Uncle Toms Cabin
3. In what way did the politics of the time help to motivate Stowe to write this story?
While there are many factors that led to the outbreak of the American Civil War, the issue of slavery was the biggest cause in that time.
4. What part of the slavery issue does Stowe say she has only given a ―faint shadow, a dim picture‖?
5. Find a passage in this chapter where Stowe appeals to mothers everywhere to sympathize with the slave women who are separated from their children.
In Stowe's appeal, we hear echoes of the two main themes of Uncle Tom's Cabin: motherhood and Christian duty. She asks mothers to not allow more families to be broken apart, as were Tom and Eliza's. She also tells Christians that they have a duty to educate slaves. Indeed, Stowe is preaching to her readers, and her words evoke images of punishment upon the judgement day. Stowe wants her readers to feel that time is short before they are punished for the sin of allowing slavery to exist; Stowe demands nothing short of immediate action, that is, complete and full abolition of the brutal institution of slavery.
6. List two things Stowe believes an individual can do to combat the horrors of slavery. What role does she see for the church?
7. Where does Stowe believe the escaping and freed slave should live? Why? Do you agree or disagree? Why?
8. In the end, Stowe believes adherence to Christianity is the solution to the slavery issue. She has been criticized for not recommending her readers take a more active role in eliminating slavery by joining the local abolitionist groups or by violently attacking Southern plantations. Remembering that this novel was written by a woman, who at the time had no voting rights, what is your opinion of the strength of her message, and the power of this novel to influence the attitudes of her
While there are many factors that led to the outbreak of the American Civil War, the issue of slavery was the biggest cause in that time.
4. What part of the slavery issue does Stowe say she has only given a ―faint shadow, a dim picture‖?
5. Find a passage in this chapter where Stowe appeals to mothers everywhere to sympathize with the slave women who are separated from their children.
In Stowe's appeal, we hear echoes of the two main themes of Uncle Tom's Cabin: motherhood and Christian duty. She asks mothers to not allow more families to be broken apart, as were Tom and Eliza's. She also tells Christians that they have a duty to educate slaves. Indeed, Stowe is preaching to her readers, and her words evoke images of punishment upon the judgement day. Stowe wants her readers to feel that time is short before they are punished for the sin of allowing slavery to exist; Stowe demands nothing short of immediate action, that is, complete and full abolition of the brutal institution of slavery.
6. List two things Stowe believes an individual can do to combat the horrors of slavery. What role does she see for the church?
7. Where does Stowe believe the escaping and freed slave should live? Why? Do you agree or disagree? Why?
8. In the end, Stowe believes adherence to Christianity is the solution to the slavery issue. She has been criticized for not recommending her readers take a more active role in eliminating slavery by joining the local abolitionist groups or by violently attacking Southern plantations. Remembering that this novel was written by a woman, who at the time had no voting rights, what is your opinion of the strength of her message, and the power of this novel to influence the attitudes of her