rikker wrote:
I fucking hate Uncle Toms.
OK, a post that will be controversial (the first controversial post that I have ever made --- not).
Harriet Beecher Stowe's House is one of my favorite places in Hartford, not least because it is directly across the front lawn from Mark Twain's House. Twain's House reminds me on every visit of his sharp wit, keen eye, and kindliness (OK, that is a platitude). Stowe's House reminds me of a shrine. Even the demeanor of visitors is different in the two houses.
There was no book that was more responsible for the abolition of slavery than was this 1852 novel. Upon meeting Stowe, Lincoln is said to have said "So this is the little lady who made this big war." It is reported to have been the best-selling novel of the 19th century in the U.S. It was powerful because it was not a sermon against slavery (although Stowe was a Congregational minister). It caused a recasting of an entire society's understanding of both slavery and African Americans. Remember that slavery had not that long ago been abolished in New England (Connecticut:
1848, although some historians pretend it ended much earlier). It depicted the crime and misery of slavery, and the evil of slaveowners like Simon Legree (a transplanted Northerner). New England and Middle Atlantic preachers had been preaching abolition for half a century or more, and a few politicians for almost the same amount of time, but nothing grabbed the attention of the American public as did this little novel. Her novel had far more impact than did the famous
"Sermon on Slavery" by Lyman Beecher, her father.
In the novel, Uncle Tom is portrayed as a good man for serving and obeying his masters. His conversion to Christianity is lauded. Then another side of Uncle Tom shows up. Under Simon Legree's torture, Uncle Tom refuses to disclose where two slave women have gone. He is definitely the hero of the novel. He is a hero for the abolitionist Stowe.
I think that
Uncle Tom's Cabin has suffered from the many unauthorized stage plays that were based upon it, as well as from the movies. The stereotype that Stowe had herself started was greatly exaggerated by these derivatives, to the point that Uncle Tom became a laughingstock, a man to ridicule.
I don't see any evidence that Stowe intended that Tom be ridiculed. I think that she meant him to be a paradigm of a good man -- willing to die for his principles -- against a paradigm of an evil man, Legree.
In some ways, Uncle Tom reminds me of a man who once lived in Connecticut, Venture Smith. His
Narrative is still read today for inspiration for overcoming adversity.
Perhaps if she were able to return to that house and rewrite the novel, knowing what we know now about how the Uncle Tom character created a vile stereotype, she might have written things differently. Or she might not have changed much. Her aim was to move a nation and that she did. Nothing that any New England preacher or politician, and nothing that any Illinois politician said on the campaign trail and in debates, had so great an effect as did this little novel that let whites see African Americans as human beings suffering cruel oppression.
As for Marcus and his ilk (and the crazy ones like Manning), nothing that I said above about the character of Uncle Tom applies to them. Had they been in Stowe's novel, they would have joined Simon Legree in hunting down Cassy and Emmeline.
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), bowtie mic for close-ups. I think you'll need to stand about 20 ft away from Sinclair to get all of him in the frame. 
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