Why Is Uncle Tom's Cabin: Antislavary Or Harmful?

As Americans approached the 1850s, antislavery ideas became more popular in the northern states. Whether the desire for slavery to be abolished was since the north did not have much slavery to begin with, or that people really saw slavery as inhumane is arguable. Regardless, this time brought about the drive for equality, if not for Blacks, but for Women. Even though people saw slavery as evil, they did not disagree with the idea of white superiority, a consistency between all three readings. Many people found the antislavery movement and women’s suffrage movement, jumpstarted by the women’s convention in 1848, intertwining. For some like Harriet Beecher Stowe, they found themselves leaning more towards antislavery support. Stowe, known for her book Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was successful in drawing attention to the “evilness” of slavery. Through her character, Tom, she painted Blacks as soulful and spiritual, but weak. Stowe did not attack the racist ideas of black inferiority that typically fueled people’s desire to enslave them. Instead, she made the claim that Blacks were the best Christians, because they made the best slaves. While, Whites, who make the worst slaves, were worst Christians. In this way, Stowe twisted previous ideas by Cotton Mather and other preachers that suggested that Christianity is what made
Blacks better slaves. Like previous times, Christianity still proved to act as a tool to support White superiority on the antislavery and proslavery platforms.
Stowe, in support of antislavery, proposed that, “In order to become better Christians, White people must constrain their domineering temperament and end the evil outgrowth of that temperament: slavery” (193). Those who were in opposition of Stowe’s antislavery perspective believed that God had made Blacks inferior and nothing more. John H. Van Evrie noted, “God has made the negro an inferior being not in most, but in all cases” (198). Ironically, Evrie utilized the same God to justify equality between all white
men. Polygenesis continued its growth during the 1850s. Inspired by Samuel Morton, Josiah C. Nott and George Gliddon wrote the Types of Mankind. Within it they added an illustration of three skulls: the top being the “Greek”, the middle being the negro, and the bottom being the ape. Polygenesis was a way for individuals to support white superiority. The “science” said that physically Whites were created to be superior. In some cases, Cotton Mather’s ideals of spiritual equality between Blacks and Whites was utilized to support the claims on polygenesis. Ultimately, the belief in white superiority did not stray far from the minds of the people during the 1850s. In fact, those who were against the implementation of slavery found themselves still being guided by their racist ideologies. Martin R. Delany emphasized, “Antislavery societies presumed to think for dictate to, and know better what suited colored people, than they know for themselves” (196). Because many believed Blacks were intellectually inferior, they stressed a need to almost guide them.