Harriet Beecher Stowe by Shauna Ray

Her son, Samuel’s death photo

rayshaun26 — 2024-09-24 14:39:46 UTC

Her son, Samuel Charles Stowe, died in the Summer of 1849 at only 18 months old. This grief and devastation from her son dying of cholera helped Harriet understand the pain enslaved mothers felt when their children were ripped away from them, which drove her to write Uncle Tom's Cabin (“Uncle Tom's Cabin”).

Kneeling at a Cross

rayshaun26 — 2024-09-25 14:01:50 UTC

Harriet Beecher Stowe held her religion dear to her heart and nodded to it in her writing. She was an abolitionist author guided by her Christian faith (Michals). Stowe viewed slavery as “clearly a sin” (“Harriet Beecher Stowe”). In Uncle Tom’s Cabin Tom keeps an unwavering Christian attitude toward his suffering. His death also mimics that of Christ.

Fugitive Slave Act Newspaper

rayshaun26 — 2024-09-25 14:05:22 UTC

Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin in response to the fugitive slave law(Ohio History Connection and the State Library of Ohio). It was passed in September 1850 as part of the Compromise of 1850 in Lincon’s effort to avoid a war between the Northern and Southern States (Fugitive Slave Act). As stated by the American Battlefield Trust this act required slaves to be returned to their owners even if they were in a free state (Fugitive Slave Act).

Uncle Tom's Cabin Original Book Cover

rayshaun26 — 2024-09-25 14:07:58 UTC

In chapter 14 of the novel, Tom saves a little girl named Eva from drowning when she falls off the boat (Stowe 157). At the end of the book however, he is beaten to death for refusing to deny his faith to his newest master and give away the hiding place of two fugitive slave women (Stowe 440). Tom dies a martyr. The theme of Uncle Tom’s Cabin is that good people make sacrifices for those they love.

Advertisement for W. L. G. Smiths “Life at the South”; or, ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’, the first anti-Tom novel ever written.

rayshaun26 — 2024-09-25 14:10:14 UTC

Within a month of Uncle Tom’s Cabin being published, the first anti-Tom novel was printed (Ohio History Connection and State Libary of Ohio). Slave owners and supporters of slavery in the South referred to Stowe’s work as anti-slavery propaganda extreme exaggeration, and an obvious misconception. In response to the book, some Southerners wrote anti-Tom novels, this was a literary genre focused on invalidating Stowe and the abolitionist movement and defending the establishment of slavery (Ohio History Connection and State Library of Ohio).

Ad for Agents to sell and deliver copies of Uncle Toms Cabin

rayshaun26 — 2024-09-25 14:11:37 UTC

As Jane Tompkins states Stowe’s writing is descriptive, “emotional dialogue”(Tompkins). She was one of the first professionals of American realism before it had become the dominant writing style (Tompkins). Stowe also wrote with intentional grammatical errors to show how the characters spoke and were raised as well as where each character came from.

rayshaun26 — 2024-09-25 14:28:34 UTC