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Uncle Tom's Cabin Thesis

Decent Essays

Literature, in many ways, ignited the American Civil War. This war that began in 1861, was a homefront war between Southern and Northern beliefs, the single most deliberate cause of the war was slavery. One piece of literature, concerning slavery, that heavily influenced the war, was Uncle Tom's Cabin. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote published Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852, it was featured as a forty-five series in an Abolitionist newspaper, and is responsible for forever altering how Americans view slavery. Stowe was born in 1811, into a religious family and she was given a unique opportunity for an education. Along with her education, she viewed slavery up close and her family held quarters for fugitive slaves. Her proximity to the slaves had given …show more content…

Prior to Stowe’s work, Abolitionists in the North had begun to rally against slavery and southern society. Although the anti-slavery movement had begun, Stowe granted her readers exclusive insight of the cruelty of slavery. Readers learned of the protagonist Tom, and how he was torn away from his wife and children to work as a slave on a southern plantation. Stowe created the fictional Tom to be a perfect slave, he was obedient and hardworking, readers would rapidly love and sympathize with the character. When Tom is brutally beaten, whipped, and eventually killed unjustly, the readers became outraged. For the first time, the horror that slaves were forced apart from their families, and although dramatized, the beatings that slaves endured were exposed. This caused the Abolitionist movement to increase and become louder than ever. Before Stowe, Southern plantation owners had advocated that slaves were accepting of their lifestyles and treatment, but on the contrary, slave rebellions were becoming increasingly frequent and the north became more aware. The words “Uncle Tom” became fighting words in the North, many young men that read the novel soon joined the anti-slavery movement. A rebuttal to this point, is that the severity of slavery was known, but ignored. While the nation was aware of slavery and its cruel treatment of Africans, inhuman acts of slavery were often overlooked and …show more content…

The Northern States, heavily influenced by industry were “free” states that made slavery illegal, while Southern States dependant on agriculture and plantations, were “slave” states. Many citizens in the North were impartial to the slavery issue, until Uncle Tom’s Cabin became the most best-selling book of the 19th century, next to the Holy Bible (Kane 1). The differences between the North and South were at their peak, and it was soon presidential election year. A young Abraham Lincoln was a candidate for election, and used Uncle Tom’s Cabin as inspiration and a social issue to gain votes. A Massachusetts Senator, Charles Sumner, leader of radical Republicans, said, “Had there been no Uncle Tom’s Cabin, there would have been no Lincoln in the White House” (“Welcome to Harriet Beecher Stowe Center”). After Lincoln was elected president in 1860, war was becoming inevitable. At this point, the influence of Uncle Tom’s Cabin and its effects left the South feeling attacked. Not only were southern morals made an issue, but the entire southern society is knocked off its pedestal and looked down upon. Southerners were on the offensive and were ready to fight for thier way of life (Kennedy 396). Some think that the North and South would have journeyed to war without the highlighted slavery issue. While economic, philosophical and political divides were distinct among the north and south,

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