Uncle Tom's Cabin

Published in the early 1850's, Uncle Tom's Cabin had a huge impact on our nation and contributed to the tension over slavery. It was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, a woman who was involved in religious and feminist causes. Stowe's influence on the northern states was remarkable. Her fictional novel about slave life of her current time has been thought to be one of the main things that led up to the Civil War. The purpose of writing it, as is often said, was to expose the evils of slavery to the North where many were unaware of just what went on in the rest of the country. The book was remarkably successful and sold 300,000 copies by the end of its first year. It is even rumored that upon President Lincoln's meeting Stowe, Lincoln said, "So this is the little lady who made this big war."

There is no doubt among most historians that Stowe's book affected many people's views on slavery; but one question that is being asked today is whether the book was historically accurate. Some think believe it recorded exactly the sort of things that went on among slaves and their owners while other people say that Stowe made an elaborate exaggeration of the evils of slavery just so she could prove her point. Was Uncle Tom's Cabin close to the truth? An examination of current work on the history of the U.S. should reveal the merits of Stowe's writing.

The general consensus among historical accounts of slavery is that southern slave owners mostly considered slaves as less of a person than they themselves were. They still viewed slaves as people, but not on the same level as them. Irwin Unger describes the system of slavery like many slaves have who have since written about it. Unger says that slaves were in a "system that denied them their humanity" (Unger 309). Slave owners were racist, he says. They were viewed as inferior. He writes, "It was [this] mark of inferiority that affected all black men and women and did not disappear even when black people secured their freedom" (Unger 309). According to Unger, "it was illegal to teach slaves to read and write" (Unger 309). Owners saw it as unnecessary for them and did not want slaves to become more equal with the free people. A conversation between Eva and her mother in Stowe's book reveals this view of slaves as inferior along with slaves not being taught to read. Eva's mother tells her, "It is no use for them to read. It don't help them to work any better, and they are not made for anything else" (Stowe 286). So Stowe was accurate in portraying Eva's mother as thinking slaves did not need to read and also accurate in her view of slaves in general. She viewed slaves as inferior when she said slaves were "not made for anything else" but for work (Stowe 286). This is an example or one theme in Stowe's novel that is right in line with current historical research.

Many times Stowe writes of slaves being unjustly punished for no good reason. One time is when the slave, George, is describing his experiences in hearing is sister unjustly whipped. He felt helpless, knowing he could do nothing to stop it. George says, "I have stood at the door and heard her whipped, when it seemed as if every blow cut into my naked heart, and I couldn't do anything to help her; and she was whipped, sir, for wanting to live a decent Christian life" (Stowe 123). The use of the whip is consistent with one of Jack Larkin's essays he wrote in 1988. He records, "The whip remained the essential instrument of punishment and discipline" (Larkin 136). Larkin says that the whip was used often and sometimes for no clear reason. When slaves heard it, he says, they "knew that they were never more than a white man's or woman's whim away from a beating" (Larkin 133).

The sexual abuse of slave women was fairly common according to historical accounts and Stowe's story. Plantation owners would often buy slave girls for the main purpose of satisfying their sexual desires. Almost no female slave was completely safe. Larkin reveals, "Slave women had little protection from whatever sexual demands masters or overseers might make, so that rapes, short liaisons, and long-term ‘concubinage' all were part of plantation life" (Larkin 138). Unger agrees and says, "Some slave owners and white overseers had virtual harems. Less sensational, but more telling, the 1860 census records that 10 percent of the slave population had partly white ancestry" (Unger 308). This point is made in Uncle Tom's Cabin when Emmeline is told to curl her hair to look more attractive to white males who might buy her. Simon Legree buys her and tells her that they will have "fine times" together. He may have bought her to replace his previous slave girl, Cassy,