Book For The Week - 8/18/11

Uncle Tom's Cabin
by
Harriet Beecher Stowe


Next month a friend and I have a trip planned to Cincinnati Ohio to visit some of the Underground Rail Road sites.   One of the places I hope we get to tour is the home that Harriet Beecher Stowe lived in between 1832 and 1850 when she was living in Cincinnati.    After my vacation last year to the greater Boston area and the fun I had touring the homes of Louisa Mae Alcott,  Ralph Waldo Emerson's grandparents home where he wrote Nature,  Henry David Thoreau's Waldon Pond and Nathaniel Hawthorne's House of Seven Gables,  I came home and listened on audio to  The House of Seven Gables,  Nature,  Little Women and On Walden Pond.   As I listened I knew it would have been better to listen first and visit second.   As a result,  earlier this week,  I finished listening to Uncle Tom's Cabin.   Even though I can't remember ever reading it,  I must have either read it a long time ago or had parts of it read to me as a child because there were portions of the book that were very familiar to me. 
While listening to the story several things came to mind.  It is of course propaganda that was meant to encourage people to become involved in the abolitionist movement just prior to the civil war.   I was surprised to see the amount of time that the author spent developing the point of view of the southern slave owner and her defense of their point of view.   She did make it crystal clear that even a kind and generous slave owner put his slaves at risk for mistreatment if he should die unexpectedly by having the character in the book who was a kind and generous slave owner have an unexpected fatal encounter.   She also developed at great length the separation of families that took place with the system of slave trade that was practiced in the south.   The author allowed us to be a part of one families escape and to experience the underground rail road that they followed to Canada. 

Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin filled to the brim with her Christian point of view.  It is a book filled with religious references and was meant to be read by a Christian audience.  There were many places where the Bible was quoted and Christian language was used throughout.   The novel made clear in the character of Uncle Tom how the idea of the  "Promised Land"  was used to endure hell on earth.
This book is a classic and should be read by everyone.  It is believed that Abraham Lincoln accused Harriet Beecher Stowe of starting the Civil War with the writing of Uncle Tom's Cabin.    This year is the 200th anniversary of Harriet Beecher Stowe's birth.  What a wonderful  time to read or to re read her book! 
Please follow the links to learn more.  It can also be listened to HERE.