Uncle Tom's Cabin Thesis

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin is one of the more effective attacks against slavery in 1852, selling 300,000 copies during first year and nearly 3,000,000 since then. It Portrayed Uncle Tom as the first fictional Negro hero created by an American. With success along came criticism from the southerners who were outraged, and declared the work to be criminal, slanderous, and absolutely false. The follow up A key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1853, was an attempt to silence such criticism In this particular event from the book, I see that the focus is not only on the effect of slavery on slaves but also on its effect on the slaves’ owners. While slavery causes emotional and physical suffering among the slaves that slaveholders
can never know, the system also makes human beings lose all sense of right and wrong. The effect extends to both the oppressed and the oppressor. Through the story of the Legree plantation it is evident to me that it’s trying to shows how the system turns slaves against each other, and how cruelty makes people crueler.
The plantation also lacks all sense of religion. Tom tries to fight against the cruelty, to infuse goodness into this moral void. The only commands he refuses to obey are those that go against his faith; thus in beating in he holds strong. These pages work toward transforming Tom into a Heroic figure. He would rather face a severe beating himself than violate his morals by beating another slave. Even thou I have been familiarize by this topic, this particular event from the book became clearer and gave me more of a broad outlook on just what the institution of slavery were about and the cruelty some slaves were exposed to. Thou Stowe’s focuses were not exactly how every slave owner treated there slaves, it still touches on that slavery itself was not right. It is said that history repeats itself, although this book was fictitious from time to time in real life we see event that reflects back on standing up for what you believe in at whatever cost. In comparison to Tom one will think of Martin Luther who want everyone to be treated equal was shot on his quest for civil rights, or even Mahatma Gandhi who believe in not Physically fighting back was assassinated for his “Fight” for Freedom and Justice for
India. Overall by reading this topic one can’t help but to learned or get something out of it. Events similar to this topic are happening every day in society somewhere, but it up to us to be our own example of Tom. Take a stand against anything that seem unjust, stop oppressor in their steps so we want have future oppressor, and most importantly not loose sense of what right and what wrong. Stowe,Harriet. "Harriet Beecher Stowe: Uncle Tom Defies Simon Legree" The Annals of America. Vol.VIII Editor:Williams Benton. Chicago Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc,1852 200-202