Uncle Toms Cabin Thesis

Uncle Tom’s Cabin Uncle Tom’s Cabin is based on slavery in the 1800’s. Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of the novel, was an avid abolitionist. Her main goal of the novel was to convince the North of the urgency to end slavery, and to ‘expose’ the south and the horrible stories of slavery.
Harriet Beecher Stowe, the well-known author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was born on June 14, 1811 in Litchfield, Connecticut. She was one of thirteen children, to parents Lyman Beecher and Roxanna Foote Beecher. Lyman Beecher, her father, was a leading Congregationalist minister and the patriarch of a family committed to social justice, and abolishing slavery. Along with her father’s actions in social justice, Stowe’s seven brothers all grew up to be ministers.
In 1850, congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law, which made it illegal to help or give aid to runaway slaves. This movement made it even harder for slaves to run away, they then had to escape to Canada, instead of just up North. Stowe then decided to express her feelings regarding slavery through literature work, through the life of Josiah Henson and many other slaves she talked to. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published the following year, and quickly became a best seller. Stowe’s ability to show so much emotion through her work, and adequately portray the impact of slavery captured the nation’s attention. While Uncle Tom’s Cabin was embraced in the North as a tool that correctly portrays slavery, it gained a lot of hostility throughout the South. Early into the Civil War, Stowe met with Abraham Lincoln in Washington, D.C. It is said that when they first met, Lincoln went up to her and said, “So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this Great War” (Harriet Beecher). Whether the story is true or not is not clear, but the statement shows how significant Uncle Tom’s Cabin was in the beginning of the Civil War. Stowe continued to publish stories,