Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin

Welcome to Civics and Coffee. My name is Alycia and I am a self-professed history nerd. Each week, I am going to chat about a topic on U.S history and give you both the highlights and occasionally break down some of the complexities in history; and share stories you may not remember learning in high school. All in the time it takes to enjoy a cup of coffee. 

INTRO MUSIC

Hey everyone, welcome back. 

In the summer of 1851, a short story appeared on the pages of a weekly periodical called The National Era. The as yet unknown author introduced readers to several characters, building what would become one of the most recognizable pieces of American literature. 

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a full-throated fictional prosecution of slavery, garnered international fame and became the most successful piece of fiction of the nineteenth century. A call to action for the abolitionist community, the novel was controversial and further divided an increasingly fractured nation. Considered an American classic today, Stowe’s tale of a humble slave continues to illicit analysis, questions, and controversy. 

So this week, I am diving into the history of Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Harriet Beecher Stowe. How did the story come to fruition? Who was Harriet Beecher Stowe? And why does the story remain such a prominent fixture?

Grab your cup of coffee, peeps. Let’s do this. 

Before we dive into the novel's background and its proliferation through various mediums, let’s take a look at the life of the author. 

Born on June 14, 1811, in Litchfield, Connecticut, Harriet Beecher was one of eleven children. Her mother died when Harriet was only five, leaving her big sister Catherine as the major maternal influence in her life. Her sister is the same Catherine Beecher who founded the Hartford Female Seminary, an all-girls school educating the quote-unquote fairer sex. Not to be outdone, several of Harriet’s brothers grew up to become prominent preachers, likely taking after the patriarch of the family, Lyman. 

As a young girl, Harriet attended the Litchfield Female Academy before enrolling at her sister’s school where she assumed teaching responsibilities after completing her studies in 1829. When her father was appointed the President of the Lane Theological Seminary in 1832, Harriet packed her bags and moved with him to Cincinnati. It was here that Harriet would meet her future husband, Calvin Stowe. Stowe, a widower, was a professor at the same seminary as Harriet’s father. The two married in 1836 and together had seven children, including a son who died during a cholera epidemic in 1849. 

Whether due to her upbringing or religious teachings, Stowe was a large supporter of the abolitionist movement and was furious over the Fugitive Slave Law, passed as part of the Compromise of 1850. The deal came from negotiations over how the United States should treat the land acquired through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The agreement, signed at the end of the Mexican-American War, increased the United States' borders by over 500,000 square miles and prompted a debate in Congress as to whether slavery should be allowed to move into the western territories. 

When California requested to enter the union as a free state, anxieties arose about the concentration of power with representatives concerned the state’s admittance would shift the balance against slave-holding states. Master negotiator Henry Clay lept into action. Over several months, Clay and fellow members of Congress negotiated a deal wherein California would be allowed to enter the United States as a free state and divided up what would become Utah and New Mexico into territories that could decide by popular sovereignty whether to allow slavery. However, the crux of the compromise was the addition of a new fugitive slave law, more forceful than the original. In 1793, Congress passed a law which allowed for the search and seizure of supposed runaways in free states and provided that any magistrate or judge in the town could hear the matter to determine the claim's validity. Under the compromise in 1850, a new law allowed for the compulsion of residents of free states to aid in the search and capture of supposed runaways and denying these individuals the right to a trial. As a result, black Americans had no protection or recourse from charges of being someone's property, leading to the kidnapping and enslavement of several free men and women. 

Stowe was defiant of the law, violating it on at least one occasion, hiding a runaway slave from South Carolina by the name of John Andrew Jackson. However, it was the life-altering loss of her young son during the cholera epidemic that instilled in Stowe a new empathy for enslaved mothers. Angered at the lack of agency she had in keeping her son alive, Stowe saw with new understanding how difficult it must have been for enslaved women to watch as their children were stolen from their arms and sold off, likely never to be seen again. Fueled by the combination of sadness of losing her son and the rage she felt over an unjust law, Stowe poured her emotions into crafting the opening lines of what would become one of the most famous novels of all time. 

Quote: “In which the Reader is introduced to a Man of Humanity.

  Late in the afternoon of a chilly day in February, two gentlemen were sitting alone over their wine, in a well-furnished dining parlor, in the town of P———, in Kentucky. There were no servants present, and the gentlemen, with chairs closely approaching, seemed to be discussing some subject with great earnestness.” end quote. 

Stowe’s beginning passage first reached audiences through The National Era newspaper. Published by Gamaliel Bailey, a staunch supporter of the abolitionist cause. It was Bailey who requested a story from Stowe; one that would quote: “paint a word picture of slavery,” end quote. The original plan was to publish only a handful of short stories to illustrate how harmful the practice of slavery was, however, Stowe’s tale took off. She kept herself busy, writing over forty entries which ran from June of 1851 until April 1852 when it was published as a two-volume novel. The book became an instant hit, selling 10,000 copies in the United States in its first week. Of course, despite its popularity, not everyone was a fan. 

Stowe was quickly taken to task by southerners who criticized the novel as a complete work of fiction, which it was, and specifically that it was written to quote “awaken rancorous hatred and malignant jealousies between the citizens of the same republic,” end quote. Southern slaveholders were so angered by what they claimed was a complete misrepresentation of what life was truly like went so far as to publish their novel in response. The book, called Aunt Phillis’ Cabin or Southern Life As It Is, aimed to portray slavery as a mutually respectful relationship. Penned by another woman, Mary Henderson Eastman, the novel quotes Uncle Tom’s Cabin extensively, contrasting Stowe’s fiction with how it supposedly really was. 

While not as commercially successful as Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Eastman’s Southern Life sold upwards of 30,000 copies, about ten percent of Stowe’s sales for the first year. Critics charged that given Stowe’s northern birth and upbringing, there was no way she could know anything about slavery or how it operated. This argument, detractors hoped, would further undercut the novel and its harsh criticism of the institution. Not one to back down from a challenge, Stowe published a response to the book in 1854 documenting the sources and methods she used to craft her novel. 

Despite heavy criticism from individuals living south of the Mason-Dixon line, several others praised Uncle Tom’s Cabin. One such reader wrote in the Frederick Douglass Paper in May of 1852 that Stowe’s story was quote: “marvelous for its dramatic power,” end quote. Another writer, this time for the New York periodical The Independent wrote quote, “with careful exaggerating fidelity to facts that the southerner must accept, it unites an outspoken energy and fearlessness of portraiture that the Northerner must feel,” end quote.  

For her part, Stowe toured the country to talk about the book and support anti-slavery causes, donating portions of the proceeds of her book to the abolitionist movement. The overwhelming success of Uncle Tom’s Cabin meant that Stowe could make writing her career. She would continue to write for several decades, enjoying more than fifty years as an author by trade. While Uncle Tom is her most recognized work, Stowe also wrote the novel Dred, A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp, Oldtown Folks, and The Minister’s Wooing. Not just a novelist, Stowe also penned several poems and produced nonfiction including First Geography for Our Children in 1855. She also was not afraid to jump into political topics, penning the Appeal to Women of the Free States of America in hopes of rallying support for the defeat of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. 

Regardless of her literary success, Stowe was still a wife and mother. Given the period this meant she followed her husband’s pursuits. After his employment with Lane Theological Seminary, Calvin Stowe secured a position with Bowdoin College, prompting the family to move from Cincinnati to Brunswick, Maine in 1850. The large family stayed for just three years before moving again in 1853, this time to Andover, Massachusetts when Calvin took another position at the Andover Theological Seminary. The family remained in Andover for several years until Calvin’s retirement in 1864 when they moved to Hartford, Connecticut and Harriet built the house of her dreams. Unfortunately, the maintenance of the home was too much of a burden, prompting the Stowe’s to move one final time in 1870 to a more manageable property in town. The Stowe’s were also able to purchase a winter home in Florida after the Civil War, a place they used to escape the harsh northern winters. 

In 1886, Calvin Stowe passed away, leaving Harriet a widow at the age of 75. Married over fifty years, Harriet appears to have hung up her quill around the same period. Reviewing her literary career, Stowe published thirty books and dozens of short stories, articles, and hymns. She passed away just a few days after her 85th birthday on July 1, 1896. In death, Stowe remained tied to the novel which made her career. In an obituary, Uncle Tom’s Cabin was referred to as quote: “the greatest production in American literature,” end quote, and Stowe as one of Black America’s quote “greatest benefactors,” end quote.

In what may feel like a headline from today’s newspapers, many sources I read point to Uncle Tom’s Cabin as likely the first book to ever be banned in the United States. Given its subject matter, several booksellers in the South refused to carry the novel and it was banned throughout the Confederacy during the Civil War.  

But despite its detractors and naysayers, the novel that started as a word picture about slavery turned into the most successful novel of the nineteenth century, and the second most popular book of the era, falling short only to the Bible. Its popularity was not simply relegated to the pages of the book as the novel was quickly adopted for the stage as a play and again as a film during the earliest days of the movie industry. Given that the story of Uncle Tom’s Cabin was so well known and had been read by so many, it was the most filmed story of the silent movie era. 

But the legacy and impact of Uncle Tom’s Cabin is mixed. While it served during its initial run as a fictionalized tale aimed to decry the ills of slavery and garner support for abolition, there remain some harsh criticisms of the main character, Tom. Despite his constant mistreatment and degradation, Tom remains passive and never displays anger. As Stowe was writing purposefully to gain sympathy from the larger Anglo-Saxon population, creating a kind, docile man who takes constant abuse without fighting back makes strategic sense. However, scholars say this also created an unrealistic and unattainable caricature of black men. Writing about Uncle Tom’s Cabin and its influence on black politics in the United States, Dr. Cheryl Thompson wrote quote, “Uncle Tom transformed into a stereotype of Black masculinity characterized by docility, castrated sexuality, a happy-to-please-whites attitude with a safe, child-like essence, at the same time,” end quote.

The idea of pleasing white America at the sacrifice of all else, Dr. Thompson argues, transformed the fictionalized character from one of benevolence to an insult within the black community. In her analysis, the phrase uncle tom is reserved for those who are willing - or perceived as willing - to discount their own needs and those of their community to placate white Americans. Some examples Dr. Thompson cites include the criticisms of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and O.J. Simpson.

Regardless of these critiques, Uncle Tom’s Cabin remains a common fixture in classrooms throughout the country as a tool to understand nineteenth-century literature, slavery, and women’s voices of the period. It is an imperfect book, but one that properly captured the moment in which it was written and the debates facing the country in the run-up to the Civil War. While it is not an easy book to get through, it is nevertheless an important portrait of antebellum life in America and continues to generate discussion and new interpretations throughout the world. 

If you’ve been enjoying the podcast, please consider a rate and review. Your five-star reviews help get the show out to the masses and always put a smile on my face. If you ever have a topic you’d like me to cover, feel free to reach out. I am on the socials and there is always the website where you can also see transcripts, and source material, and grab yourself some Civics and Coffee swag. Just head on over to www dot civics and coffee dot com to learn more. 

Thanks, peeps. I’ll see you next week.

Thanks for tuning and I hope you enjoyed this episode of Civics & Coffee. If you want to hear more small snippets from american history, be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening and I look forward to our next cup of coffee together. 

OUTRO MUSIC