Captivity In Uncle Tom's Cabin Essay

Captivity in Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Tell someone that Uncle Tom’s Cabin is about captivity, and it is unlikely they would bat an eyelash in response. After all, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s seminal novel tells a story of escaped slaves and their struggle to avoid capture, making captivity an obvious theme. However, in addition to its more literal exploration of the concept of captivity, Uncle Tom’s Cabin also examines several types of metaphorical captivity. There is the financial captivity to which those in the slave trade find themselves, forced to make decisions they do not want to because of the economic implications. There is the captivity of Christian doctrine, which many have interpreted as pro-slavery and therefore participate in the institution
A deeply religious woman, Stowe accomplishes this by presenting the theology of Christian doctrine as the paradigm of righteousness throughout the novel. Lest any readers should fail to grasp this, Stowe makes sure to emphasize Christian virtue even in the book’s final chapter, a conclusion of sorts by the author in which she directly appeals to Americans to end slavery in the name of God. Both North and South have been guilty before God,” she declares, “and the Christian church has a heavy account to answer” (629). In particular, though the author falls short of fully developing many of her female characters, she instead uses those women to collectively promote morality. Both Mrs. Shelby and Mrs. Bird speak out passionately against slavery on the grounds that it is contrary to Christian virtue. In Mrs. Bird’s ardent speech to her husband on the matter, she invokes religion to explain why she would help runaway slaves. “I don’t know anything about politics, but I can read my Bible, and there I see that I must feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and comfort the desolate,” (144) she declares to her husband. The viewpoints of women like Mrs. Bird and Mrs. Shelby are diametrically opposed to the idea that slavery has elements of Christian charity to it; rather, they see slavery as an unambiguous evil to which
However, to examine the text closely is to behold just far it extends the evil effects of slavery. In Stowe’s world, the idea of captivity extends far beyond Africans in chains. It encompasses families of slave-owners forced to participate in a system they have come to oppose because of their financial commitments. It ensnares countless Christians who believe that it is by divine will that they enslave people from Africa and free them from their barbaric urges. It even comes to apply to lawmakers forced to comply with pro-slavery legislation for fear of the political repercussions. Uncle Tom’s Cabin had a profound effect on the history of a nation in a way that is nearly unheard of for a work of fiction. Yet, even after the dust of the Civil War had long settled, Stowe’s novel continued to teach generations of readers an indelible lesson about the many forms that captivity can