Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe (Edexcel A-Level History): Revision Notes
Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Background context: slavery in 1850s America
During the 1850s, slavery was the most divisive issue in American politics. The main controversy centred on whether slavery should expand westward from the Southern slave-owning states.
The Compromise of 1850
In 1850, Congress reached a national compromise attempting to maintain balance between free states and slave states. One key provision of this compromise was the creation of a new, stricter Fugitive Slave Law.
The Fugitive Slave Law (1850)
The 1850 Fugitive Slave Law represented a significant tightening of previous anti-runaway legislation. While helping runaway slaves had been illegal since 1793, the new law was much harsher:
Key provisions included:
- All citizens, including law enforcers and ordinary people, were required to help catch fugitive slaves
- Anyone refusing to assist slave-catchers or helping fugitives could face fines up to $1,000 and six months imprisonment
- The law eliminated most legal protections that fugitives previously had
- Accused fugitives were brought before federally appointed commissioners rather than elected judges
- Commissioners received $5 for every fugitive they released but $10 for each one they sent south
Criticism of the law:
Free black Americans and anti-slavery groups argued this payment system essentially bribed commissioners to send people into slavery. The law also forced citizens to become complicit in the slavery system, even if they personally opposed it.
Harriet Beecher Stowe's motivation
Harriet Beecher Stowe was furious about these developments. The Fugitive Slave Law forced her to clarify her personal stance on slavery. She believed the country expected her complicity in the system, so she disobeyed the law by hiding runaway slaves.
Stowe's personal experience with slavery
As a housewife living in Cincinnati, Ohio, just across the Ohio River from Kentucky (a slave state), Stowe gained direct experience of slavery through first-hand accounts from runaway slaves. This proximity to a slave state gave her valuable insight into the realities of the institution.
The decision to write
When Stowe shared her frustrations and feelings of powerlessness with her family, her sister-in-law Isabella Porter Beecher challenged her to take action. Isabella told her that if she could use a pen as well as Harriet could, she would write something to make the whole nation realize what an accursed thing slavery was. Moved by this encouragement, Stowe committed to writing what would become Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Publication and commercial success
Serialisation
Uncle Tom's Cabin was originally released in serial form in the National Era, a weekly newspaper, running between 5 June 1851 and 1 April 1852. The serialised version attracted considerable interest and helped generate future sales when the complete novel appeared.
Commercial success
When published as a complete novel in 1852, Uncle Tom's Cabin became an immediate best-seller:
Sales figures:
- 10,000 copies sold in the USA in its first week
- 300,000 copies sold in its first year in America
- Over two million copies sold within ten years in America
- 1.5 million copies sold in Britain in just one year
- Eventually translated into 60 languages
This commercial success was unprecedented for an American novel and demonstrated the book's wide appeal and cultural impact.
Synopsis of the novel
Uncle Tom's Cabin begins on the Shelby Plantation in Kentucky and follows two enslaved families facing different predicaments.
The main plot: Tom's story
The central plot focuses on Tom, a strong, religious man living with his wife and three young children. Tom's story demonstrates the destructive power of slavery even for those who try to maintain family bonds.
Key events in Tom's story:
- Tom chooses not to run away, hoping to keep his family together
- Despite his loyalty, he is sold by the Shelby Plantation owner to an owner in Louisiana
- In Louisiana, he meets several important characters:
- Topsy: a young black girl whose outgoing behaviour hides the pain of slavery
- Eva: a young white girl who is charming but dies tragically young
- Simon Legree: a cruel and violent white slave owner
- Tom's strong religious beliefs enable him to survive and maintain dignity as a slave
- The novel ends when Tom escapes but is whipped to death by Simon Legree for refusing to reveal the hiding place of two runaway female slaves
- Tom's act of self-sacrifice saves the lives of his family
The secondary plot: Eliza's story
The other plot follows Eliza, her son Harry, and her husband George.
Key events in Eliza's story:
- George Harris has already escaped and become a runaway slave at the novel's beginning
- He plans to earn money to purchase his family's freedom
- To protect her son, Eliza also runs away, making a dramatic escape across the frozen Ohio River from Kentucky to freedom in the North
- Eventually, the Harris family are reunited in British North America (now Canada), where slavery did not exist
The contrast between Tom's and Eliza's stories shows different responses to slavery and different outcomes.
Harriet Beecher Stowe: biographical background
Harriet Elisabeth Beecher was born on 14 June 1811 in Litchfield, Connecticut, the sixth of 11 children. Her father was the Reverend Lyman Beecher, and her mother Roxana Foote Beecher died when Harriet was only five years old.
Early influences
Stowe showed literary talent from an early age. At seven, she won a school essay contest, earning praise from her father. Her oldest sister, Catharine, became an important maternal influence after their mother's death.
Writing career
In 1851, Gamaliel Bailey, publisher of The National Era, contracted with Stowe for a story that would "paint a word picture of slavery" to run in instalments. Stowe expected the story to be three or four instalments but ended up writing more than 40.
Literary output beyond Uncle Tom's Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe published more than 30 books throughout her career. While Uncle Tom's Cabin secured her place in history, she also produced:
- Children's textbooks
- Advice books on homemaking and childrearing
- Biographies
- Religious studies
Her informal, conversational style allowed her to reach audiences that more scholarly or argumentative works would not. This encouraged everyday people to address controversial topics such as slavery, religious reform, and gender roles. Stowe believed her actions could make a positive difference.
Reaction to the publication
Positive impact
Uncle Tom's Cabin had a powerful effect on American attitudes towards slavery. By relating the institution through the eyes of enslaved people and focusing on Eliza's heroic struggle to gain freedom for herself and her child, Stowe's message proved more persuasive than hundreds of abolitionist speeches.
Why the novel was so effective:
- It personalised the issue of slavery in a way political speeches and church sermons failed to do
- Her engaging writing style drew readers into the story
- The portrayal of slavery's inherent cruelty and inhumanity increased sectional division between the free North and slave-owning South
- Tom's strong Christian beliefs enabled him to survive slavery with dignity, which resonated with Christian readers
- The book was read by hundreds of thousands of Americans, and stage plays inspired by it were viewed by millions more
Stowe herself claimed that God guided her writing, adding a spiritual dimension to the work's appeal.
Criticism from abolitionists
Almost immediately after publication, the novel faced criticism from within the anti-slavery movement:
Abolitionist concerns:
- More radical abolitionists felt the portrayal of slavery and treatment of black slaves was not strong enough to encourage immediate abolition
- Many abolitionists disliked Stowe's tacit support for the colonisation movement, which advocated returning freed black slaves to Africa (the West African state of Liberia was created for this purpose)
Criticism from pro-slavery groups
Pro-slavery groups attacked the novel for different reasons:
- They disliked the attack on slavery as an institution
- They claimed slavery was sanctioned by the Old Testament of the Bible
- They argued the story was one-sided and showed slave owners unfairly in a bad light
Stowe's response to criticism
In response to early criticism, Stowe produced The Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin, which included references to the sources of information she used to write the novel. This work:
- Reinforced Stowe's open opposition to slavery
- Claimed that writing the novel had turned her into an abolitionist
Stowe went on to write a second anti-slavery novel, Dred, A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp (1856), which was even more forceful than Uncle Tom's Cabin in attacking slavery and demanding its immediate abolition.
Problematic aspects and stereotypes
While Uncle Tom's Cabin aimed to portray slavery as a powerful blight upon the nation, it also reinforced harmful stereotypes that would have long-lasting negative effects.
Stereotypical portrayals
Stowe's novel expanded anti-black sentiment through stereotypical characterisations:
Key stereotypes included:
- The dark-skinned "mammy" figure
- "Pickaninny" black children
- Uncle Tom himself: the obedient and long-suffering servant to his white master
The term "Uncle Tom" came to denote a black American who was willing to follow the wishes of white Americans and be subservient to them. This became a lasting negative label within African American communities.
Racial essentialism
Stowe made clear in her novel that white and black people had very different characters. Black characters in the novel display loyalty and subservience, suggesting these were inherent racial characteristics rather than responses to oppression.
The paradox of the novel's portrayal
To many readers, Uncle Tom's Cabin put a human face on the issue and horrors of slavery. The enslaved characters, particularly Tom, are shown as pious Christians, which helps them endure their fate. However, this portrayal was double-edged: while it generated sympathy, it also suggested that black people's proper role was one of Christian patience and suffering rather than resistance and self-determination.
Impact on race relations and politics
Immediate political impact
Uncle Tom's Cabin had significant political consequences in the divisive atmosphere of the 1850s:
- The book greatly enhanced the campaign of those who opposed slavery within the USA
- Its graphic depiction of slavery and wide readership helped fuel sectional conflict
- President Abraham Lincoln (who issued the Emancipation Proclamation in September 1862 and was responsible for the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery in 1865) borrowed the book from the Library of Congress
Lincoln's famous comment
In late 1862, after issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, President Lincoln allegedly met Harriet Beecher Stowe and said to her: "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war." While this quotation's authenticity is debated, it reflects the contemporary perception of the novel's significance.
International influence
The novel's impact extended beyond America. Lord Palmerston, British Prime Minister from 1859 to 1865, read the novel three times, demonstrating its influence on international perceptions of American slavery.
Stowe's own reflection on her motivation
In the concluding remarks of Chapter 45, Stowe explained her reasons for writing the novel:
For many years of her life, the author avoided all reading upon or allusion to the subject of slavery, considering it as too painful to be inquired into, and one which advancing light and civilization would certainly live down.
However, the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 changed everything. When she heard Christian and humane people actually recommending the return of escaped fugitives into slavery as a duty binding on good citizens, she realized:
These men and Christians cannot know what slavery is; if they did, such a question could never be open for discussion.
This realization led her to exhibit slavery "in a living dramatic reality." Stowe addressed her appeal particularly to Southerners, asking them to acknowledge the "woes and evils in this accursed system" and questioning whether any person could be trusted with "wholly irresponsible power" over others.
She argued that the slave trade was "an inevitable attendant and result of American slavery" and that the "anguish and despair" it caused was "riving thousands of hearts, shattering thousands of families." She concluded that "nothing of tragedy can be written, can be spoken, can be conceived, that equals the frightful reality of scenes daily and hourly acting on our shores, beneath the shadow of American law, and the shadow of the cross of Christ."
Long-term legacy and reassessment
20th century popularity
Uncle Tom's Cabin maintained popularity well into the 20th century. In 1952, one of the leading black American poets of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s stated that the novel was "a good story with exciting incidences, sharp characterisation and woven humour."
21st century reassessment
In 2007, on the eve of the election of America's first black American president, Barack Obama, prominent black literary historian Henry Louis Gates reprinted Uncle Tom's Cabin. His goal was to convince the black population to revisit the story with "19th-century spectacles rather than judge it with 21st-century opinions."
This republication demonstrated that Uncle Tom's Cabin continues to generate nationwide debate on racial politics. The novel remains both celebrated as an important anti-slavery work and criticized for its stereotypical portrayals and problematic racial assumptions.
Remember!
Key Points to Remember:
- Uncle Tom's Cabin was written in direct response to the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, which required all citizens to help catch runaway slaves and angered Harriet Beecher Stowe
- The novel was a massive commercial success, selling 300,000 copies in its first year in America and 1.5 million in Britain, making it one of the best-selling books of the 19th century
- The book personalised slavery by telling stories through the eyes of enslaved people, making it more effective than political speeches in changing public opinion about slavery
- While the novel helped the anti-slavery cause, it also reinforced harmful racial stereotypes including the "Uncle Tom" figure of the submissive, long-suffering servant that became a lasting negative label
- The book had significant political impact, allegedly prompting President Lincoln to call Stowe "the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war" (the Civil War)