we often think the internet has the power to change the world, that we, in modern times have newest and best tools available to us to promote change in society. however, back in the mid 19th century, there were still powerful tools available that made one social activist the woman who changed a nation!
this is the story that took place 160 years ago, before electricity, telephones, computers and the internet. this is the story of a remarkable woman, an author, in the day where women were expected to be home birthing heirs to their husband, behaving in a proper society as women did.
Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1853 (photo: alanson fisher, national portrait gallery)
THIS woman, harriet beecher stowe, was one of a small group of women who reached far beyond the expectations of her time and expected her times to reach with her and construct a better world! she achieved an education (a rarity for women in the 1800s), learned many languages and became a woman of letters, a teacher and an author who received international accolade! she wrote and published one of the most critically important works of her era - a book that, indeed, changed her world and that of the world of the nation that followed! AND, she did it without the aid of facebook, a cell phone or tweets! follow below for this remarkable achievement and a look into the world that was… in 1852.
we think we know this book, we frequently use phrases that imply we do and, when we do, we use them with startling inaccuracy without ever looking at the character of uncle tom, his history, his morality and his times. the term "uncle tom" has become an insult often hurled at those who are pragmatic in the face of adversity or to those considered sell-outs to greater societal good. but are we correct in our cavalier use of this term? i decided to revisit a classic to find out why the phrase "uncle tom" always made me cringe a bit. won't you join me in this discovery? but first, a bit more about a remarkable woman and writer who was held in the highest acclaim by presidents and nations for her bravery and passionate defense of the rights of ALL people!
harriet beeches stowe's book, uncle tom's cabin, was first published as a part of a series on slavery. on june 5, 1851, the first article in the washington weekly, the national era, was published and was so stunning that the boston publisher, john p. jewel, contacted stowe to publish a book of the series before she had completed it! when the book was released on march 20, 1852, it sold 300,000 copies in the first three months after it was published. that's right. 300,000 copies in 1852! considering the entire population of the united states in 1860 was a mere 31,443,7960, of which 14.1% were black, the number of sold copies is astounding! (according to the u.s. census of 2010, the population of the u.s. was 313,131,999 with only 12.6% being of african descent.)
father steven reilly wrote in his article Slavery Stoppers: Frederick Douglass and Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe has one goal: to convince her northern audience that slavery was evil and could no longer be tolerated. Perhaps from our vantage point, that seems like an easy target. But in the 1850s it wasn’t. In the North, even though slavery was illegal, racism was pervasive and abolitionists were often viewed as fringe radicals who threatened the Union through their implacable criticism of the South.
Her novel hit the country like a bombshell. It was a huge best-seller in the North; in the South, there was outrage. Rarely has a novel generated such widespread and diametrically opposed reaction. And never has its social impact been duplicated.
first, a bit of background on harriet beecher stowe will help define this "fringe radical" writer. stowe was a child of the calvinist minister, layman beecher. she studied at the litchfield academy, where she developed a deep spirituality along with a passionate love of reading. in 1824 she attended the
hartford female seminary founded by her sister, catherine ester beecher. it was the second institution founded in the united states to educate women in something beyond "social manners for young ladies". this private school for "females" was established by her sister to "invent" the profession of teaching and to train women in that profession. her course of studies included composition, italian, french, latin and poetry. when her father moved to cincinnati in 1832, where her father became the president of the lane theological seminary, stowe also moved there and continued writing and publishing her work.
in 1834 she won a writing contest in the western monthly magazine, launching her success as a writer for publications such as the new york evangelist, the independent, the christian union and the atlantic monthly. in 1836, stowe married a professor at her father's institute, a widowed clergyman, calvin ellis stowe, and, between writing, gave birth to seven children.
she published her first book, the may flower and miscellaneous writings, in 1832. during this time, her opposition to slavery was growing and strengthened when the laws governing the recapture of runaway slaves were made harsher. stowe and her husband were exposed to the harsh consequences of these laws as ohio bordered the slave-state kentucky.
the battle hit home for stowe when the family's servant girl turned out not to be a "freed slave" but a runaway hunted by her previous owner from kentucky. stowe's husband and brother secreted the girl through the night to escape capture. ohio was a major route of the underground railroad that grew in prominence with the abundant publication of pamphlets decrying slavery (the equivalency today would be the tweets and iphones and text messages), yet there were many who both decried slavery and those who defended the practice. riots both for and against were common in 1839 as people lined up on either side of the debate. the controversy of slavery was just beginning to boil over when the stowes moved from cincinnati to maine due to the cholera epidemic of 1949. the stowe family now lived in brunswick, maine, where her husband taught at bowdoin college. when, in 1850, the congress passed the fugitive slave act making it a crime to assist runaway slaves, stowe was already very active in the abolitionist movement. after 1852, the stowes moved from maine to "the cabin" in andover, massachusetts, where her husband was appointed professor of theology at andover theological seminary. she had, during this period, been working on the article that was to become uncle tom's cabin.
ah, but let's go back to that little best seller, the first serial issue of uncle tom's cabin. the first of the series was published in 1851 in the national era (a washington anti-slavery publication). immediately, the boston publisher john p. jewel was seeking out stowe to publish the entire series in book form - a series she had not yet completed! in preparation for writing the book, she wrote to former slaves henry bibb and frederick douglass, among others, to seek assistance, for she was determined to accurately portray the situation and lives of slaves in this period. her letter to frederick douglass is here.
as a side note, her dialogue with douglass over the role of the church in supporting/decrying slavery is a most fascinating segment within this six page letter. she writes:
I have noticed with regret your sentiments on two subjects – the church - & African colonization - & with the more regret, because I think you have a considerable share of reason for your feelings on both these subjects – but I would willingly if I could modify your view on both points.
- In the first place you say the church is “pro slavery – There is a sense in which this may be true – The American church of all denominations rather as a body comprises the best and most conscientious people in the country – I do not say it comprises none but these – or that none such are found out of it – but only that if a census were taken of the present and most highly principled men & women of our country the majority of them must be found to be professors of religion in some of the various Christian denominations-- This fact has given to the church great might in this country – the general & predominant spirit of intelligence & probity & piety of its majority has given it that degree of weight that it has the power to decide the great moral questions of the day – Whatever it unitedly and decidedly sets itself against as a moral evil it can put down
– In this sense the church is responsible for the sin of slavery – Dr. Banus has beautifully and briefly expressed this on the last page of his work on slavery when he says, “not all the force out of the church could sustain slavery an hour, if it were not sustained in it
she then writes to douglass
But I would ask, would you consider it a fair representation of the christian church in this country to say it is pro intemperance – pro Sabbath breaking & pro everything else it might put down if it was in a higher state of moral feeling?
If you should make a list of all the abolitionists of the country I think you would find a majority of them in the church – certainly some of the most influential & effective ones are ministers –
I am a minister’s daughter – a minister’s wife & I have six brothers in the ministry – (one is in Heaven) - & I certainly ought to know something of the feelings of ministers – I was a child in 1821, when the Missouri question was agitated & one of the strongest & deepest impressions on my mind were my father’s sermons & prayers - & the anguish of his soul for the poor slave at that time – I remember his preaching drawing tears down the hardest faces of the old farmers – I remember his prayers night & morning in the family for “poor oppressed bleeding Africa” that the time for her deliverance in the family might come – prayers offered with strong crying & tears which indelibly impressed my heart & made me what I am from my soul the enemy of slavery – Every brother I have has been in his sphere a leading anti slavery man – (one of them was to the last hour of his life the bosom friend & counsillor of Lovejoy & all have known & heard of the man - ) As for myself and husband we have lived on the border of a slave state for years & we have never for years shrunk from the fugitives – we have helped them with all we had to give – I have received the children of liberated slaves into a family school & taught them with my own children - & it has been the influence that we found in the church & by the altar that has made us do this – Gather up all the sermons that have been published on this offensive & unchristian law & you will find that those in its favor against it are numerically more than those in its favor - & yet some of the strongest opponents have not published their sermons – out of thirteen ministers who meet with my husband mostly for discussion of moral subjects only three are found who will acknowledge or obey this law in any shape.
After all my brother, the strength & hope of your oppressed race does lie in the church – In hearts united to Him of whom it is said, He shall spare the souls of the needy - & precious shall their blood be in His sight – Everything is against you – but Jesus Christ is for you - & He has not forgotten his church misguided and erring tho it may be – I have looked all the facts over with despairing eyes –
I see no hope except in Him – This movement must and will become a purely religious one – the light will spread in churches – the tone of the feeling will rise – christians north and south will give up all connection with & take up their testimony against it and thus this work will be over.
[sidenote here: her point to douglass brings my thoughts to the another issue of our time when the battles for social justice have the "church" on the wrong side of so many issues, leaving me to wonder that by our abandoning this venue as a powerful political and social weapon against societal ills, are we not ceding control to those who represent the worst in religious manipulation. has not religion been used for centuries to further political change? if so, why are we so loathe to consider this in our personal determination to change what is egregiously wrong in our society? something in this begs consideration at another day and time.]
okay, i've been on and on about this remarkable woman and i hope have whetted your appetite for what's to come.
most of us are familiar with little eliza on the ice flow. there were multiple silent films made of this book, including one of the first "full length" films lasting 14 minutes! the impact of stowe's story of the cruelty of the slave trade and of a slave's flight to save her child was so important that when abraham lincoln met her in 1862, he purportedly said, "so this is the little lady that started this great war!"
to really understand the impact of harriet beecher stowe's book, you must read it, not watch the simplified version on film.
it is for this reason that i have decided to make this entry into R&BLers: favorite authors into a two part series.
i ask you, gentle readers, to take the time in the next week to read (re-read) this important work. you'll need to block out the time because once you begin, you won't want to leave the words unattended. i know, in reading again, i am savoring each turn of the page on the perilous journey of eliza, george and little harry and travel with heavy heart the long route taken by an honest and moral man known as uncle tom.
and, i also now am reminded why the flippant use of the phrase you're an 'uncle tom! bothers me so greatly!
please join me in reading this wonderful book and then, next monday nite, let's see how harriet beecher stowe's description of eliza and tom's situation is not so unlike our own today in facing those who put profit over humanity. i find it fascinating to see how the "radical fringe" of the 1850s changed this nation and how the parallels to the rise of the occupy movement parallels the fight against the irresponsibilities of those who view money as a justification for abhorrent behavior. heeding the words of harriet beecher stowe can only help move us forward in today's perilous times.
here is a link to the free kindle copies of works by harriet beecher stowe, including uncle tom's cabin and the may flower, among other works.
if you have not already downloaded the free kindle reader for the mac and the p.c., you can do so here. the kindle reader has many free classics and books available at your fingertip! please consider downloading and reading uncle tom's cabin in its entirety. it is truly a remarkable work by a remarkable woman! and, best of all, it is free!
any thoughts tonight we can share but the real heart of this diary will begin after y'all have had a chance to read uncle tom's cabin!