Uncle Tom's Cabin Thesis

The book that I chose to write my report on is Uncle Tom’s Cabin; this book is written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. It was written in 1851, published in 1852, which was a time in American history where slavery was a hotly contested subject. Stowe was an abolitionist, helping to free salves from the South. Her book helped spark the Civil War due to its very controversial view of white slave owners and the portrayal of the salve and all of the atrocities done against them. Also during this time the Compromise of 1850 was signed. The Compromise of 1850 ended the slave trade but did not end slavery; it merely stopped the new importation of slaves. Before 1850, some northern states required that slave-catchers had to appear before a judge and a jury
Abolitionists claimed that the system was set up so that commissioners could be bribed to send kidnapped people into slavery for a profit. Stowe along with other abolitionists vowed that they would not stay silent on this issue, and that is when she began to write what would become a very famous book, that President Abraham Lincoln when he met Stowe after its publication said to her “So this is the little lady that started this great war.” The book was then banned in the southern states because of the way it portrayed the southern slave owners, and because of its anti-slavery themes. The south also started to write books in response to Stowe, they painted the slave owners as harmless white male masters and a wholesome wife, both of whom manage over childlike slaves in a generous extended family style plantation. The novels published by the southern states either implied or directly stated that African Americans were a childlike people not able to live their lives without being directly supervised by white
Although books may come off as being “bad” or against the government or the powers at hand I do not believe that they should be banned. As Americans we have the freedom of speech, and we are a democracy, we should be able to decide for ourselves whether or not we want to read something, or allow our children to, that option should never be taken away. I believe that the book Uncle Tom’s Cabin was banned in the southern states because of its anti-slavery themes which drastically differed from their view points. “You ought to be ashamed, John! Poor, homeless, houseless creatures! It’s a shameful, wicked, abominable law, and I’ll break it, for one, the first time I get a chance; and I hope I shall have a chance, I do! Things have got to a pretty pass, if a woman can’t give a warm supper and a bed to poor, starving creatures, just because they are slaves, and have been abused and oppressed all their lives, poor things!” This quote shows main theme of the book, it is showing that slavery and not helping freed slaves is immoral, it also portrays women as being more moral than men, which again at that time is not allowed to be thought let alone be true. I do not believe that this book should have been censored, during my research on who banned the books I read stories of book store owners that sold the books would receive death threats, I think