Uncle Tom's Cabin

Lily Martinez

Mrs. Staton

ENGL 2130 American Literature

March 4th, 2018

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Arthur Shelby a farmer in Kentucky is on the brink of losing everything he owns when he runs up a debt he cannot pay off. He and his wife Emily own slaves like many did in their time and decide to sell two of their slaves to Mr. Haley a slave trader. Making their choices they have two slaves in mind Uncle Tom who had family on the farm and Harry the young son of Mrs. Shelby's maid. Upon hearing the choices of the slaves Mr. Shelby has in mind his wife is appalled since she had promised her maid that she would never sell her son. This was the life of many farmers and slaves of this time. "Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery novel was published in 1852 and sold over 300,000 copies within three months and was so widely read that when President Abraham Lincoln met Stowe in 1862, he reportedly said, "So this is the little lady who made this big war."(History.com Staff).

The author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe's was born in 1811 and was the seventh child to Congressional minister Lyman Beecher. As a young child, she had her studies in a private school in Connecticut and taught from 1827 until the passing of her father in 1843. She later wrote her anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom's cabin as her reaction to the fugitive slave laws. Her book was the most popular book of the century after the Bible. Her book had an impact on her life and in the lives of many Americans of the time. The novel was very controversial as soon as it dropped, but in 1853 when she traveled to England she was welcomed as a literary hero. Stowe used her novel to show the horrors of slavery. "In 1863, when Lincoln announced the end of slavery, she danced in the streets. Stowe continued to write throughout her life and died in 1896" (History.com staff).

Uncle Tom's Cabin shows the struggles of, Uncle Tom. He had been sold many times and he had proof of the physical abuse he had endured on his body from the slave traders and his past slave's owners. Uncle Tom had been abused and hurt so many times, but he stayed strong and faithful to his Faith. That was not uncommon for slaves to have a deep-rooted faith. "By the eve of the Civil War, Christianity had pervaded the slave community. The religion of the slaves was both visible and invisible, formally organized and spontaneously adapted. Regular Sunday worship in the local church was paralleled by illicit, or at least informal, prayer meetings on weeknights in the slave cabins. Preachers licensed by the church and hired by the master were supplemented by slave preachers licensed only by the spirit. Texts from the Bible, which most slaves could not read, were explicated by verses from the spirituals. Slaves forbidden by masters to attend church or, in some cases, even to pray, risked floggings to attend secret gatherings to worship God" (Raboteau). His faith was so strong and close to his heart that he inspired others, and his friend Cassey. Tom convinced her to flee through his preaching the word of God. At the time slaves were seen as sub-human, some didn't even think of them as people but as property. Stowe humanized the slaves in her novel and shows that Christianity was not just for the white people of that time., since many though Christianity was just for white people. She proves