IT WAS A WOMAN THAT STARTED THE WAR!

Remembering Harriet Beecher Stowe's Classic: Uncle Tom's Cabin

As the nineteenth century reached the halfway mark, nearly all Americans knew about and had an opinion on the issue of slavery. The North and South had been passive-aggressively and eventually aggressively debating the matter (i.e., the caning of Senator Charles Sumner on the one hand but also the vigilante justice of John Brown on the other). Various compromises subdued both sides in the decades leading up to the Civil War, including the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. Yet, this did not last long, and various events incited the argument beyond control.

One of the most inflammatory turning points arose out of the Dred Scott case of 1857. The Supreme Court held here that slaves had no standing to sue because they were not citizens. It also ruled that slavery could not be limited in federal lands, effectively undoing many of the compromises and progress that anti-slavery advocates had accomplished until that point. Plus, even more unsettling for the proponents of freedom, Dred Scott sued for his freedom in northern, free territory, but the Court decided that Southern rules applied. This disturbed many in the North and led them to scrutinize the unholy institution even more as they saw slavery creeping into their towns and homes against their will due to these legal developments. It was no longer an abstract and distant topic once the Court held that any state was a slave state once slaves entered into them, voluntarily or involuntarily, despite local rules (which is ironic because the idea of states’ rights is a Southern notion and was hypocritically mentioned as a rebuttal to civil rights immediately following the Civil War and 100 years later).

However, apart from their ideological or jurisdictional frustrations, many in the North were not viscerally or emotionally moved to the abolitionist cause until the publishing and distribution of maybe the greatest novel of its century, trailing only the Bible in sales during that 100-year period: Uncle Tom’s Cabin. On this day in history, March 20, 1852, it was published thanks to the remarkable mind and indelible words of Harriet Beecher Stowe. Let us consider her great work for a moment.

The story kicks off with tumult. A number of slaves were set to be traded away from what is described as a very benevolent slave-holding family in Kentucky. The sale was required after the financial misfortunes of their owner. The story from here splits in two. The first part focuses on the maid, Eliza, who takes her son and flees to Canada to prevent their separation. Her storyline follows the drama and fright of her flight to freedom, all wrapped in violence and panic like a fever dream.

The other side to this book follows the eponymous character, Uncle Tom, after he is removed from his wife and kids from the same plantation. He meanders his way through the South as Eliza searches for freedom in the North. Along the snake route Tom takes (read: is sent on through via the slave trade), we encounter unrepentant racists, racists in denial, and decent people here and there. In the winds of these degrading experiences, Tom resolutely stands for integrity, turns the other cheek to his tormentors, and forms decent bonds in indecent lands. He exits the stage of this story as a martyr, refusing to bend and bow to the demands of the damned, and setting an example for generations.

Many that read this book came away with a negative understanding of it. They believed it characterized African Americans as subservient children trying to please their white masters. These toxic views were underscored in countless minstrel shows and other works of art and across popular culture decades after the book was released. In fact, this is where the term “Uncle Tom” came from after all. To be sure, this only arose from a tragic misunderstanding of the story.

A more refined analysis of this novel would point out how white people engage with and learn from black people, especially with respect to Uncle Tom. Eventually, many white characters (illustrated as villains of a sort) come to see the error of their (racist) ways, largely due to these interactions. It would also highlight how most of the good qualities that Stowe points to are found pretty much solely (and soulfully) in slaves. She forges the archetype for anti-heroes long before they were regularly adopted formally into modern literature plots.

Also, beyond just a literal misreading of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, what critics fail to realize, even if they can point to misguided people using this work to reinforce negative stereotypes, is that history demands consideration of other facts. For one thing, it also reinforced positive stereotypes of African Americans. It paints them as honest, loving, smart, dignified, and forgiving people.

Further, beyond the positive light it casts upon this dispossessed group in an individual sense, it also called a generation to stand and fight for them as a class of subjugated Americans. This inspired millions to the factions of freedom fomenting just before the Civil War where they were ignorant and distant before its publication. How did it attempt that? For one thing, it pointed to the shared traits of both sets of people. Then, it painfully illustrated the abuse and oppression they were presently experiencing.

Anyone following Eliza’s journey feels not only heartbreak but hope as well that she will make it to Canada. We come to root for her and hate the white villains hounding and haunting her trail. Unlike the animalistic and Sambo image that racist types drew of African Americans (and that still prevailed long after this era as seen in Black Boy by Richard Wright), Stowe portrayed them as similar to Northerners but in dire straits.

Here’s the thing too, and here’s what critics fundamentally ignore: it worked. Whereas many in the North lulled in a state of blissful ignorance regarding slaves prior to the distribution of her work, albeit maybe with some latent sympathies, now, no one could ignore or disagree with the battle they were called to enter after Stowe’s siren call spread across the country with every word she wrote.

As we all remember too, they did not. Millions took up arms, gave their lives, and inscribed their names onto the torch of liberty – the real trophy of humanity – to guarantee it would keep burning for generations to follow. Maybe that’s why President Lincoln only had one thing to say to Harriet Beecher Stowe after meeting her years later: “So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war!” Maybe this story will remind you once again that the pen is mightier than the sword (yay, nerds) and that you should read this book. It’s a classic!