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¶ … Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe and "Sociology of the South," and "Cannibals All" by Charles Fitzhugh. Specifically it will contrast and compare the two authors' feelings, beliefs, and attitudes regarding the role of the master in the society of slavery. Is the master a fatherly figure or only there to keep the slaves in line? It will also look at the role of the overseer. Were overseers "fatherly" as owners were or were they more brutal and cruel to slaves? These three very different works take two very diverse looks at slavery, one through the eyes of a slave-owner committed to the practice, and one through the eyes of an abolitionist, and they come to quite differing conclusions. Ultimately, history shows, from many other slave narratives and accounts, that the cruelty endured by most slaves was monumental, and their masters were sometimes cruel and inhuman. These two authors are at odds with each other, but they both have their reasons for writing, and something can be learned from both.
In "Uncle Tom's Cabin," author Stowe portrays some slave owners as kind and understanding. The Shelby's are this kind of family, and if they had not lived in the South, they may not have even owned slaves. They try to regard them as people, and trust men like Tom with vital parts of their lives, and they are strong enough not to sell him to an unscrupulous dealer like Hadley, whose only real purpose is to make money from the slaves, he treats them like so much horseflesh -- valuable, but without feelings or needs. However, far more common were overseers like Simon Legree, who came to stand for evil and cruelty in American culture. At one point,...
Stowe writes,
But Simon Legree heard no voice. [ ... ] He only glared for a moment on the downcast face of Tom, and walked off. He took Tom's trunk, which contained a very neat and abundant wardrobe, to the forecastle, where it was soon surrounded by various hands of the boat. With much laughing, at the expense of niggers who tried to be gentlemen, the articles very readily were sold to one and another, and the empty trunk finally put up at auction (Stowe 371).
This is only one of many examples of cruelty and inhumane treatment in the book, yet author Fitzhugh, himself a slave-owner, does not agree that masters and overseers can be cruel and inhumane. In fact, he likens the master/slave relationship to that of a "priest and layman." He notes, "The reciprocal duties and obligations of master and slave, of lord and vassal, of priest and layman, to each other, were altogether unlike those that should be practiced between the free and equal citizens of regenerated society" MACROBUTTON HtmlResAnchor ("Sociology" 48)
. He feels the slaves have a "reciprocal duty" to their masters, even though they have no rights, no part of the profits, and no freedoms.
Stowe's scenes of beatings are not atypical, they appear in many slave narratives and accounts, and they are all too common. Clearly, masters could be kind and understanding, such as the Shelby's and Sinclair, and so could overseers. Some actually respected their workers, and knew their own financial well being depended on the health and attitude of their slaves. However, many more were…
References
Fitzhugh, George. Ante-Bellum Writings of George Fitzhugh and Hinton Rowan Helper on Slavery. Ed. Wish, Harvey. New York: Capricorn Books, 1960.
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom's Cabin Or, Life among the Lowly. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1897.
It is impossible to conceive of a greater mistake. Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears" (Douglass 15). Douglass, unlike Uncle Tom or even Eliza, cannot help but wish to be free, because, he says, it is an integral part of his
Yet, as Hendrick writes, Harriet also transformed those feelings into an engine of social change; "pursuing the Calvinist injunction to 'improve the affliction' and reap 'the peaceable fruits of righteousness' in the wake of" her son Charley's death, and "stirred up the nation to an awareness of its sin." Harriet wrote to her brother Henry, "You see...how this subject has laid hold of me...The poor slave on whom the
Uncle Tom's Cabin - Fiction as a Catalyst for Fact The Origins of a Living Document Stage Night North and South Polarized: Critics Respond The Abolitionist Debates The Tom Caricature The Greatest Impact The Origins of a Living Document In her own words, Harriet Beecher Stowe was compelled to pen Uncle Tom's Cabin "....because as a woman, as a mother, I was oppressed and broken-hearted with the sorrows and injustice I saw, because as a Christian I felt
Uncle Tom Although President Lincoln might have overstated the importance of Uncle Tom's Cabin as being a singular cause for the war, the statement does capture the fact that literature serves as a reflection for social values and norms. Abolitionism did become a major political force in the antebellum years, which is why Lincoln and the Union were willing to wage war for so many years and sacrifice so many lives.
Uncle Tom's Cabin -- Character Analysis Eva St. Claire, also known as Little Eva, is an important character in Uncle Tom's Cabin. She enters the life of Uncle Tom, the main character who is a slave, when he saves her from drowning in the Mississippi River. Eva convinces her father to buy Tom and he heads back to the St. Claire plantation, where holds the role of head coachman. Eva is
When she is not utilizing dialogue, she uses vivid descriptions to make even minor characters jump from the page. Later she writes, "Great, tall, raw-boned Kentuckians, attired in hunting-shirts, and trailing their loose joints over a vast extent of territory" (Stowe 124). The rough men become real as they gather around the firelight, and that is because of Stowe's skill with characterization and description. Stowe's depiction and dialogue is