How "Uncle Tom's Cabin" started the war

By:Brian Freeman

The Book That Started a War

The Civil War grew out of a mixture of causes including regional conflicts between North and South, economic trends, and humanitarian concerns for the welfare of enslaved people. The Civil War, which pitted one section of the country against another, almost destroyed the United States. Uncle Tom's Cabin contributed to the outbreak of war because it brought the evils of slavery to the attention of Americans more vividly than any other book had done before. The book had a strong emotional appeal that moved and inspired people in a way that political speeches, tracts and newspaper accounts could not duplicate. Uncle Tom's Cabin drew many people into the fight over the institution of slavery. Few books can truly be said to have altered the course of history and even fewer can be said to have started an entire war. Uncle Tom's Cabin was one such novel. It is a realistic, although fictional, view of slavery that burned images of brutal beatings and unfair slave practices into the consciousness of America.

The new Fugitive Slave Act that came out of the Compromise of 1850 empowered federal commissioners to catch runaway slaves, denied the blacks any judicial recourse, and penalized citizens for refusing to support the authorities (Stokesbury 19). Most importantly the Fugitive Slave Act brought the issue home to anti-slavery citizens in the North. It made the Northerners and their institutions responsible for enforcing slavery. Even moderate abolitionists were now faced with the immediate choice of defying what they believed as an unjust law. The Northerners were shamed by the sight of blacks led off in chains and many states passed personal freedom laws to counter act the Fugitive Slave Act. The new personal freedom laws passed by the Northerners would be useless against the Fugitive Slave Act.

A response to the new laws came in 1851 when a woman named Harriet Beecher Stowe, the wife of a professor at Bowdoin College in Maine, began publishing Uncle Tom’s Cabin as a Newspaper serial (Stokesbury 19). Originally planned for a series of short essays for the National Era in 1851-1852, Stowe gathered so much information that it was too large for newspaper print and was published originally by the Boston publishing company Jewett (Clinton 989). Immediately it became a hot seller with Northerners and Southerners alike. Within a year it sold 300,000 copies in the United States alone comparable to at least three million today (McPherson 89-90). Uncle Tom's Cabin ignited as a best seller in the United States and the novel enjoyed equal popularity in England, Europe, Asia, and eventually translated into over sixty languages. Catherine Clinton states, “Stowe’s novel swayed thousands of middle class whites to sympathize with the plight of slaves (Clinton 1110).” It is not possible to measure precisely the political influence of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. One can quantify its sales but cannot point to votes that it changed or laws that it inspired (McPherson 89). Uncle Tom’s Cabin had a huge impact on our nation and contributed to the tension over slavery. Stowe’s influence on the northern states was remarkable. Stowe single handedly changed the views of thousands and brought about the abolitionist "fever."

Immediately after its publication, Uncle Tom's Cabin was both lauded as a tremendous achievement and attacked as being one sided and inaccurate. Abolitionists and reformers praised the book for its compassionate portrayal of people held in slavery. Uncle Tom’s Cabin struck a raw nerve in the South. Southerners who claimed that slavery was sanctioned in the Bible attacked Stowe and accused her of fabricating unrealistic images of slavery. Southerners continued to criticize Stowe because she had never visited the South. Many Southerners argued that there were false reports in what she wrote because the slave owners were portrayed as heartless devilish men, and the slaves were portrayed as their victims. However, Max Herzberg states that the Southerners anger grew because the novel showed, “the evils of slavery and the cruelty and inhumanity of the peculiar institution, in particular how masters treat their slaves and how families are torn apart because of slavery (Herzberg-1167).” Southern States in order to fight back installed laws which made the ownership of Uncle’s Tom Cabin illegal. Despite the efforts to ban it copies sold so fast in Charleston and elsewhere that booksellers could not keep up with the demand (McPherson 90).

James McPherson states that Uncle Tom’s Cabin is, “written in the sentimental style made popular by best selling women novelists, Uncle Tom’s Cabin homed in on the breakup of families as the theme most likely to pluck the heartstrings of middle class readers who cherished children and spouses of their own (McPherson 38).” Max Herzberg states that Mrs. Stowe’s purpose of writing Uncle Tom’s Cabin, “was to expose the evils of slavery to the North where many were unaware of just what went on in the rest of the country (Herzberg 1167).” Mrs. Stowe once declared, “God wrote the book, and I took His dictation (Herzberg 1167).” Uncle Tom’s Cabin is an account of the trials and suffering of Uncle Tom, a negro slave. The novel also portrays his wife, Eliza, and their son Harry. Uncle Tom is a good and pious man who is too eager to please his white owner. Even in the worst circumstances Tom is optimistic. Tom often looks to the bible for hope, “Pray for them that ‘spitefully use you, the good book says (Stowe 771).” This is a reference to Matthew 5:44 from the King James Bible: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” Uncle Tom is eventually sold and cruelly mistreated by a Yankee overseer named Simon Legree and finally whipped to death by him (Herzberg 1167).In a later age “Uncle Tom” became an epithet for a black person who behaved with fawning servility toward white oppressors (Mcpherson 90).

Arthur Shelby is the plantation owner where Uncle Tom, Eliza, and Harry are living. Shelby, facing the loss of his farm because of debts, is forced to sell his slaves. When Shelby tells his wife about his plans, his wife is appalled because she has promised Eliza that they would not sell her son. Eliza overhears a conversation about her and Harry being sold and takes Harry and flees to the North for freedom. The scene where Eliza and Harry run away is one of the most important scenes of the book. Eliza feels desperate and lonely. She is tortured by a maternal sense of panic for her imperiled child. With a slave trader following close behind, Eliza is forced to run with her son in the dead of winter. Eliza runs across a frozen Ohio River with her son Harry in her arms to save him from being sold. Stowe writes, “She wondered within herself at the strength that seemed to be come upon her; for she felt the weight of the her boy as if it had been a feather, and every flutter of fear seemed to increase the supernatural power that bore her on, while from her pale lips burst forth, in frequent ejaculations, the prayer to a friend above- “Lord, help! Lord, save me! (Stowe 767).” Eliza fleeing across the ice choked Ohio River to save her son from the slave trader and Tom weeping for the children he left behind in Kentucky when he was sold south are among the most unforgettable scenes in American letters (McPherson 38-40). Stowe is able to capture moments like the one above in Uncle Tom's Cabin that humanized slavery by telling the story of individuals and families. Harriet portrayed the physical, sexual, and emotional abuse endured by enslaved people.

In one of the important sections of the book, Senator Bird sits in his house with his wife. The Ohio State Senator early during the day voted for a law forbidding the assistance of runaway slaves (The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850). Senator Bird’s wife realizing her husband voted in its favor states, “Now, John, I don't know anything about politics, but I can read my Bible; and there I see that I must feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and comfort the desolate; and that Bible I mean to follow (Stowe 778).” Mrs. Bird continues to rout Senator Bird by insisting that she will follow her conscience and her Bible rather than an immoral law. The quote above is an example of the main theme of the novel. The theme of the novel is condemning slavery as contrary to Christianity and specifically the passage above bear’s witness to Stowe's attack on the Fugitive Slave Act.

To Conclude, Uncle Tom's Cabin is a truly passionate novel that swayed the hearts of many readers. At the height of racial tension in nineteenth century America, Stowe revealed the sufferings and hardships the southern slaves endured. Stowe used her passionate words to help prompt abolitionist action. Uncle Tom’s Cabin swayed many Northerners attitudes towards slavery by showing the evils of slavery and the cruelty and inhumanity of the institution, in particular how masters treat their slaves and how families are torn apart because of slavery. Harriet Beecher Stowe will always be remembered as the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, which helped galvanize the abolitionist cause which contributed to the outbreak of the Civil War. When Lincoln met the author later that year, he reportedly greeted her with the words: “So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war.” (McPherson 89).

Work Cited

Clinton, Catherine. The Road to Freedom. 1st. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2004. Print.

Herzberg, Max. "Uncle Tom's Cabin, or, Life among the Lowly."The Reader's Encylopedia of American Literature. 3rd ed. 1962. Print.

McPherson, James. Battle Cry of Freedom. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. Print.

Stokesbury, James. A Short History of the Civil War. 1st. New York: Quill, 1995. Print.

Stowe, Harriet. "Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: Norton & Company, 2008. Print.