In the United States,Uncle Tom's Cabin was the best-selling novel and the second best-selling book of the 19th century, following the Bible.[7][8] It is credited with helping fuel the abolitionist cause in the 1850s.[9] The influence attributed to the book was so great that a likelyapocryphal story arose ofAbraham Lincoln meeting Stowe at the start of the Civil War and declaring, "So this is the little lady who started this great war."[10][11]
The book and theplays it inspired helped popularize a number of negativestereotypes about black people,[12][13][3] including that of the namesake character "Uncle Tom". The term came to be associated with an excessively subservient person.[14] These later associations withUncle Tom's Cabin have, to an extent, overshadowed the historical effects of the book as a "vital antislavery tool".[15] Nonetheless, the novel remains a "landmark" in protest literature,[16] with later books such asThe Jungle byUpton Sinclair andSilent Spring byRachel Carson owing a large debt to it.[17]
Stowe was also inspired by the posthumous biography ofPhebe Ann Jacobs, a devoutCongregationalist ofBrunswick, Maine.[23][24] Born on a slave plantation inLake Hiawatha, New Jersey, Jacobs was enslaved for most of her life, including by the president of Bowdoin College.[25][26][27][28] In her final years, Jacobs lived as a free woman, laundering clothes for Bowdoin students. She achieved respect from her community due to her devout religious beliefs,[28] and her funeral was widely attended.[29][30]
First appearance ofUncle Tom's Cabin as serialized inThe National Era (June 5, 1851)
Uncle Tom's Cabin first appeared as a 40-week serial inThe National Era, an abolitionist periodical, starting with the June 5, 1851, issue. It was originally intended as a shorter narrative that would run for only a few weeks. Stowe expanded the story significantly, however, and it was instantly popular, such that protests were sent to theEra office when she missed an issue.[36] The final installment was released in the April 1, 1852, issue ofEra. Stowe arranged for the story's copyright to be registered with theUnited States District Court for the District of Maine. She renewed her copyright in 1879 and the work entered thepublic domain on May 12, 1893.[37]
While the story was still being serialized, the publisherJohn P. Jewett contracted with Stowe to turnUncle Tom's Cabin into a book.[38] Convinced the book would be popular, Jewett made the unusual decision (for the time) to have six full-page illustrations byHammatt Billings engraved for the first printing.[39] Published in book form on March 20, 1852, the novel sold 3,000 copies on that day alone,[36] and soon sold out its complete print run.[40] In the first year after it was published, 300,000 copies of the book were sold in the United States.[41] Eight printing presses, running incessantly, could barely keep up with the demand.[42]
By mid-1853, sales of the book dramatically decreased[43] and Jewett went out of business during thePanic of 1857.[44] In June 1860, the right to publishUncle Tom's Cabin passed to the Boston firmTicknor and Fields,[45] which put the book back in print in November 1862. After that demand began to yet again increase.[46][47]Houghton Mifflin Company acquired the rights from Ticknor in 1878.[48] In 1879, a new edition ofUncle Tom's Cabin was released, repackaging the novel as an "American classic".[47] Through the 1880s until its copyright expired, the book served as a mainstay and reliable source of income for Houghton Mifflin.[43] By the end of the nineteenth century, the novel was widely available in a large number of editions[47] and in the United States it became the second best-selling book of that century after the Bible.[7]
Uncle Tom's Cabin sold equally well in Britain; the first London edition appeared in May 1852 and sold 200,000 copies.[49] In a few years, over 1.5 million copies of the book were in circulation in Britain, although most of these wereinfringing copies (a similar situation occurred in the United States).[50] By 1857, the novel had been translated into 20 languages.[51] TranslatorLin Shu published the first Chinese translation in 1901, making it the first American novel translated into that language.[52]
Plot
Eliza escapes with her son; Tom sold "down the river"
A full-page illustration byHammatt Billings for the first edition ofUncle Tom's Cabin, 1852. Eliza tells Uncle Tom that he has been sold and she is running away to save her child.
The book opens with aKentucky farmer named Arthur Shelby facing the loss of his farm because of debts. Even though he and his wife Emily Shelby believe that they have a benevolent relationship with their slaves, Shelby decides to raise the needed funds by selling two of them—Uncle Tom, a middle-aged man with a wife and children, and Harry, the son of Emily Shelby's maid Eliza—to Mr. Haley, a coarseslave trader. Emily Shelby is averse to this idea because she had promised her maid that her child would never be sold; Emily's son, George Shelby, hates to see Tom go because he sees the man as his friend and mentor.
When Eliza overhears Mr. and Mrs. Shelby discussing plans to sell Tom and Harry, Eliza determines to run away with her son. The novel states that Eliza made this decision because she fears losing her only surviving child (she had alreadymiscarried two children). Eliza departs that night, leaving a note of apology to her mistress. She later makes a dangerous crossing over the ice of the Ohio River to escape her pursuers.
As Tom is sold, Mr. Haley takes him to ariverboat on theMississippi River and from there Tom is to be transported to aslave market. While on board, Tom meets Eva, an angelic little white girl. They quickly become friends. Eva falls into the river and Tom dives into the river to save her life. Being grateful to Tom, Eva's father Augustine St. Clare buys him from Haley and takes him with the family to their home in New Orleans. Tom and Eva begin to relate to one another because of the deep Christian faith they both share.
Eliza's family hunted; Tom's life with St. Clare
An illustration of Tom and Eva by Hammatt Billings for the 1853 deluxe edition ofUncle Tom's Cabin
During Eliza's escape, she meets up with her husband George Harris, who had run away previously. They decide to attempt to reach Canada but are tracked by Tom Loker, a slave hunter hired by Mr. Haley. Eventually Loker and his men trap Eliza and her family, causing George to shoot him in the side. Worried that Loker may die, Eliza convinces George to bring the slave hunter to a nearbyQuaker settlement for medical treatment.
Back inNew Orleans, St. Clare debates slavery with his Northern cousin Ophelia who, while opposing slavery, is prejudiced against black people. St. Clare, however, believes he is not biased, even though he is a slave owner. In an attempt to show Ophelia that her prejudiced views against black people are wrong, St. Clare purchases Topsy, a young black slave, and asks Ophelia to educate her.
After Tom has lived with the St. Clares for two years, Eva grows very ill. Before she dies she experiences a vision ofheaven, which she shares with the people around her. As a result of her death and vision, the other characters resolve to change their lives, with Ophelia promising to throw off her personal prejudices against blacks, Topsy saying she will better herself, and St. Clare pledging to free Tom.
Tom sold to Simon Legree
Before St. Clare can follow through on his pledge, he dies after being stabbed outside a tavern. His wife reneges on her late husband's vow and sells Tom at auction to a vicious plantation owner named Simon Legree. Tom is taken to ruralLouisiana with other new slaves including Emmeline, whom Legree has purchased to use as asex slave.
A full-page illustration by Hammatt Billings for the first edition ofUncle Tom's Cabin, 1852. Cassy, another of Legree's slaves, ministers to Uncle Tom after his whipping.
Legree begins to hate Tom when Tom refuses Legree's order to whip his fellow slave. Legree beats Tom viciously and resolves to crush his new slave's faith inGod. Despite Legree's cruelty, Tom refuses to stop reading his Bible and comforting the other slaves as best he can. While at the plantation, Tom meets Cassy, another slave whom Legree used as a sex slave. Cassy tells her story to Tom. She was previously separated from her son and daughter when they were sold. She became pregnant again but killed the child because she could not tolerate having another child separated from her.
Tom Loker, changed after being healed by the Quakers, returns to the story. He has helped George, Eliza, and Harry enter Canada fromLake Erie and become free. In Louisiana, Uncle Tom almost succumbs to hopelessness as his faith in God is tested by the hardships of the plantation. He has two visions, one of Jesus and one of Eva, which renew his resolve to remain a faithful Christian, even unto death.
He encourages Cassy to escape, which she does, taking Emmeline with her. When Tom refuses to tell Legree where Cassy and Emmeline have gone, Legree orders his overseers to kill Tom. As Tom is dying, he forgives the overseers who savagely beat him. Humbled by the character of the man they have killed, both men become Christians. George Shelby, Arthur Shelby's son, arrives to buy Tom's freedom, but Tom dies shortly after they meet.
Final section
On their boat ride to freedom, Cassy and Emmeline meet George Harris' sister Madame de Thoux and accompany her to Canada. Madame de Thoux and George Harris were separated in their childhood. Cassy discovers that Eliza is her long-lost daughter who was sold as a child. Now that their family is together again, they travel to France and eventuallyLiberia, the African nation created for former American slaves. George Shelby returns to the Kentucky farm, where after his father's death, he frees all his slaves. George Shelby urges them to remember Tom's sacrifice every time they look at his cabin. He decides to lead a pious Christian life just as Uncle Tom did.
Uncle Tom, the title character, was initially seen as a noble, long-sufferingChristian slave.[14] In more recent years, his name has become an epithet directed towards African-Americans who are accused ofselling out to whites.[14] Stowe intended Tom to be a "noble hero" and a praiseworthy person.[53] Throughout the book, far from allowing himself to be exploited, Tom stands up for his beliefs and refuses to betray friends and family.[14]
Eliza is a slave who serves as a 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 inOhio and emigrates with them to Canada, then France, and finally Liberia.[54] The character Eliza was inspired by an account given atLane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati byJohn Rankin to Stowe's husband Calvin, a professor at the school. According to Rankin, in February 1838, a young slave woman, Eliza Harris, had escaped across the frozenOhio River to the town ofRipley with her child in her arms and stayed at his house on her way farther north.[55]
Evangeline "Eva" St. Clare is the daughter of Augustine St. Clare. Eva enters the narrative when Uncle Tom is traveling viasteamship to New Orleans to be sold, and he rescues the five- or six-year-old girl from drowning. Eva begs her father to buy Tom, and he becomes the head coachman at the St. Clare house. He spends most of his time with the angelic Eva. Eva often talks about love and forgiveness, convincing the dour slave girl Topsy that she deserves love. She even touches the heart of her Aunt Ophelia.[56] Eventually Eva fallsterminally ill. Before dying, she 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. On her deathbed, she convinces her father to free Tom, but because of circumstances the promise never materializes.[57]
Simon Legree is a cruel slave owner—a Northerner by birth—whose name has become synonymous with greed and cruelty.[58] He is arguably the novel's mainantagonist. His goal is to demoralize Tom and break him of his religious faith; he eventually orders Tom whipped to death out of frustration for his slave's unbreakable belief in God. The novel reveals that, as a young man, he had abandoned his sickly mother for a life at sea and ignored her letter to see her one last time at her deathbed. He sexually exploits Cassy, who despises him, and later sets his designs on Emmeline.[59] It is unclear if Legree is based on any actual individuals. Reports surfaced in the late 1800s that Stowe had in mind a wealthy cotton and sugar plantation owner namedMeredith Calhoun,[60][61] who settled on theRed River north ofAlexandria, Louisiana.[62] Rev.Josiah Henson, inspiration for the character of Uncle Tom, said that Legree was modeled after Bryce Lytton,[63] "who broke my arm and maimed me for life."[64]
Literary themes and theories
Major themes
Uncle Tom's Cabin is dominated by a single theme: the evil and immorality of slavery.[65] While Stowe weaves other subthemes throughout her text, such as themoral authority of motherhood and the power of Christian love,[4] she emphasizes the connections between these and the horrors of slavery. Stowe sometimes changed the story's voice so she could give a "homily" on the destructive nature of slavery[66] (such as when a white woman on the steamboat carrying Tom further south states, "The most dreadful part of slavery, to my mind, is its outrages of feelings and affections—the separating of families, for example.").[67] One way Stowe showed the evil of slavery[49] was how this "peculiar institution" forcibly separated families from each other.[68]
"The fugitives are safe in a free land." Illustration by Hammatt Billings forUncle Tom's Cabin, first edition. The image shows George Harris, Eliza, Harry, and Mrs. Smyth after they escape to freedom.
One of the subthemes presented in the novel istemperance.[69] Stowe made it somewhat subtle and in some cases she wove it into events that would also support the dominant theme. One example of this is when Augustine St. Clare is killed, he attempted to stop a brawl between two inebriated men in a cafe and was stabbed. Another example is the death of Prue, who was whipped to death for being drunk on a consistent basis; however, her reasons for doing so is due to the loss of her baby. In the opening of the novel, the fates of Eliza and her son are being discussed between slave owners over wine. Considering that Stowe intended this to be a subtheme, this scene could foreshadow future events that put alcohol in a bad light.[70]
Because Stowe saw motherhood as the "ethical and structural model for all of American life"[71] and also believed that only women had themoral authority to save[72] the United States from the demon of slavery, another major theme ofUncle Tom's Cabin is the moral power and sanctity of women.[73] Through characters like Eliza, who escapes from slavery to save her young son (and eventually reunites her entire family), or Eva, who is seen as the "ideal Christian",[74] Stowe shows how she believed women could save those around them from even the worst injustices. Though later critics have noted that Stowe's female characters are oftendomesticclichés instead of realistic women,[75] Stowe's novel "reaffirmed the importance of women's influence" and helped pave the way for thewomen's rights movement in the following decades.[76]
Stowe'spuritanical religious beliefs show up in the novel's final, overarching theme—the exploration of the nature of Christian love[4][77] and how she feelsChristian theology isfundamentally incompatible with slavery.[78] This theme is most evident when Tom urges St. Clare to "look away to Jesus" after the death of St. Clare's beloved daughter Eva. After Tom dies, George Shelby eulogizes Tom by saying, "What a thing it is to be a Christian."[79] Because Christian themes play such a large role inUncle Tom's Cabin—and because of Stowe's frequent use of direct authorial interjections on religion and faith—the novel often takes the "form of a sermon".[80]
Literary theories
Over the years scholars have postulated a number of theories about what Stowe was trying to say with the novel (aside from the major theme of condemning slavery). For example, as an ardent Christian and active abolitionist, Stowe placed many of her religious beliefs into the novel.[81] Some scholars have stated that Stowe saw her novel as offering a solution to the moral and political dilemma that troubled many slavery opponents: whether engaging in prohibited behavior was justified in opposing evil. Was the use of violence to oppose the violence of slavery and the breaking of proslavery laws morally defensible?[82] Which of Stowe's characters should be emulated, the passive Uncle Tom or the defiant George Harris?[83] Stowe's solution was similar toRalph Waldo Emerson's: God's will would be followed if each person sincerely examined his principles and acted on them.[84]
Scholars have also seen the novel as expressing the values and ideas of theFree Will Movement.[85] In this view, the character of George Harris embodies the principles of free labor, and the complex character of Ophelia represents those Northerners who condoned compromise with slavery. In contrast to Ophelia is Dinah, who operates on passion. During the course of the novel Ophelia is transformed, just as theRepublican Party (three years later) proclaimed that the North must transform itself and stand up for its antislavery principles.[86]
Feminist theory can also be seen at play in Stowe's book, with the novel as a critique of thepatriarchal nature of slavery.[87] For Stowe, blood relations rather than paternalistic relations between masters and slaves formed the basis of families. Moreover, Stowe viewed national solidarity as an extension of a person's family, thus feelings of nationality stemmed from possessing a shared race. Consequently, she advocated African colonization for freed slaves and not amalgamation into American society.[88]
The book has also been seen as an attempt to redefinemasculinity as a necessary step toward the abolition of slavery.[89] In this view, abolitionists had begun to resist the vision of aggressive and dominant men that the conquest and colonization of the early 19th century had fostered. To change the notion of manhood so that men could oppose slavery without jeopardizing their self-image or their standing in society, some abolitionists drew on principles ofwomen's suffrage and Christianity as well as passivism, and praised men for cooperation, compassion, and civic spirit. Others within the abolitionist movement argued for conventional, aggressive masculine action. All the men in Stowe's novel are representations of either one kind of man or the other.[90]
Style
Eliza crossing the icy river, in an 1881 theatre poster
Uncle Tom's Cabin is written in the sentimental[3][91] and melodramatic style common to 19th-centurysentimental novels[8] and domestic fiction (also called women's fiction). These genres were the most popular novels of Stowe's time and were "written by, for, and about women"[92] along with featuring a writing style that evoked a reader's sympathy and emotion.[93]Uncle Tom's Cabin has been called a "representative" example of a sentimental novel.[94]
The power in this type of writing can be seen in the reaction of contemporary readers. Georgiana May, a friend of Stowe's, wrote a letter to the author, saying: "I was up last night long after one o'clock, reading and finishingUncle Tom's Cabin. I could not leave it any more than I could have left a dying child."[95] Another reader is described as obsessing on the book at all hours and having considered renaming her daughter Eva.[96] Evidently the death of Little Eva affected a lot of people at that time, because in 1852, 300 baby girls in Boston alone were given that name.[96]
Despite this positive reaction from readers, for decadesliterary critics dismissed the style found inUncle Tom's Cabin and other sentimental novels because these books were written by women and so prominently featured what one critic called "women's sloppy emotions".[97] Another literary critic said that had the novel not been about slavery, "it would be just another sentimental novel",[98] and another described the book as "primarily a derivative piece of hack work".[99] InThe Literary History of the United States, George F. Whicher calledUncle Tom's Cabin "Sunday-school fiction", full of "broadly conceived melodrama, humor, and pathos".[100]
In 1985Jane Tompkins expressed a different view with her famous defense of the book in "Sentimental Power: Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Politics of Literary History."[97][101] Tompkins praised the style so many other critics had dismissed, writing that sentimental novels showed how women's emotions had the power to change the world for the better. She also said that the popular domestic novels of the 19th century, includingUncle Tom's Cabin, were remarkable for their "intellectual complexity, ambition, and resourcefulness"; and thatUncle Tom's Cabin offers a "critique of American society far more devastating than any delivered by better-known critics such asHawthorne andMelville."[102]
Uncle Tom's Cabin has exerted an influence equaled by few other novels in history.[102][103] Upon publication,Uncle Tom's Cabin ignited a firestorm of protest from defenders of slavery (who created a number of books in response to the novel) while the book elicited praise from abolitionists. The novel is considered an influential[104] "landmark" of protest literature.[16]
Contemporary reaction in United States and around the world
Stowe responded to criticism by writingA Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin (1853), documenting the veracity of her novel's depiction of slavery.
Uncle Tom's Cabin had an "incalculable"[102] impact on the 19th-century world and captured the imagination of many Americans. In a likelyapocryphal story that alludes to the novel's impact, whenAbraham Lincoln met Stowe in 1862 he supposedly commented, "So this is the little lady who started this great war."[10][11][105] Historians are undecided if Lincoln actually said this line, and in a letter that Stowe wrote to her husband a few hours after meeting with Lincoln no mention of this comment was made.[106] Many writers have also credited the novel with focusing Northern anger at the injustices of slavery and the Fugitive Slave Law[106] and helping to fuel the abolitionist movement.[9][3]Uniongeneral and politicianJames Baird Weaver said that the book convinced him to become active in the abolitionist movement.[107]
Frederick Douglass was "convinced both of the social uses of the novel and of Stowe's humanitarianism" and heavily promoted the novel in his newspaper during the book's initial release.[108] Though Douglass saidUncle Tom's Cabin was "a work of marvelous depth and power," he also published criticism of the novel, most prominently byMartin Delany. In a series of letters in the paper, Delany accused Stowe of "borrowing (and thus profiting) from the work of black writers to compose her novel" and chastised Stowe for her "apparent support of black colonization to Africa."[108] Delany was "one of the most out-spoken black critics" ofUncle Tom's Cabin at the time and later wroteBlake; or the Huts of America, a novel where an African American "chooses violent rebellion over Tom's resignation."[109]
White people in theAmerican South were outraged at the novel's release,[49] with the book also roundly criticized by slavery supporters.[35] Southern novelistWilliam Gilmore Simms declared the work utterly false[110] while also calling it slanderous.[111] Reactions ranged from a bookseller inMobile, Alabama, being forced to leave town for selling the novel[49] to threatening letters sent to Stowe (including a package containing a slave's severed ear).[49] Many Southern writers, like Simms, soon wrote their own books in opposition to Stowe's novel.[112]
Some critics highlighted Stowe's paucity of life-experience relating to Southern life, saying that it led her to create inaccurate descriptions of the region. For instance, she had never been to a Southern plantation. Stowe always said she based the characters of her book on stories she was told by runaway slaves in Cincinnati. 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."[113]
In response to these criticisms, in 1853 Stowe publishedA Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin, an attempt to document the veracity of the novel's depiction of slavery.[31] In the book, Stowe discusses each of the major characters inUncle Tom's Cabin and cites "real life equivalents" to them while also mounting a more "aggressive attack on slavery in the South than the novel itself had".[34] Like the novel,A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin was a best-seller, but although Stowe claimedA Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin documented her previously consulted sources, she actually read many of the cited works only after the publication of her novel.[34]
A sculpture after an 1869 design byLouis Samain was installed in 1895 onAvenue Louise inBrussels. The scene—a runaway black slave and child attacked by dogs—was inspired byUncle Tom's Cabin.
Uncle Tom's Cabin also created great interest in the United Kingdom. The first London edition appeared in May 1852 and sold 200,000 copies.[49] Some of this interest was due toanti-Americanism in Britain. As English lawyerNassau William Senior argued, "The evil passions whichUncle Tom gratified in England were not hatred or vengeance, but national jealousy and national vanity. We have long been smarting under the conceit of America—we are tired of hearing her boast that she is the freest and the most enlightened country that the world has ever seen. Our clergy hate her voluntary system—ourTories hate her democrats—ourWhigs hate herparvenus—ourRadicals hate her litigiousness, her insolence, and her ambition. All parties hailed Mrs. Stowe as a revolter from the enemy... She taught us how to prove that democrats may be tyrants, that an aristocracy of caste is more oppressive than an aristocracy of station... Our pity for the victim is swallowed up by our hatred of the tyrant."[114]
Stowe sent a copy of the book toCharles Dickens, who wrote her in response: "I have read your book with the deepest interest and sympathy, and admire, more than I can express to you, both the generous feeling which inspired it, and the admirable power with which it is executed."[115] The historian and politicianThomas Babington Macaulay wrote in 1852 that "it is the most valuable addition that America has made to English literature."[116]Charles Francis Adams Sr., the American ambassador to Britain during the Civil War, argued later that "Uncle Tom's Cabin; orLife among the Lowly, published in 1852, exercised, largely from fortuitous circumstances, a more immediate, considerable and dramatic world-influence than any other book ever printed."[117] In 1852, a German translation was published in Germany. Sanders Isaac Bernstein, writing for theUniversity of Southern California, wrote that it "was immensely popular" in that country resulting in both "a fascination with the seemingly simpler life" of someone enslaved while also stoking anti-slavery feelings, as well as "a cottage industry" of adaptations.[118]
Leo Tolstoy claimed thatUncle Tom's Cabin was a greater work than any play written byShakespeare because it flowed from the love of God and man.[119]
20th century and modern criticism
In the 20th century, a number of writers attackedUncle Tom's Cabin not only for the stereotypes the novel had created about African-Americans but also because of "the utter disdain of the Tom character by the black community".[120] These writers includedRichard Wright with his collectionUncle Tom's Children (1938) andChester Himes with his 1943 short story "Heaven Has Changed".[120]Ralph Ellison also critiqued the book with his 1952 novelInvisible Man, with Ellison figuratively killing Uncle Tom in the opening chapter.[120]
In 1945James Baldwin published his influential and infamous critical essay "Everybody's Protest Novel".[121] In the essay, Baldwin describedUncle Tom's Cabin as "a bad novel, having, in its self-righteousness, virtuous sentimentality".[122] He argued that the novel lacked psychological depth, and that Stowe, "was not so much a novelist as an impassioned pamphleteer".[123][124]Edward Rothstein has claimed that Baldwin missed the point and that the purpose of the novel was "to treat slavery not as a political issue but as an individually human one – and ultimately a challenge to Christianity itself."[124]
George Orwell in his essay "Good Bad Books", first published inTribune in November 1945, claims that "perhaps the supreme example of the 'good bad' book isUncle Tom's Cabin. It is an unintentionally ludicrous book, full of preposterous melodramatic incidents; it is also deeply moving and essentially true; it is hard to say which quality outweighs the other." But he concludes "I would backUncle Tom's Cabin to outlive the complete works ofVirginia Woolf orGeorge Moore, though I know of no strictly literary test which would show where the superiority lies."[125]
The negative associations related toUncle Tom's Cabin, in particular how the novel and associated playscreated and popularized racial stereotypes, have to some extent obscured the book's historical impact as a "vital antislavery tool".[15] After the turn of the millennium, scholars such asHenry Louis Gates Jr. andHollis Robbins have re-examinedUncle Tom's Cabin in what has been called a "serious attempt to resurrect it as both a central document in American race relations and a significant moral and political exploration of the character of those relations."[124]
In China,Uncle Tom's Cabin experienced a revival of interest in the early 1960s.[126]: 55 In the Chinese communist view of the book, Uncle Tom was interpreted as having been betrayed by his "Christian consciousness."[126]: 55 In 1961,Sun Weishi directed a stage play adaptation of the book.[126]: 55 The revival of interest inUncle Tom's Cabin intersected with the translation and popularization of works byW. E. B. Du Bois, who was viewed as having developed a new spirit of Black resistance.[126]: 54–55
Despite this undisputed significance,Uncle Tom's Cabin has been called "a blend of children'sfable and propaganda".[127] The novel has also been dismissed by severalliterary critics as "merely a sentimental novel";[98] critic George Whicher stated in hisLiterary History of the United States that "Nothing attributable to Mrs. Stowe or her handiwork can account for the novel's enormous vogue; its author's resources as a purveyor of Sunday-school fiction were not remarkable. She had at most a ready command of broadly conceived melodrama, humor, and pathos, and of these popular sentiments she compounded her book."[100]
Other critics, though, have praised the novel.Edmund Wilson stated that "To expose oneself in maturity toUncle Tom's Cabin may therefore prove a startling experience. It is a much more impressive work than one has ever been allowed to suspect."[128] Jane Tompkins stated that the novel is one of the classics of American literature and wonders if many literary critics dismiss the book because it was simply too popular during its day.[92]
Creation and popularization of stereotypes
An illustration of Sam from the 1888 "New Edition" ofUncle Tom's Cabin. The character of Sam helped create the stereotype of the lazy, carefree "happy darky".
Many modern scholars and readers have criticized the book for condescending racist descriptions of the black characters' appearances, speech, and behavior, as well as the passive nature of Uncle Tom in accepting his fate.[129] The novel's creation and use of commonstereotypes about African Americans[12] is significant becauseUncle Tom's Cabin was the best-selling novel in the world during the 19th century.[7] As a result, the book (along with illustrations from the book[39] and associated stage productions) played a major role in perpetuating and solidifying such stereotypes into the American psyche.[130][129]
In the 1960s and 1970s, theBlack Power andBlack Arts Movements attacked the novel, claiming that the character of Uncle Tom engaged in "race betrayal", and that Tom made slaves out to be worse than slave owners.[124]
Among thestereotypes of blacks inUncle Tom's Cabin[13][15] are the "happy darky" (in the lazy, carefree character of Sam); the light-skinnedtragic mulatto as a sex object (in the characters of Eliza, Cassy, and Emmeline); the affectionate, dark-skinned femalemammy (through several characters, including Mammy, a cook at the St. Clare plantation); thepickaninny stereotype of black children (in the character of Topsy); and the Uncle Tom, an African American who is too eager to please white people.[53]
Stowe intended Tom to be a "noble hero" and a Christ-like figure who, like Jesus at his crucifixion, forgives the people responsible for his death. The false stereotype of Tom as a "subservient fool who bows down to the white man", and the resulting derogatory term "Uncle Tom", resulted from staged "Tom Shows", which sometimes replaced Tom's grim death with an upbeat ending where Tom causes his oppressors to see the error of their ways, and they all reconcile happily. Stowe had no control over these shows and their alteration of her story.[53]
Title page forAunt Phillis's Cabin by Mary Eastman, one of many examples of anti-Tom literature
In response toUncle Tom's Cabin, writers in the Southern United States produced a number of books to rebut Stowe's novel.[131]Uncle Tom's Cabin was published in 1852, and very quickly seven Anti-Tom novels were published in 1852 and six more in 1853. This so-calledAnti-Tom literature generally took a pro-slavery viewpoint, arguing that the issues of slavery as depicted in Stowe's book were overblown and incorrect.[132] The novels in this genre tended to feature a benign white patriarchal master and a pure wife, both of whom presided over childlike slaves in a benevolent extended family style plantation. The novels either implied or directly stated that African Americans were a childlike people[133] unable to live their lives without being directly overseen by white people.[134]
Among the most famous anti-Tom books areThe Sword and the Distaff byWilliam Gilmore Simms,Aunt Phillis's Cabin byMary Henderson Eastman, andThe Planter's Northern Bride byCaroline Lee Hentz,[135] with the last author having been a close personal friend of Stowe's when the two lived in Cincinnati. Simms' book was published a few months after Stowe's novel, and it contains a number of sections and discussions disputing Stowe's book and her view of slavery. Hentz's 1854 novel, widely read at the time but now largely forgotten, 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.[136]
In the decade between the publication ofUncle Tom's Cabin and the start of theAmerican Civil War, between twenty and thirty anti-Tom books were published (although others continued to be published after the war, includingThe Leopard's Spots in 1902 by "professional racist"Thomas Dixon Jr.).[137] More than half of these anti-Tom books were written by white women, Simms commenting at one point about the "Seemingly poetic justice of having the Northern woman (Stowe) answered by a Southern woman."[138]
Little Eva's death scene in Brady's 1901 revival at the Academy of Music
Even thoughUncle Tom's Cabin was the best-selling novel of the 19th century, far more Americans of that time saw the story as a stage play or musical than read the book.[139] HistorianEric Lott estimated that "for every one of the three hundred thousand who bought the novel in its first year, many more eventually saw the play."[140] In 1902, it was reported that a quarter million of these presentations had already been performed in the United States.[141]
Given the lax copyright laws of the time, stage plays based onUncle Tom's Cabin—"Tom shows"—began to appear while the novel was still being serialized. Stowe refused to authorize dramatization of her work because of her distrust of drama, although she eventually sawGeorge L. Aiken's version and, according to Francis Underwood, was "delighted" by Caroline Howard's portrayal of Topsy.[142] Aiken's stage production was the most popular play in the U.S. and Britain for 75 years.[103] Stowe's refusal to authorize a particular dramatic version left the field clear for any number of adaptations, some launched for (various) political reasons and others as simply commercial theatrical ventures.[143][144]
Nointernational copyright laws existed at the time. The book and plays were translated into several languages. Stowe received no money, which could have meant as much as "three-fourths of her just and legitimate wages".[145]
All the Tom shows appear to have incorporated elements ofmelodrama andblackfaceminstrelsy.[15] These plays varied tremendously in their politics—some faithfully reflected Stowe's sentimentalized antislavery politics, while others were more moderate, or even pro-slavery.[146] Many of the productions featured demeaning racial caricatures of black people;[15] some productions also featured songs byStephen Foster, including "My Old Kentucky Home", "Old Folks at Home", and "Massa's in the Cold Ground".[139] The best-known Tom shows were those of George Aiken and H. J. Conway.[147]
The many stage variants ofUncle Tom's Cabin "dominated northern popular culture... for several years" during the 19th century,[148] and the plays were still being performed in the early 20th century.[149]
A still fromEdwin S. Porter's 1903 version ofUncle Tom's Cabin, which was one of the first full-length movies. The still shows Eliza telling Uncle Tom that he has been sold and that she is running away to save her child.
Uncle Tom's Cabin has been adapted several times as a film. Most of these movies were created during thesilent film era (Uncle Tom's Cabin was the most-filmed book of that time period).[150] Because of the continuing popularity of both the book and "Tom" shows, audiences were already familiar with the characters and the plot, making it easier for the film to be understood without spoken words.[150]
The first film version ofUncle Tom's Cabin was one of the earliest full-length movies, although full-length at that time meant between 10 and 14 minutes.[151] This 1903 film, directed byEdwin S. Porter, used white actors inblackface in the major roles and black performers only asextras. This version was evidently similar to many of the "Tom Shows" of earlier decades and featured several stereotypes about blacks, such as having the slaves dance in almost any context, including at a slave auction.[151]
In 1910, a three-reelVitagraph Company of America production was directed byJ. Stuart Blackton and adapted by Eugene Mullin. According toThe Dramatic Mirror, this film was "a decided innovation" in motion pictures and "the first time an American company" released a dramatic film in three reels. Until then, full-length movies of the time were 15 minutes long and contained only one reel of film. The movie starredFlorence Turner,Mary Fuller, Edwin R. Phillips,Flora Finch,Genevieve Tobin andCarlyle Blackwell, Sr.[152]
At least four more movie adaptations were created in the next two decades. The last silent film version was released in 1927. Directed byHarry A. Pollard, who played Uncle Tom in a 1913 release ofUncle Tom's Cabin, this two-hour movie was more than a year in production and was the third most expensive picture of the silent era, at a cost of $1.8 million. The black actorCharles Gilpin was originally cast in the title role, but he was fired after the studio decided his "portrayal was too aggressive".[153]
For several decades after the end of the silent film era, the subject matter of Stowe's novel was judged too sensitive for further film interpretation. In 1946,Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer considered filming the story but ceased production after protests led by theNational Association for the Advancement of Colored People.[154] The story was adapted as a play within the musical film version of The King & I. Within the main story, the character ofAnna Leonowens gives Tuptim a copy of the book of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Tuptim relates to the anti-slavery themes of the book, and adapts it in to a traditional Siamese play for a state dinner. In this version, called "The Small House of Uncle Thomas", the characters are re-written as Buddhists. This version eliminates most of the white slave owners as characters, and focuses only on Tom, Simon, Eliza, Eva, and Topsy. Film versions were created overseas in the following decades, including a 1965 German-language version and a TV soap opera inBrazil calledA Cabana do Pai Tomás, which ran for 205 episodes from July 1969 to March 1970.[155] The final film version[156] was atelevision broadcast in 1987, directed byStan Lathan and adapted by John Gay. It starredAvery Brooks,Phylicia Rashad,Edward Woodward,Jenny Lewis,Samuel L. Jackson and Endyia Kinney.[157]
In addition to film adaptations, versions ofUncle Tom's Cabin have been produced in other formats, including a number ofanimated cartoons.Uncle Tom's Cabin also influenced movies, includingThe Birth of a Nation. This controversial 1915 film set the dramatic climax in a slave cabin similar to that of Uncle Tom, where several white Southerners unite with their former enemy (Yankee soldiers) to defend, according to the film's caption, their "Aryan birthright". According to scholars, this reuse of such a familiar image of a slave cabin would have resonated with, and been understood by, audiences of the time.[158][159]
^de Rosa 2003, On p. 122, de Rosa quotes Tompkins 1985, p. 145 that Stowe's strategy was to destroy slavery through the "saving power of Christian love"..
^Tompkins 1985, On p. 141, Tompkins writes "Stowe conceived her book as an instrument for bringing about the day when the world would be ruled not by force, but by Christian love.".
^ab"First Edition Illustrations".Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture, a Multi-Media Archive. Department of English, University of Virginia. RetrievedFebruary 21, 2022.
^abcWinship, Michael (2007)."Uncle Tom's Cabin: History of the Book in the 19th-Century United States".Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture, a Multi-Media Archive. Department of English, University of Virginia. RetrievedFebruary 21, 2022. Derived from a presentation at the June 2007 Uncle Tom's Cabin in the Web of Culture conference, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and presented by the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center (Hartford, CT) and the Uncle Tom's Cabin & American Culture Project at the University of Virginia.
^Allen 2004, p. 24 states that "Stowe held specific beliefs about the 'evils' of slavery and the role of Americans in resisting it." The book then quotesAnn Douglas describing how Stowe saw slavery as a sin.
^"Stand still and see the salvation".Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture, a Multi-Media Archive. Department of English, University of Virginia. RetrievedFebruary 20, 2022.
^ab"Uncle Tom's Cabin on Film".Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture, a Multi-Media Archive. Department of English, University of Virginia. Archived fromthe original on May 10, 2008. RetrievedFebruary 21, 2022.
^"The 3-Reel Vitagraph Production (1910)".Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture, a Multi-Media Archive. Department of English, University of Virginia. Archived fromthe original on October 13, 2007. RetrievedFebruary 21, 2022.
^"Universal Super Jewel Production (1927)".Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture, a Multi-Media Archive. Department of English, University of Virginia. Archived fromthe original on April 11, 2009. RetrievedFebruary 21, 2022.
^"Uncle Tom's Cabin in Hollywood: 1929–1956".Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture, a Multi-Media Archive. Department of English, University of Virginia. Archived fromthe original on April 11, 2009. RetrievedFebruary 21, 2022.
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University of Virginia Web site "Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture: A Multi-Media Archive" – edited by Stephen Railton, covers 1830 to 1930, offering links to primary and bibliographic sources on the cultural background, various editions, and public reception of Harriet Beecher Stowe's influential novel. The site also provides the full text of the book, audio and video clips, and examples of related merchandising.
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-_Little_Eva%2527s_death_scene_LCCN2004681923.jpg)
