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Uncle Tom's Cabin

Uncle Tom's Cabin, London edition
Author	Harriet Beecher Stowe
Illustrator	Hammatt Billings (1st edition)
Language	English
Genre	Novel
Publisher	National Era (as a serial) & John P. Jewett and Company (in two volumes)
Publication date	20 March 1852
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN	NA Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character

Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is a novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe which treats slavery as a central theme. Stowe was a Connecticut-born teacher at the Hartford Female Academy and an active abolitionist. The novel is believed to have had a profound effect on the North's view of slavery. First published on March 20, 1852, the story focuses on the tale of Uncle Tom, a long-suffering black slave, the central character around whose life the other characters—both fellow slaves and slave owners—revolve. The novel depicts the harsh reality of slavery while also showing that Christian love and faith can overcome even something as evil as enslavement of fellow human beings.

Uncle Tom's Cabin was the best-selling novel of the 19th century (and the second best-selling book of the century after the Bible) and is credited with helping to fuel the abolitionist cause in the 1850s. In the first year after it was published, 300,000 copies of the book were sold. The book's impact was so great that when Abraham Lincoln met Stowe at the start of the American Civil War, Lincoln is often quoted as having declared, "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war!"

The book also created and spread several common stereotypes about African-Americans, many of which endure to this day. These include the affectionate, dark-skinned mammy; the Pickaninny stereotype of black children; and the Uncle Tom, or dutiful, long-suffering servant faithful to his white master or mistress. In recent years, the negative associations with Uncle Tom's Cabin have to a large degree overshadowed the historical impact of the book.

Union General and politician James Baird Weaver said that the book convinced him to become active in the abolitionist movement.

Origins

Stowe wrote the novel as a happily noted response to the 1850 passage of the second Fugitive Slave Act, which punished those who aided runaway slaves and diminished the rights of fugitives as well as freed slaves.

Some historians believe that Stowe was inspired by the autobiography of Josiah Henson, a slave who lived and worked on a 3,700 acre tobacco plantation in Maryland owned by Isaac Riley. Henson was one of the first escaped slaves in the United States to write a memoir and Harriet Beecher Stowe evidently acknowledged that Henson's writings inspired Uncle Tom's Cabin. When Stowe's book became famous, Henson republished his memoirs as The Memoirs of Uncle Tom and traveled extensively in America and Europe.

Prior to the Civil War, Harriet Beecher Stowe and her husband made their home in Cincinnati, Ohio, just across the Ohio River from Kentucky, a slave state. In Cincinnati the Underground Railroad had local abolitionist sympathizers and was active in efforts to help runaway slaves on their escape route from the South. Stowe amassed a large quantity of research from oral and written sources, which she incorporated as story material for the novel. She only made brief visits to Kentucky towns and was never on a slave plantation.

Publication

Uncle Tom's Cabin was first published as a 40-week serial, Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly published in the National Era, an abolitionist (or, more precisely, a Free Soil) periodical, starting in the 5 June 1851 issue. It was published in book form on March 20, 1852.

In the first year after the book was published, 300,000 copies of Uncle Tom's Cabin were sold. The book eventually became the bestselling novel in the world during the 19th century (and the second best-selling book after the Bible), with the book being translated into every major language.

Because the copyright laws of the time did not place any limits on stage dramatizations of fictional works, stage dramatizations, soon known as "Tom shows", began to appear during the period while Stowe's original work was still being published serially.

World Reaction

According to Stowe's son, when Lincoln met her in 1862 he commented, "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war!" Historians are undecided if Lincoln actually said this line and in a letter Stowe wrote to her husband a few hours after meeting with Lincoln no mention of this comment was made. Since then, many writers have credited this novel with focusing Northern anger at the injustices of slavery and the Fugitive Slave Law.

In response to Stowe's book, American novelist Caroline Lee Hentz published a widely-read, but largely now forgotten, work entitled The Planter's Northern Bride in 1854, countering many of Stowe's depictions of the slavery institution. Ironically, she had been a close personal friend of Stowe's when the two lived in Cincinnati.

However, Uncle Tom's Cabin excited greater interest in England than in America itself. The first London edition appeared in May, 1852, and sold over one million copies, far more than in the U.S. Much of this interest was due to British antipathy to America. As one prominent writer explained, "The evil passions which 'Uncle Tom' gratified in England were not hatred or vengeance , but national jealousy and national vanity. We have long been smarting under the conceit of America--we are tired of hearing her boast that she is the freest and the most enlightened country that the world has ever seen. Our clergy hate her voluntary system--our Tories hate her democrats--our Whigs hate her parvenus--our Radicals hate her litigiousness, her insolence, and her ambition. All parties hailed Mrs. Stowe as a revolter from the enemy." Charles Francis Adams, the American minister to Britain during the war, argued later that, "Uncle Tom's Cabin; or Life among the Lowly, published in 1852, exercised, largely from fortuitous circumstances, a more immediate, considerable and dramatic world-influence than any other book ever printed."

Uncle Tom's Cabin is credited with aiding anti-slavery efforts around the world. For example, Alamayahu Tana translated the novel into Amharic around 1930, in support of Ethiopian efforts to end slavery in that nation.

This book is also the first American novel translated into Chinese, by the Chinese translator LIN Shu.

Plot summary

Template:Spoiler

Tom owned by George Shelby

The book opens with a Kentucky farmer named Arthur Shelby about to lose his farm due to massive debts. Even though he and his wife (Emily Shelby) believe they have a benevolent relationship with their slaves, Shelby decides to raise the needed funds by selling two of his slaves — Uncle Tom, a middle-aged man with a wife and children, and Harry, the son of Emily Shelby’s maid Eliza — to a slave trader. Emily Shelby hates to do this because she had promised her maid that her child would never be sold; Emily's son, George Shelby, hates to see Tom go because he considers the slave to be his friend.

Eliza and Harry escape

When Eliza overhears Mr. and Mrs. Shelby discussing the fact that Mr. Shelby has sold Tom and Harry to the slavetrader Haley, Eliza determines to run away in order to save her son. She is pushed to this decision not by any physical cruelty on the part of her master or mistress, but by the maternal fear of losing her only child (she has already lost two children by miscarriage). She departs in the night, leaving a note of apology to her owners.

Tom is “Sold down the river”

While all of this is happening, Uncle Tom is sold and taken down the Mississippi River by the slave trader to a slave market. On the boat, Tom meets and befriends a young white girl named Eva. When Eva falls into the river, Tom saves her. In gratitude, Eva's father, Augustine St. Clare, buys Tom from Haley and takes him with the family to their home in New Orleans. Tom and Eva come to relate to one another in a very special way, sharing a deep Christian faith between them.

George, Eliza and Harry escape

As Eliza and her husband George Harris attempt to reach Canada, they are cornered by Loker and his men, causing George to shoot Loker. Worried that Loker may die, Eliza convinces George and the Quakers to bring the slave hunter to a nearby Quaker settlement for medical treatment.

Tom owned by Augustine St. Clare

Back in New Orleans, St. Clare debates slavery with his cousin Ophelia who, while opposing slavery, is deeply prejudiced against black people. St. Clare, however, is not biased against blacks but accepts slavery because he is unable to stop the entrenched system. In an attempt to show Ophelia that her views on black people are wrong, St. Clare purchases Topsy, a young black girl. St. Clare then asks Ophelia to educate Topsy.

After Tom has lived with the St. Clares for two years, Eva grows very ill. Before she dies she experiences a vision of heaven, which she shares with the people around her. As a result of her death and vision, the other characters resolve to change their lives, with Ophelia promising to love her slaves more, Topsy saying she will better herself, and St. Clare pledging to free Tom.

Tom is sold to Simon Legree

Before St. Clare can follow through on his pledge, he is fatally stabbed while intervening in a fight. His wife reneges on her late husband's vow and sells Tom at auction to a vicious plantation owner named Simon Legree. Legree (who is not a native southerner but a transplanted Yankee) takes Tom to rural Louisiana where Tom meets Legree's other slaves, including Emmeline (whom Legree purchased as a sex slave). Legree begins to hate Tom when Tom refuses Legree's order to whip a fellow slave. Tom receives a severe beating, and Legree resolves to crush Tom's faith in God. But Tom refuses to stop reading his Bible and trying to comfort the other slaves as best he can. While at the plantation, Tom meets Cassy, who was Legree's previous sex slave. Cassy was previously separated from her son and daughter when they were sold to different owners. When Cassy became pregnant again she killed her child to save him from the same fate.

At this point Tom Loker returns to the story. Loker has changed as the result of being healed by and living with the Quakers. In addition, George, Eliza, and Harry obtained their freedom after they crossed over into Canada. In Louisiana, Uncle Tom almost succumbs to hopelessness as his faith in God is stretched to the limit, due to the hardships of the plantation. However, he has two visions — one of Jesus and one of Eva — which renews his resolve to remain faithful to Christ, even unto death. He encourages Cassy to escape, which she does, taking Emmeline with her. When Tom refuses to tell Legree where Cassy and Emmeline have gone, the cruel master orders his overseers to kill Tom. As Tom is dying, he forgives the overseers who savagely beat him. Humbled by the character of the man they have murdered, both men make commitments to become Christians. George Shelby (Arthur Shelby's son) arrives with money in hand to buy Tom’s freedom, but it is too late.

Final Section

On their boat ride to freedom, Cassy and Emmeline meet George Harris’ sister and accompany her to Canada. Once there Cassy discovers that Eliza is her long-lost daughter. Now that their family is together again, they travel to France and eventually Liberia, the African nation created for former American slaves. There Cassy's long-lost son will also meet them. George Shelby returns to the Kentucky farm. After his father dies he frees all the slaves to honor the memory of Tom’s sacrifice. Before the slaves leave, George tells them to remember Tom’s sacrifice and his belief in the true meaning of Christianity every time they look at Tom's cabin.

Major characters

Uncle Tom

Uncle Tom, the title character, was initially seen as a noble long-suffering Christian slave. In more recent years his name has become an epithet directed towards certain African-Americans because he was derided as being a submissive slave who is punished despite his loyalty. Uncle Tom has come to represent African-Americans who are accused of selling out to whites, thereby allegedly becoming a bad role model for black society. Ironically, Stowe clearly intended to portray Uncle Tom as a praiseworthy person. Throughout the book, far from allowing himself to be exploited, he stands up for his beliefs and is grudgingly admired even by his enemies.

Eliza

A slave (personal maid to Mrs. Shelby), she escapes to Canada with her five-year old son Harry after he is sold to Mr. Haley. Her husband, George, eventually finds Eliza and Harry in Ohio, and emigrates with them to Canada, then France and finally Liberia.

The character Eliza was inspired by an account given at Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati by John Rankin to Stowe's husband Calvin, a professor at the school. According to Rankin, in February, 1838 a young slave woman had escaped across the frozen Ohio River to the town of Ripley with her child in her arms and stayed at his house on her way further north. (Hagedorn, pp. 135-39)

Eva

Eva, whose real name is Evangeline St. Clare, is the daughter of Augustine St. Clare. Eva enters the narrative when Uncle Tom is traveling via steamship to New Orleans to be sold, and he rescues the 5 or 6 year-old girl from drowning. Eva begs her father to buy Tom, and he becomes the head coachman at the St. Clare plantation. He spends most of his time with the angelic Eva, however.

Eva constantly talks about love and forgiveness, even convincing the dour slave girl Topsy that she deserves love. She even manages to touch the heart of her sour aunt, Ophelia. Some consider Eva to be a prototype of the character archetype known as the Mary Sue.

Eventually Eva falls ill. Before dying, she gives a lock of her hair to each of the slaves, telling them that they must become Christians so that they may see each other in Heaven. On her deathbed, she convinces her father to free Tom, but because of circumstances the promise never materializes.

Simon Legree

A villainous and cruel slave owner—a Northerner by birth—whose name has become synonymous with greed. It is Tom's Christianity which enrages him.

Topsy

A "ragamuffin" young slave girl of unknown origin (she claims to have "just growed"). Originally a naughty, unruly girl, she was transformed by Little Eva's love. Topsy is often seen as the origin of the pickanniny stereotype of Black children.

The phrase "growed like Topsy" (later "grew like Topsy"; now somewhat archaic) passed into the English language, originally with the specific meaning of unplanned growth, later sometimes just meaning enormous growth.

Other characters

Arthur Shelby

Tom's master in Kentucky. Shelby is characterized as a "kind" slaveowner and a stereotypical Southern gentleman. When Shelby experiences a financial crisis because of gambling debts, he sells Tom and Harry to save his plantation.

Emily Shelby

Mr. Shelby's wife is a deeply religious woman who strives to be a kind and moral influence upon her slaves. She is appalled when her husband negotiates to sell his slaves with a slave trader, especially since she promised Harry's mother, Eliza, that this would not happen. As a woman, she had no legal way to stop this, as all property belonged to her husband.

George Shelby

Arthur and Emily's son. At the beginning of the novel he is thirteen years old and teaches Tom to read. He vows to find Tom when he is sold. He eventually does this, but not until years later when Tom is near death. Inspired by Tom, young Shelby frees the slaves on his deceased father's plantation.

Augustine St. Clare

Tom's second owner, father of Little Eva; of the slaveowners in the novel, the most sympathetic character. St. Clare recognizes the evil in chattel slavery, but is not quite ready to relinquish the wealth it brings him. After his daughter's death he becomes more religious and starts to read the Bible to Tom. The words sink deep into his heart and made him feel that he is close to what his young daughter used to believe. His sometimes good intentions ultimately come to nothing: upon his death, Tom and his other slaves (excepting only Topsy) are put on the auction block.

Criticism and Stereotypes

When Uncle Tom's Cabin first appeared, it was roundly criticized by Southern slave owners and others who supported slavery (see the Anti-Tom literature section below), getting banned in the South as anti-slavery propaganda. In more recent years, readers have criticized the book for what is seen as condescending racist descriptions of the book's black characters, especially with regard to the character's appearance, speech, and behavior and the passive nature of Uncle Tom in accepting his fate.

The novel's creation and use of common stereotypes about African Americans is important because Uncle Tom's Cabin sold over 300,000 copies in the first year, becoming the best-selling novel in the world during the 19th century. As a result, the book had a major role in permanently engraining these stereotypes into the American psyche.

Among the negative stereotypes in Uncle Tom's Cabin are:

• The "happy darky" (in the lazy, carefree character of Sam);
• The mixed race as a sex object (in the characters of Eliza, Cassy, and Emmeline);
• The affectionate, dark-skinned female mammy (in the character of Mammy, who is a cook at the St. Clare plantation).
• The Pickaninny stereotype of black children (in the character of Topsy);
• The Uncle Tom, or African American who is too eager to please white people (in the character of Uncle Tom).

Many of the worst elements of these stereotypes emerged from the unauthorized Tom shows (see below) that began touring after the publication of the novel and remained popular through the end of the 19th Century. Stowe's moral message was downplayed or eliminated entirely in favor of slapstick comedy. Legree was often absent from these shows, which led to an emphasis of Tom's servility over the Christ-like attitude Stowe intended for him. Topsy also went through a significant transformation: While depicted as a rough, uncultured child in the novel, she also acts as something of a conscience for Ophelia, and subtly critiques her racist attitudes toward blacks. Early stage versions of the novel sometimes preserved this characterization, but most preferred to depict Topsy as wild and unhinged, creating the pickaninny stereotype.

In addition to the book's stereotyping of black people, some critics highlight Stowe's paucity of life-experience relating to Southern life, which led her to create wrong descriptions of the region. For instance, she never set foot on a Southern plantation. However, Stowe always said she based the characters of her book on stories she was told by runaway slaves in Cincinnati, Ohio, where Stowe lived. It is reported that, "She observed firsthand several incidents which galvanized her to write famous anti-slavery novel. Scenes she observed on the Ohio River, including seeing a husband and wife being sold apart, as well as newspaper and magazine accounts and interviews, contributed material to the emerging plot."

In the last few decades these negative associations have to a large degree overshadowed the historical impact of Uncle Tom's Cabin. From the viewpoint of history, the book was a vital antislavery tool that helped turn public opinion against slavery in the United States.

Anti-Tom literature

In response to Uncle Tom's Cabin, writers in the Southern United States began producing a number of books to rebut Stowe's novel. This so-called Anti-Tom literature generally took a pro-slavery viewpoint, arguing that the evils of slavery as depicted in Stowe's book were overblown and incorrect. The novels in this genre tended to feature a benign white patriarchal master and a pure wife, both of whom presided over child-like slaves in a benevolent extended-family-style plantation. The novels either implied, or directly stated, the racist view that African Americans were a child-like people unable to live their lives without being directly overseen by white people.

The two most famous anti-Tom books are The Sword and the Distaff by William Gilmore Simms and The Planter's Northern Bride by Caroline Lee Hentz. Simms' book was published a few months after Stowe's novel and it contains a number of sections and discussions that are clearly disputing Stowe's book and her view of slavery. The Planter's Northern Bride by Caroline Lee Hentz offers a defense of slavery as seen through the eyes of a northern woman — the daughter of an abolitionist, no less — who marries a southern slave owner.

In the decade between the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin and the start of the American Civil War, between twenty and thirty anti-Tom books would be published. Among these novels are two books titled Uncle Tom's Cabin As It Is (one by W.L. Smith and the other by C.H. Wiley) and a book by John Pendleton Kennedy.

Today this Anti-Tom literature is generally seen as lacking literary merit and as pro-slavery propaganda.

"Tom shows"

Given the lax copyright laws of the time, stage plays based on Uncle Tom's Cabin—"Tom shows"—began to appear while the story itself was still being serialized. These plays varied tremendously in their politics—some faithfully reflected Stowe's sentimentalized antislavery politics, while others were more moderate, or even pro-slavery. Eric Lott estimates that at least three million people saw these plays, ten times the book's first-year sales. Some of these shows were essentially minstrel shows loosely based on the novel and their grossly exaggerated caricatures of black people further perpetuated some of the stereotypes that Stowe used.

Stowe herself never authorized dramatization of her work, because of puritanical distrust of drama (although she did eventually go to see George Aiken's version, and, according to Francis Underwood, was "delighted" by Caroline Howard's portrayal of Topsy). Asa Hutchinson of the Hutchinson Family Singers, whose antislavery politics closely matched those of Stowe tried and failed to get her permission to stage an official version; her refusal left the field clear for any number of adaptations, some launched for (various) political reasons and others as simply commercial theatrical ventures.

All "Tom shows" appear to have incorporated elements of melodrama and of blackface minstrelsy. The first serious attempt at anything like a faithful stage adaptation was a one-hour play by C.W. Taylor at Purdy's National Theater (New York City); it ran for about ten performances in August–September 1852 sharing a bill with a blackface burlesque featuring T.D. Rice. Rice, famous in the 1830s for his comic and clearly racist blackface character Jim Crow, later became the most celebrated actor to play the title role of Tom; when Rice opened in H.E. Stevens play of Uncle Tom's Cabin in January 1854 at New York's Bowery Theatre, the Spirit of the Times' reviewer described him as "decidedly the best personator of negro character who has appeared in any drama."

The best-known "Tom Shows" were those of George Aiken and H.J. Conway. Aiken's original Uncle Tom's Cabin focused almost entirely on Little Eva (played by child star Cordelia Howard); a sequel, The Death of Uncle Tom, or the Religion of the Lonely told Tom's own story. The two were ultimately combined in an unprecedented evening-long six-act play. According to Lott, it is generally faithful to Stowe's novel, although it plays down the black trickster characters of Sam and Andy and variously adds or expands the roles of some farcical white characters instead. It also focuses heavily on George Harris; the New York Times reported that his defiant speech received "great cheers" from an audience of Bowery b'hoys and g'hals. Even this most sympathetic of "Tom shows" clearly borrowed heavily from minstrelsy: not only were the slave roles all played by white actors in blackface, but Stephen Foster's "Old Folks at Home" was played in the scene where Tom is sold down the river. After a long and successful run beginning November 15, 1852 in Troy, New York, the play opened in New York City July 18, 1853, where its success was even greater.

Conway's production opened in Boston the same day Aiken's opened in Troy; P.T. Barnum brought it to his American Museum in New York November 7, 1853. Its politics were much more moderate. Sam and Andy become, in Lott's words, "buffoons". Criticism of slavery was placed largely in the mouth of a newly introduced Yankee character, a reporter named Penetrate Partyside. St. Clare's role was expanded, and turned into more of a pro-slavery advocate, articulating the politics of a John C. Calhoun. Legree rigs the auction that gets him ownership of Tom (as against Stowe's and Aiken's portrayal of oppression as the normal mode of slavery, not an abuse of the system by a cheater). Beyond this, Conway gave his play a happy ending, with Tom and various other slaves freed.

Showmen felt that Stowe's novel had a flaw in that there was no clearly defined comic character, so there was no role for a comedian, and consequently little relief from the tragedy. Eventually it was found that the minor character of Marks the Lawyer could be played as a broad charicature for laughs, dresing him in foppish clothes, often equipped with an incoungruously dainty umberella. Some productions even had him make an entrance mounted astride a large pig!

Among the pro-slavery "Tom shows" was Uncle Tom's Cabin as It Is: The Southern Uncle Tom, produced in 1852 at the Baltimore Museum. Lott mentions numerous "offshoots, parodies, thefts, and rebuttals" including a full-scale play by Christy's Minstrels and a parody by Conway himself called Uncle Pat's Cabin, and records that the story in its many variants "dominated northern popular culture… for several years".

According to Eric Lott, even those "Tom shows" which stayed relatively close to Stowe's novel played down the feminist aspects of the book and Stowe's criticisms of capitalism, and turned her anti-slavery politics into anti-Southern sectionalism. Francis Underwood, a contemporary, wrote that Aiken's play had also lost the "lightness and gayety" of Stowe's book. Nonetheless, Lott argues, they increased sympathy for the slaves among the Northern white working class (which had been somewhat alienated from the abolitionist movement by its perceived elitist backing).

The influence of the "Tom shows" could also be found in a number of other plays through the 1850s: most obviously, C.W. Taylor's dramatization of Stowe's Dred, but also J.T. Trowbridge's abolitionist play Neighbor Jackwood, Dion Bouicault's The Octaroon, and a play called The Insurrection, based on John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry.

Cinematic versions

Uncle Tom's Cabin has been made into several film versions.

• The earliest was in 1903, directed by Siegmund Lubin and starring Lubin as Simon Legree. Another version, also released in 1903, was a 13-minute short directed by Edwin S. Porter.
• In 1910, a version was directed by Barry O'Neil and starring Frank Hall Crane as Uncle Tom, Anna Rosemond as Eliza, Marie Eline as Little Eva and Grace Eline as Topsy.
• Another version in 1910 was directed by J. Stuart Blackton and adapted by Eugene Mullin. It starred Florence Turner, Mary Fuller, Edwin R. Phillips, Flora Finch, Genevieve Tobin and Carlyle Blackwell Sr.
• A 1913 release was directed by Otis Turner and adapted by Allan Dwan. It starred Edward Alexander, Margarita Fischer, Harry A. Pollard, Iva Shepard and Gertrude Short.
• Another 1913 release was directed by Sidney Olcott and starred Anna Q. Nilsson.
• A 1914 version was directed by William Robert Daly. It was adapted Edward McWade from the play adaptation by George L. Aiken. It starred Sam Lucas, Teresa Michelena, Marie Eline (again), Roy Applegate and Boots Wall.
• A 1918 version was directed and adapted by J. Searle Dawley. It starred Marguerite Clark (as both Little Eva and Topsy), Sam Hardy, Florence Carpenter, Frank Losee and Walter P. Lewis.
• A 1927 version was directed by Harry A. Pollard and adapted by Pollard, Harvey F. Thew and A.P. Younger, with titles by Walter Anthony. It starred James B. Lowe, Virginia Grey, George Siegmann, Margarita Fischer (again), Mona Ray and Madame Sul-Te-Wan.

The subject matter of the Harriet Beecher Stowe novel was judged too sensitive for further film interpretation for several years. A European Italian language version, directed by Géza von Radványi, appeared in 1965 and was presented in the United States by exploitation film presenter Kroger Babb, but there was no other film version until a television broadcast in 1987. That version was directed by Stan Lathan and adapted by John Gay. It starred Avery Brooks, Phylicia Rashad, Edward Woodward, Jenny Lewis and Endyia Kinney.

Characters from the novel were used in a 1919 Mack Sennett comedy directed by Edward F. Cline and Ray Hunt, with Ben Turpin as Uncle Tom and Marie Prevost as Eliza.

The Walt Disney cartoon "Mickey's Mellerdrammer" (1933) features the classic Disney character roster playing a theatrical version of the novel.

A highlight of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I (1951) is a ballet, "Small House of Uncle Thomas", in traditional Siamese style which has been organized by Tuptim, on the subversive theme of Eliza's escape to parallel her thoughts on wanting to escape from the King of Siam.

In the Bugs Bunny cartoon "Southern Fried Rabbit" (1953) Bugs disguises himself as Uncle Tom singing "My Old Kentucky Home" in order to cross the Mason-Dixon line.

Herbert J. Biberman's 1969 film "Slaves" is loosely based on the Stowe novel. In the film, which also was written by Biberman (one of the Hollywood 10), a slave (Ossie Davis) who was promised freedom by his benevolent master is sold to a merchant, who peddles him to a cruel young master, a Simon Legree-type played by Stephen Boyd. However, unlike Uncle Tom, this slave plans a rebellion against his new master.

In Gangs of New York (2002), Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day-Lewis's characters attend an imagined wartime adaptation of Uncle Tom's Cabin with a deus ex machina ending. An actor portraying Abraham Lincoln is suspended in mid-air as he speaks consolingly to the blackface actors portraying Stowe's characters. The nativist audience members respond by shouting racist epithets, throwing objects at "Lincoln," and rioting to calls of "Down with the Union!"

See also

• Origins of the American Civil War
• Abolitionism
• Slavery
• History of slavery in the United States
• St. Clair Avenue
• Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Timeline of the American Civil Rights Movement
• Translation into Finnish by Aatto S.: Setä Tuomon tupa
• Uncle Tom

Notes

1. Introduction to Uncle Tom's Cabin Study Guide, accessed May 16, 2006.
2. Charles Edward Stowe, Harriet Beecher Stowe: The Story of Her Life (1911) p. 203.
3. "Historic Uncle Tom's Cabin Saved" by Susan Logue, VOA News, January 12, 2006. Accessed May 16, 2006.
4. "Historic Uncle Tom's Cabin Saved" by Susan Logue, VOA News, January 12, 2006. Accessed May 16, 2006.
5. Introduction to Uncle Tom's Cabin Study Guide, accessed May 16, 2006.
6. Charles Edward Stowe, Harriet Beecher Stowe: The Story of Her Life (1911) p. 203.
7. Uncle Tom's Cabin, introduction by Amanda Claybaugh, Barnes and Noble Classics, New York, 2003, page xvii.
8. Uncle Tom's Cabin, introduction by Amanda Claybaugh, Barnes and Noble Classics, New York, 2003, page xvii.
9. Nassau Senior, quoted in Ephraim Douglass Adams, Great Britain and the American Civil War (1958) p: 33.
10. Charles Francis Adams, Trans-Atlantic Historical Solidarity: Lectures Delivered before the University of Oxford in Easter and Trinity Terms, 1913. 1913. p. 79
11. Richard Pankhurst, Economic History of Ethiopia (Addis Ababa: Haile Selassie I University Press, 1968), p. 122.
12. Jessie Carney Smith; Images of Blacks in American Culture: A Reference Guide to Information Sources Greenwood Press. 1988. Page 283.
13. "Uncle Tom's Cabin: A 19th-Century Bestseller". Publishers' Bindings Online, 1815-1930: The Art of Books. The University of Alabama, University Libraries. Retrieved 2006-10-15.
14. "The Significance of Uncle Tom". Literature: A Slave Defined. BBC World Service. 2000-09-01. Retrieved 2006-10-15.
15. Introduction to Uncle Tom's Cabin Study Guide.
16. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Library. Special collection page on traditions and interpretations of Uncle Tom's Cabin.
17. The Sleaze Merchants: Adventures in Exploitation Filmmaking. John McCarty, St. Martin's Press, 1995.

References

• Bellin, Joshua D. "Up to Heaven's Gate, down in Earth's Dust: the Politics of Judgment in Uncle Tom's Cabin" American Literature 1993 65(2): 275-295. Issn: 0002-9831 Fulltext online at Jstor and Ebsco. Stowe also offered a solution to a moral and political dilemma that troubled many slavery opponents: whether engaging in prohibited behavior was justified in opposing evil. Were the use of violence to oppose the violence of slavery and the breaking of proslavery laws morally defensible? Which of Stowe's characters should be emulated, the passive Uncle Tom or the defiant George Harris? Stowe's solution was similar to Ralph Waldo Emerson's: God's will would be followed if each person sincerely examined his principles and acted on them.
• Goldner, Ellen J. "Arguing with Pictures: Race, Class and the Formation of Popular Abolitionism Through Uncle Tom's Cabin." Journal of American & Comparative Cultures 2001 24(1-2): 71-84. Issn: 1537-4726 Fulltext: online at Ebsco
• Grant, David. "Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Triumph of Republican Rhetoric." New England Quarterly 1998 71(3): 429-448. Issn: 0028-4866 Fulltext online at Jstor. Sees novel as expressing the values of ideas of the Free Soil Movement. The character George Harris embodies the principles of free labor, while the complex character of Ophelia represents those Northerners who condoned compromise with slavery. In contrast to Ophelia is Dinah, who operates on passion. During the course of the novel Ophelia is transformed, just as the Republican Party (3 years later) proclaimed that the North must transform itself and stand up for its antislavery principles.
• Hagedorn, Ann. Beyond The River: The Untold Story of the Heroes of the Underground Railroad. Simon & Schuster, 2002. ISBN 0-684-87065-7
• Hulser, Kathleen. "Reading Uncle Tom's Image: From Anti-slavery Hero to Racial Insult." New-York Journal of American History 2003 65(1): 75-79. Issn: 1551-5486
• Lewis, Gladys Sherman. Message, Messenger, and Response: Puritan Forms and Cultural Reformation in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. University Press of America, 1994.
• Lott, Eric. Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. ISBN 0-19-507832-2. The information on "Tom shows" comes from chapter 8: "Uncle Tomitudes: Racial Melodrama and Modes of Production" (p. 211-233)
• Lowance, Mason I., Jr.; Westbrook, Ellen E.; and DeProspo, R. C., eds. The Stowe Debate: Rhetorical Strategies in Uncle Tom's Cabin. U. of Massachusetts Press, 1994. 318 pp.
• Riss, Arthur. "Racial Essentialism and Family Values in Uncle Tom's Cabin." American Quarterly 1994 46(4): 513-544. Issn: 0003-0678 Fulltext in JSTOR. Argues Stowe used biological essentialism to explain the character of African Americans and as a basis for her critique of the patriarchal nature of slavery. For Stowe, blood relations rather than paternalistic relations between masters and slaves formed the basis of families. Moreover, Stowe viewed national solidarity as an extension of a person's family, thus feelings of nationality stemmed from possessing a shared race. Consequently she advocated African colonization for freed slaves and not amalgamation into American society.
• Smith; Jessie Carney; Images of Blacks in American Culture: A Reference Guide to Information Sources Greenwood Press. 1988.
• Smylie, James H. "Uncle Tom's Cabin Revisited: the Bible, the Romantic Imagination, and the Sympathies of Christ." American Presbyterians 1995 73(3): 165-175. Issn: 0886-5159
• Tompkins, Jane. Sensational Designs: The Cultural Work of American Fiction, 1790-1860. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. See chapter five, "Sentimental Power: Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Politics of Literary History."
• Winship, Michael. "'The Greatest Book of its Kind': a Publishing History of Uncle Tom's Cabin." Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society 1999 109(2): 309-332. Issn: 0044-751x
• Wolff, Cynthia Griffin. "Masculinity in Uncle Tom's Cabin," American Quarterly 1995 47(4): 595-618. ISSN: 0003-0678

Fulltext online at JSTOR. Stowe sought to redefine masculinity as a necessary step toward the abolition of slavery. Many abolitionists had begun to resist the vision of aggressive and dominant men that the conquest and colonization of the early 19th century had fostered. In order to change the notion of manhood so that men could oppose slavery without jeopardizing their self-image or their standing in society, some abolitionists drew on principles of women's suffrage and Christianity as well as passivism, and praised men for cooperation, compassion, and civic spirit. Others within the abolitionist movement argued for conventional, aggressive masculine action. All the men in Stowe's novel are representations of either one kind of man or the other.

Online resources

• University of Virginia Web site "Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture: A Multi-Media Archive" Ed by Stephen Railton, covers 1830 to 1930, offering links to primary and bibliographic sources on the cultural background, various editions, and public reception of Harriet Beecher Stowe's influential novel. The site also provides the full text of the book, audio and video clips, and examples of related merchandising.

External links

• Uncle Tom's cabin: or Life among the lowly; frontispiece by John Gilbert; ornamental title-page by Phiz; and 130 engravings on wood by Matthew Urlwin Sears, 1853 (a searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries; DjVu & layered PDF format)
• Pictures and stories from Uncle Tom's cabin; "The purpose of the editor of this little work, has been to adapt it for the juvenile family circle. The verses have accordingly been written by the authoress for the capacity of the youngest readers ..." 1853 (a searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries; DjVu & layered PDF format)
• Uncle Tom's Cabin at Project Gutenberg
• University of Virginia--Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture
• University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee special collections
• PBS Africans in America
• Screenplay--"Uncle Tom's Cabin"--Copyright 2004 by C.D. Thomson--On-Line for Free Reading
• Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site
• 8th June 2006 episode of In Our Time
• "Digging Through the Literary Anthropology of Stowe’s Uncle Tom", by Edward Rothstein, from the New York Times, October 23, 2006.

• 1852 novels
• History of slavery in the United States
• Novels dealing with slavery
• Cultural history of the American Civil War
• Serialized novels