Uncle Tom's Cabin
By Harriet Beecher Stowe
Although written before the emancipation proclamation, Uncle Tom's Cabin still has the power to warm in its loving evocation of family and friendships and to horrify in its depiction of the treatment of slaves. President Abraham Lincoln referred to abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe as "the little lady who started this war" not just by her depiction of the lives of slaves in the old South, but because of her readers' reaction. The book became an international bestseller, and was responsible for exposing the inhumanity and injustice of slavery. While not as graphic as the movie "Amistad" (which I saw just after reading this book), I'll never forget the faithfulness of Tom nor the loving example of little Eva, nor the image of Eliza escaping across the ice floes with her baby son. While Stowe's depictions may seem a little outdated (colonization for blacks, assuming characteristics [e.g. domesticity] for a whole race), it is clear where her sympathies lie.
Although written before the emancipation proclamation, Uncle Tom's Cabin still has the power to warm in its loving evocation of family and friendships and to horrify in its depiction of the treatment of slaves. President Abraham Lincoln referred to abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe as "the little lady who started this war" not just by her depiction of the lives of slaves in the old South, but because of her readers' reaction. The book became an international bestseller, and was responsible for exposing the inhumanity and injustice of slavery. While not as graphic as the movie "Amistad" (which I saw just after reading this book), I'll never forget the faithfulness of Tom nor the loving example of little Eva, nor the image of Eliza escaping across the ice floes with her baby son. While Stowe's depictions may seem a little outdated (colonization for blacks, assuming characteristics [e.g. domesticity] for a whole race), it is clear where her sympathies lie.
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