Final thoughts on Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin"

            After reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and looking at different essays providing additional context or critiques on the novel one primary theme that I am most interested is slavery. Of course the book is all about slavery. But I’m interested in how slavery is presented and how the different characters in the book react to slavery and how that in turn affects readers and the message that the book conveys.

            Uncle Tom’s Cabin presents us with several different depictions of slaves lives. We see positive and negative situations. Sometimes the slaves are in homes that they like and where they are treated well. Then suddenly they are ripped away and sold, or parts of their families are sold leaving them heartbroken and powerless. We see slaves risk their lives and attempt an escape to the north. Some slaves remain submissive, others commit suicide instead of remaining in a life of slavery. Some slaves are touched by the people around them and are given strength. Others are beaten down and left with almost nothing. Stowe really paints a wide picture of several different outcomes that happen in slaves lives. You never really know what life is going to put you through as a slave. Life is constant; it’s not stable. Stowe made it clear that life as a slave is not easy and day after day life tests their strength and faith.

            Not only does Stowe show us how slavery effects slaves but she also shows us several different white families and how they deal with slavery. Stowe shows us several different families that are in favor of slavery and treat slaves horribly, families that are anti-slavery and do their best to help slaves, or families that own slaves but treat them well. What interests me is that each type of family is still religious and use religion to explain their various viewpoints on slavery. There’s Christians that use the bible to prove that men are supposed to own slaves and there’s Christians who believe that if you believe in slavery you aren’t acting as a good Christian. As I was first reading the book I was curious as to why Stowe would have characters use religion to defend both sides of an argument. Stowe herself came from a religious family with several members of her family being in the ministry. So why would she depict religion as a force behind slavery and anti-slavery? In the White families the women are typically the ones preaching religion and the men don’t really have anything to do with religion. And then among the slaves a majority of them are faithful. I think this is done to show that the slaves are the ones that are relying on religion. They need someone to pray to in the hopes that life will get better for them. White people are not living in terrible conditions and being treated like animals.  It’s hard to read about characters that are slaves and are repeated being treated poorly but still try to keep faith. It’s uplifting and as a reader you just want their prayers to be answered and for them to have a happy ending. When looking at the white families in comparison you want all of them to find religion and to realize that owning other individuals is not something that the bible encourages. Everyone has their own schema for how Christians should act. But I think most people can agree that, at the very least, today, Christians are good to almost all people and are kind and respectable. They believe in being good to their neighbors.  Reading UTC today I don’t understand how people behaved the way they used to and I’m amazed that any slave was able to hang onto their faith. I think that is a one way UTC can still be interpreted today. I think it’s easier to look at how religion is presented in the book today.

            Uncle Tom’s Cabin is an American treasure that helped the anti-slavery moment in the 1800s. It’s a book that showcases several different characters and their involvement in slavery. Although the book was incredibly successful in its time, today the actual depiction of slavery is questioned and to me the book was clearly written for its intended purpose. I do believe that it is necessary to showcase events like slavery so that readers are “comfortable enough” reading about the difficult subject matter. I think today, we deserve to read pieces of literature that aren’t written for white people or so that it’s “readable”.  Literature shouldn’t be written because readers can’t handle harsh realities. I know Stowe wrote UTC the way she did because she wanted to convey the message that slavery should be stopped. I’m not saying the way she wrote it was bad or that she was unsuccessful. I just think that after reading the book and reading different critiques, that slavery shouldn’t be sugar coated. Slavery is a piece of all Americans history and is able to be written by all people, white or black, as long as it is done well and honestly.