Legree who had ownership of Cassie. Eventually, after severe physical and emotional torture and mistreatment, Legree orders Tom to be beaten to death by his subordinates—all three accounts are quite graphical and truly gruesome (Stowe, Harriet Beecher). These intertwined stories were eventually published in 1852 under the name of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin; Or, Life Among the Lowly”; it was primarily geared towards opening the eyes of ignorant people all around the United States and the world to what the institution of slavery actually meant. As a matter of fact, Stowe claims to have softened much of the content so as to keep it from becoming offensive to the reader, which would make sense considering the scope of the work.
The novel also guaranteed more cooperation from the Southerners because it actually didn’t demonize the South—as a matter of fact, Stowe had the characters Emily Shelby and St. Clare (Southerners in the book) speak against slavery. In a soft but effective manner, Stowe planted a seed of hope in the South—appealing to them was something that few radical abolitionists were able to do; the easily dismissible nature of regular radical speech against slavery had plagued the struggle to eradicate slavery, and Stowe’s novel was a landmark in overcoming that obstacle. (Shmoop Editorial Team)
Although it is impossible to quantify the effect of a work of literature on public opinion, numbers don’t lie—Uncle Tom’s Cabin sold over 300,000 copies in America and over 1,000,000 (1 million!) copies in the United Kingdom within the first year of its publication (Delbanco, Andrew). These figures are especially relevant considering the cultural context at the time, where reading aloud amongst family and friends was an extremely common practice due to low literacy rates—it is not outlandish to assume that these huge figures can be multiplied tenfold to reflect the actual scope of people who were exposed to the novel.
Almost two years after publishing her novel, Stowe wrote to a friend saying the following: “The effects of the book so far have been, I think, these: 1st. to soften and moderate the bitterness of feeling in extreme abolitionists. 2nd. to convert to abolitionist views many whom the same bitterness had repelled. 3rd. to inspire the free colored people with self-respect, hope, and confidence. 4th. to inspire universally through the country a kindlier feeling toward the negro race((Delbanco, Andrew).” There could hardly be anyone better to speak of the effects of a work on people’s mindsets than the author herself.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin’s influence wasn’t limited only to the boundaries of the United States—as evidenced by the absurd rates of copies of the novel sold in the United Kingdom, it definitely also had an effect on foreign intervention and on the way foreign nations viewed slavery. Considering how Great Britain supposedly relied economically on American cotton, to many it came as a surprise that it remained neutral throughout the Civil War. Coincidentally, it is notorious that the internal pressure suffered by the British Crown by its population was one of the main reasons that caused it to refrain from intervention in the conflict. Hard to quantify as it is, there is no denying that having a smaller population than the US and consuming over three times the amount of copies of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” correlates to the British population’s “buying into the fight” of the ant abolitionist movement. Had Great Britain’s people not become conscious of the issue, foreign intervention could’ve turned the tides of the war in favor of the South (although admittedly internal pressure wasn’t the only reason for the neutral stance of Great Britain, it was certainly a huge contributing factor).
Amongst the supposed words of Abraham Lincoln, the sheer number of copies sold, and the words of Stowe herself, it is impossible to deny the effect of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” as a preponderant force in shaping the mindsets of people in relation to slavery prior to the Civil War. After strong statements from the government in form of the Fugitive Slave Act and the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision, someone had to speak up in order to stir the abolitionist movement. Motivation and emotional empathy needed to be plentiful in a time of huge adversity, and that’s exactly what Stowe managed to transmit through her novel. The practical implications of the release of the novel—ranging from the actual figure of millions of copies sold worldwide in a time of illiterate masses, to the neutrality of England, not to mention the intangible but assuredly existent aspect of a change in the attitude of both Northerners and Southerners alike towards slavery—are a testament to the sheer power of this tiny lady who changed the world.
Bibliography
Delbanco, Andrew. "'This Curse of Slavery'" The New York Times. The New York Times, 26 June 2011. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/books/review/book-review-mightier-than-the-sword-by-david-s-reynolds.html?hpw>.
"Impact of Uncle Tom's Cabin, Slavery, and the Civil War." The National and International Impact of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, 2011. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. <http://www.harrietbeecherstowecenter.org/utc/impact.shtml>.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Harriet Beecher Stowe: Publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin" Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 4 Dec. 2012.
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom's Cabin, Or, Life among the Lowly. Pleasantville, NY: Reader's Digest, 1991. Print.
Wehner, Peter. "The Impact of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin†« Commentary Magazine." Commentary Magazine RSS. N.p., 07 Aug. 2011. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. <http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/07/08/new-book-analyzes-impact-of-uncle-toms-cabin/>.
(A lot of it was taken from things you said in class, too)
by
brennolribeiro (student)
