Almanac of Story Tellers: Uncle Tom's Cabin

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to story telling -- in prose and in poetry, in art and in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of June 5th

 ___________________________________________________________________________

    It is the 156th day of the year, leaving 209 days remaining in 2022.

 

    On this date in 1851, the first installments of Uncle Tom's Cabin were published in the abolitionist periodical, The National Era. The serialization continued for the next 40 weeks, launching the publication of the 19th Century's most-read novel.

    The novel is partly credited with creating enough revulsion for the institution of slavery in the Northern United States, and helping to bring about its eventual abolition. But it is also criticized for creating and spreading the stereotypes of Black people that have continued to cause harm until this day.

    The author, Harriet Beecher Stowe, was a white woman who had little contact with slavery, getting much of her information either second-hand, through stories of escaped slaves who passed through her Cincinnati home, Her novel -- written primarily to show the horrors of slavery -- also tried to suggest it could be abolished solely through the goodness of Christian thought and living.

     For instance, Tom, the main character, is an enslaved man who is depicted as saintly and dignified in his behavior, while noble and steadfast in his beliefs. Today he comes across as subservient and complicit, and the name Uncle Tom is seen as an insult in the Black community.

    Almost all of the female characters are virtuous and maternal, and the descriptions of many of the Black characters are seen as racist and patronizing. The main villain in the story, enslaver Simon Legree, is almost comically evil.

    Still, Stowe is credited with showing the brutality of slavery, the ill and violent treatment of the enslaved, and the greed and inhumanity of the enslavers and the institution of slavery.

    Uncle Tom's Cabin was widely read before, during, and after the America Civil War.