Uncle Tom's Cabin

**** By Harriet Beecher Stowe.

The introduction to my volume discusses a) how so many people have misconceptions of the book because they have never bothered to read it and b) how Stowe wrote it not to be a "great novel" but to change people's minds about slavery, these being two of the big misunderstandings non-readers have about Uncle Tom's Cabin. Having now read it, I say Amen!

The year is about 1852 (that's when the book was written, anyway). The Fugitive Slave Act has just been passed, meaning that crossing the Ohio River does not mean guaranteed freedom for runaway slaves. A kindly but, alas, imperfect slaveowner in northern Kentucky is pushed by debt to sell two of his slaves in order to save his estate: a four year old boy, and everyone's favorite person Uncle Tom.

Thus begins a gripping adventure story with more at stake than a happy ending. Stowe tells of slaves who rebel and run away, and those who remain loyal not so much to their owners but to their own principles; both sorts are fully justified and not to be criticized. She tells of slaveowners kind and cruel, responsible and careless, and of abolitionists acive and silent. Her primary goal, however, is clear: to make no doubt in any reader's mind that slavery is inhumane, unChristian, and unpardonable for any nation.

Even if it sometimes disrupts plot flow, you can hardly criticize Stowe's approach to the subject. Throughout the story, she beats down probably every popular and unpopular argument in favor of slavery from that time, as well as giving the reader several healthy doses of heartbreak. Some slaves are better off with their masters than on their own? That can all change when the master dies. Slaves are hopeless and immoral and uneducated? Only because they have been treated and raised so; and such things are not irreversible. Slaves are treated as members of the family? Kind treatment is no substitute for the freedom of one's soul.

Yes, melodrama rears its head now and again, but remember, it wasn't intended to be a masterpiece of fiction. It was intended to influence the opinion of an entire nation. For that, it was as brilliant as it needed to be.

Posted by Lisa on April 10, 2003 09:35 AM