I believe that religion plays a huge part in the characters and tone of this book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. I believe that since Stowe is a huge, profoundly committed Christian that her religious faith would be a major component of her opinion in the abolition of slavery. When reading her book and the different dialogue it shows. The characters in this book are treated respectfully if they have faith. “I trust you, because I think you’re a Christian – I know you wouldn’t cheat.” (Stowe 4)
The narrator simply tells Tom that he does not believe that Tom would cheat him out. He believes that Tom is a good man because he holds the faith within him. “I an’t a Christian like you Eliza; my heart’s full of bitterness; I can’t trust in God. Why does He let things be so?’ ‘Oh, George, we must have faith! Mistress says that when all things go wrong to us, we must believe in God is doing the very best.’” (Stowe 18) The narrator includes that the faith of God does righteous things to the one who believes and that everything happens for a reason. I believe that if the slaves did not have faith within themselves that they would not make it through the rough times they were given. For example, Eliza was trying to tell her husband, George, that everything will be okay, just believe. George was told that he had to marry another woman even though he was already married.
Religion plays a huge part in the tone of Stowe’s book. The tone of this book, I believe is serious. This book is not a story that is told to be funny but it was told to enlighten readers of the horrors of slavery. The narrator makes adequate comments to lead us up to the moral conclusion. Religion helps aid the tone by allowing us to intel that even though there might be hard times, that God is always with us. After reading this book, I learned that America’s faith is huge. I learned that when someone says that everything happens for a reason, it really does. Faith plays a huge part in someone’s life and with this event aiding to America. It just shows the great thanks we have for God and our faith. For example, in some Southern Baptist Church some of the hymns sung are from the songs the slaves would sing in the fields while working.
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If I was a resident of a northern city but was not a strict abolitionist, after reading this book I would become one. I would become an abolitionist because nobody should be treated as someones slave. God made us with two arms with two hands and two legs with two feet, he intended for us to use the limbs he provided us. Nobody should be treated differently because of race or religion or because of anything that makes us different. “‘Well!’ said Miss Ophelia “you southern children can do something that I couldn’t.” (Stowe 153)
Yes, Miss Ophelia is an abolitionist but she is a deep-hearted racist. She likes and cares for the blacks but she hesitates to touch and interact with them. If she is a so called ‘abolitionist’ why doesn’t she touch them? Why doesn’t she interact with them? They are a person just like her. Another thing that would make me become an abolitionist is that everyone should have their own rights. In this book, George, Eliza’s husband, is forced to marry another woman. “… he told me that I should take Mina for a wife, and settle down in a cabin with her, or he would sell men down the river.” (Stowe 18) He does not want to because he loves Eliza and has a son with her.
The only reason he is at another master is because he was sold to another master. Nobody should be treated like livestock, that is just so inhumane. Everything about this book irks me. Even though Eliza and George were married with a minister, they weren’t married. Slaves can not be married, “there is no law in this country for that.” (Stowe 18) This would make me become an abolitionist because if someone loves someone deeply, they should be allowed to be married. Nobody should have different rights just simply because they aren’t considered a ‘person.’
Also, nobody should force you into marrying someone else. Marriage is the union of two people as partners in a loving bond. I have a strong view in people being able to do the things they want and have no one to have a say. I believe people should be treated equally and should be able to do the things they want. This is exactly why George decided to run away to Canada to get his ‘freedom’ and then pay for his wife and his son’s freedom. He loved them and wanted to live his life with them not the woman he was forced to love.
I believe that this book helped changed the course of history. If Harriet Beecher Stowe did not write this book about how the slaves were being treated and how slavery was being use, people would of not of saw the inside of the cruelty. The readers would of only saw the outside, the production of crops and the increase of revenue the slaves racked in. Katherine Kane, a critic, simply explains “Stowe’s anti-slavery novel ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ helped change the course of American history and catapulted her to worldwide fame.” (Kane) Kane’s article helps prove my point on how this book helped change the course of history.
“Stowe’s goal was to ‘write something that would make this whole nation feel what an accursed thing slavery is.’ Her book told stories of people treated as property, personalizing slavery in a way never done before.”(Kane) Harriet’s book off the shelves in stores giving people intel on what is actually going on and what is happening. People never really knew what was going on, “despite being widely banned in the South.” (Kane) The South banned this book because they feared that the ones in the South would change their mind about slavery this only shows how much of an impact this book has made on the world. Even Abe Lincoln, has supposedly, mentioned something about how Harriet was the one who sparked the Civil War, is he right? Was it all because of her book? Possibly, her book help greatly influence the ones who were clueless about slavery in the South.
The characters in this novel and the real life slaves stories parallel each other. Harriet Tubman was a slave who lived until 1913. Harriet Tubman was nicknamed ‘Moses’ because she helped many people escape from slavery. Most people know her from being a ‘conductor’ of the Underground railroad. For many years, Tubman would travel from the North to the South and back to the North companied by other slaves because she was trying to help them gain freedom. She risked her life over and over again to help others. She not only helped her family but she helped everyone else she could save. Tubman eventually gained a bounty over her head. “Tubman’s capture would have brought a $40,000 reward from the South.” (Moorland-Spingarn)
Some slaves thought about turning her in but she convinced them not to. Harriet Tubman’s story compares to Eliza’s story in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Eliza is a slave in the South who has a son names Harry. Her master plans on selling Harry to another farm along with Tom. Eliza does not like the fact that he is trying to get rid of her son so she runs. Eliza runs away from her master with her son so he can have a better life and still have a mother. Harry was separated from his father a while ago and just has his mother left. Just like Harriet, Eliza tried to help her baby. “The powerful telling of Eliza’s daring escape across the ice with a baby in her arms came as a result of the author pondering what a mother would be willing to do to rescue her child.” Harriet is like the mother of so many slaves, she guided them to safety just like Eliza did with her child.
I liked this book because it helped others see how the slaves were being treated. As mentioned before I am a fire believer that everybody is equal and should not be treated differently. Just because they are a different race or gender, that doesn’t give people the right to criticize other or punish them because they aren’t the same. Harriet Beecher Stowe helped others find the truth behind the so called ‘positive good’ of slaves. I believe that her book has gotten universal praise over time. I believe this because as Gates Jr mentioned that “the poet Langston Hughes called the novel, “the most cussed and discussed book of its time.”
Hughes’s observation is particularly apt in that it avoids any mention of the novel’s literary merit.” (Gates Jr) Uncle Tom’s Cabin simply elaborates and shows the reader how cruel the times were for the slaves; “others kill themselves and their children.” (Gates Jr) As some hoped to find freedom by escaping, others ran to hopefully “find long-lost relatives.” (Gates Jr) Slaves would try to find ways to better there life but by doing so they might of just made it worse for themselves. Stowe’s book “ is evidenced by the immortality of Uncle Tom, Eliza, Little Eva, Simon Legree, and Topsy. These characters exist beyond Stowe’s tale; they have become literary archetypes. Uncle Tom began as a Christ figure.” (Gates Jr)
Stowe’s characters are not just characters they are slaves that have a meaning. Slaves that have a greater meaning therefore making this a universal praise. The thing I remembered most about this novel was that when Eliza and Harry checked into a room on the river and saw Sam waving his hat to warn her that he is there. “ Sam’s quick eye caught a glimpse of her..his hat blown off, and uttered a loud and characteristic ejaculation, which startled her at once.” (Stowe 56) I remembered this part because it shows the loyalty. Sam was not jealous of Eliza that he would rat her out but he helped her escape to better her life and her sons. This is just something I thought was so great.
