Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Anti-Uncle Tom Literature

I was interested in Thomas F. Gossett's article "Anti-Uncle Tom Literature."  Gossett points to a few anti-Uncle Tom novels that argue against the cruel slave master and the oppressed slave image presented in many slave novels, among them Uncle Tom's Cabin.  In this anti-Uncle Tom novels--Maria McIntosh's The Lofty and the Lowly, Baynard Hall's Freeman's Barber Shop, W. L. G. Smith's Life at the South, etc.--the slave owners are always kind, and always have understandable motives in punishing their slaves.  And always the slaves are opt to engage in such actions that require some justifiable  punishment.  However, Gossett fails to mention the similarities Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, a novel from which the anti-Uncle Tom literature evolves from and argues against, share with many anti-Uncle Tom novels.  In this essay I compare those similarities that I noticed in Uncle Tom's Cabin with what Gossett presents in his featured anti-Uncle Tom literature.

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