Uncle Tom's Cabin in History

Recently I read Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. The book was the most widely read book in the 19th century (after the Bible). There is a Harriet Beecher Stowe Center in Hartford, CT. I like how she exposed the various bogus justifications the slave owners held at the time. And the way that she humanized the slaves.

I think it's unfortunate that the book was adapted into (against the author's wishes) a bunch of racist stuff - so that the character, Uncle Tom is commonly given a wholly different symbolism than what Stowe intended. In her book Tom stands up to his master and refuses to hurt other slaves. He is practically Christ-like. Now some will use the term "Uncle Tom" to mean 'traitor" - as if Tom betrayed other slaves (based on depictions in Minstrel shows and such) but that does not reflect the book. See: Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture Archive.


After I read it - I became more curious as to where the book fit into the scheme of things - leading up to the Civil War.

By 1835, people started petitioning Congress to end slavery.

In 1836, Charles Pinckney of South Carolina, introduced the "gag rule" to end discussion about slavery in the House of Representatives. It was in force until 1844. The gag rule got people more riled up than ever.

The Fugitive Slave Act was passed in 1850. This Act made it a crime for citizens of free states to help slaves who were running away. The Fugitive Slave Act was partly what inspired Stowe to write her book - her first novel.

From the Stowe Center website:

Uncle Tom's Cabin humanized slavery by telling the story of individuals and families. Harriet portrayed the physical, sexual, and emotional abuse endured by enslaved people....

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. This 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 newspapers accounts could not duplicate.

Also:
Through a column in a large New York newspaper, The Independent, she urged the women of the United States to use their influence against slavery by obtaining signatures on petitions, spreading information, and inviting lecturers to speak to community groups on the subject.

The book started coming out in serial form in 1851 and the book was published in 1852.

In 1856 - the US Supreme Court came out with the Dred Scott decision.

Scott was suing to be a free man based on his owner having taken him to a free state. Taney - the Supreme Court Justice argued that Scott did not have a right to sue - that he was not a citizen. His characterization of slaves - articulating the dehumanization of slaves on the part of "free" people - was not something that could be accepted. One excerpt:

"They had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit. He was bought and sold, and treated as an ordinary article of merchandise and traffic, whenever a profit could be made by it. This opinion was at that time fixed and universal in the civilized portion of the white race. It was regarded as an axiom in morals as well as in politics, which no one thought of disputing, or supposed to be open to dispute; and men in every grade and position in society daily and habitually acted upon it in their private pursuits, as well as in matters of public concern; without doubting for a moment the correctness of this opinion." pg19

This would have been received all the worse - the way Taney characterized Slaves - after reading Uncle Tom's Cabin. Before - more Northerners might have turned a blind eye and figured that it was none of their affair. But the book followed by the Scott case - and whatever all else was going on at the time - were enough to convince people that the situation was intolerable. The book challenged people's ethics and religious values and their actions based on those values. It's no surprise that Stowe's father was a minister.

The people of the Southern States felt that the slavery issue had been resolved to their satisfaction when the US Constitution was written - figured that it was part of the contract that they agreed to in becoming States within the United States. And were mightily provoked when then it became an issue again some years later.

You can see from the South Caroline document that 1852 was a pivotal year - and the State considered seceding then. But they waited through the '52 election, and the '56 election and then when Lincoln was elected - that was it.

From the succession documents:
Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina
from the Federal Union

The people of the State of South Carolina, in Convention assembled, on the 26th day of April, A.D., 1852, declared that the frequent violations of the Constitution of the United States, by the Federal Government, and its encroachments upon the reserved rights of the States, fully justified this State in then withdrawing from the Federal Union; but in deference to the opinions and wishes of the other slaveholding States, she forbore at that time to exercise this right. Since that time, these encroachments have continued to increase, and further forbearance ceases to be a virtue.

...Sectional interest and animosity will deepen the irritation, and all hope of remedy is rendered vain, by the fact that public opinion at the North has invested a great political error with the sanction of more erroneous religious belief...

Adopted December 24, 1860
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