Henson, Stowe and Baldwin on Uncle Tom's Cabin

The autobiography written by Josiah Henson was an inspiration for Stowe for Writing Uncle Tom's Cabin. Uncle Tom's Cabin caused a lot of controvesy because of the racial differences of black slaves. James Baldwin had a negative outlook on the book saying that it did not do a accurate representation of African American slaves.
Henson's book was an autobiography of his life and his struggle as a slave, and from reading Uncle Tom's Cabin I see some of the elements in Henson's book that were in Uncle Tom's Cabin such as, the importance of family, and freedom. In Uncle Tom's Cabin we see a mother's love for her son, and how she will do anything so they won't be seperated from another. Bladwin took a stab at the the dark and the lighter skinned slave saying that the lighter skin slaves were percieved as strong, and the darker slaves seemed almost powerless.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin: A Solution to Oppression and Racism

“Anti-Tom” literature was a nineteenth century pro-slavery genre for writing novels. The same kind of theme was utilized for other sorts of literary works, especially those written in response to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Also referred to as “plantation literature,” the writings were generally written by authors from the Southern regions of the United States, which was . Novels and other literary works that fall under the anti-Tom genre would attempt to express slavery as being either beneficial to African Americans, or that the evils of slavery as represented in Stowe’s novel were overblown and incorrect. Published in 1852, Uncle Tom’s Cabin would eventually become one of the most important novels of American literature, as it revealed slavery as a thing that was cruel and unjust. Harriet Beecher Stowe was able to send a message to countless readers from the nineteenth century to the present by preaching that it is the spirit of people that must change in order to really abolish slavery.

Death as the Change Agent in Uncle Tom's Cabin

In Jane P. Tompkins essay “Sentimental Power: Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the Politics of Literary History” she discusses the impact that little Eva’s death in the “transformation of stories circulating in the culture at large” (Stowe 507). Tompkins attributes Eva’s ability to do so partly to the typological structure Stowe uses in the novel. The structure, heavily reliant upon the prefigured symbols of the Bible, allows Eva to become the Christ-like figure by whom every other character’s life if affected. But in reading Tompkins’ essay, what she fails to address, and what I hope to address in mine, is how the death of characters, other than Eva, serves as agents of change within the story, and history, in its entirety. This essay will discuss the possible death of George the slave, and the actual death of Tom and Legree's mother in terms of how they change the characters close to their deaths, and moreover, how they impact the course of the novel and the course of history.

Baldwin vs. Stowe

“Everybody’s Protest Novel,” was a critique written in 1955 by James Baldwin on Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” It's obvious from the start of the critique that Baldwin doesn’t think very much of the novel at all. He questions the need for this story to become a novel instead of being on a pamphlet- Baldwin wrote, “…she was not so much a novelist as an impassioned pamphleteer.” (496) These are harsh words for a book that some have praised highly, including Edmund Wilson, former editor of Vanity Fair and writer for the New Yorker. Jane Tompkins, who wrote an accompanying critique in the Norton edition of the novel, called the book a "classic." In order to get to the root of these discrepancies, it’s important to research the backgrounds of both Baldwin and Stowe. Both grew up extremely religious, which accounts for the religious theme of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" as well as Baldwin's response.

Every Christian Woman’s Duty: Stowe’s Message in Uncle Tom’s Cabin

There is more to the characters in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin than one initially might see; they are complex, showcasing a number of views simultaneously. At times, it can be difficult to assess just what Stowe is trying to assert when the characters seem to change views and reveal ambiguous purposes. When looking for meaning in the characters and their views, one can often find conflicting messages, but a look at the background of the author, some particularly popular sentiments at the time she was writing, and the book’s reception help to clarify where she stands and why.

Fred Douglass on Uncle Tom's Cabin

Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin was a book printed less than a decade before the Civil War (1852), but some beliecve this book caused more ireeputable harm to blacks in America than it has helped. One white critic, J.C. Furnas, pointed out what he thought Stowe did wrong in her penning of this novel and why it hurt the advancement of blacks in America both before and after the Civil War. He believed her book distorted the reality of race relations in the South and in turn ended up harming the relations even more, especially due to the characterization of particular characters (see: Tom and Chloe). Other scholars like Frederick Douglass supported Stowe's novel and met with her to help open up an interesting discourse regarding the immediate future of former slaves in America directly after emancipation. Even though these discussions did little to stop the implementation of Jim Crow laws across the South, they are interesting to look back on and analyze their actual effects on American society over the past 150 years. 

Moby Dick(late)

Herman Melville’s Moby Dick is recognized for its exceptionally genuine depiction of life on the sea, and more specifically life on a whaling ship, during the mid-to-late nineteenth century. Though sometimes quite dry, few dispute the authenticity of Melville’s many chapters on cetology, the sea, and life as a whaleman. Part of this realistic portrayal of a sailor’s life is the inherent danger of the profession due to the hidden threats that constantly lurk beneath the sea’s glistening surface. Sailor’s in the novel do not attempt to deceive themselves about the ever-imminent chance of death, and death is in no way glamorized. Death occurs swiftly and without sentimentality, and is forgotten just as quickly. Though surely a true fact of life present in the narrative, it also seems that Melville had another motive for his anti-romantic depiction. In fact, it seems to be a response to consolation-graveyard literature which was quite common at the time.