Book Review: Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher StoweMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
It’s ironic that so many today use the term “Uncle Tom” as a pejorative. The protagonist of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin — a singular, upright, and spiritual man — is a hero who demonstrates the fortitude of character we all wish we had (black or white). In fact, the current stereotype of the submissive “Uncle Tom” doesn’t come from this book but from traveling minstrel shows attempting to discredit her message.
That message is ultimately one of universal kinship of man and Christian charity. Stowe sought to put an end to slavery, and given the early and ongoing success of her work, she certainly played her role. Drawing off true accounts to draft her fictional narrative, she inserts a true pathos to her work. While it is not by any means the height of literary achievement, nor is it a perfect presentation, its cultural impact is welcome and well-earned.
One of the major characteristics of the book is that it is preachy (which I posit as a preacher). It goes out of its way to highlight how atrocious slavery could be, sometimes through extended (and sometimes forced) dialogues, and sometimes through the author’s own injunctions on the point. While its message is worthwhile, moralizing can halt the flow of the story and turn off potential readers — a difficult balance for anyone to keep. That said, one is hard-pressed to disagree with much of her message (though a few points are worthy of reexamination).
Interestingly, some of the sermonizing isn’t in addressing the misapplication of biblical passages concerning slavery in the American context; it settles to chasten Southern pastors who do so. Rather, it has a particular genius (likely common in the Christian abolitionist movement) in presenting the slave as a fellow bearer of the image of God. The system commoditized slaves — rather than seeing them as human beings, it bought and sold them as mere property (which is one of the greatest contrasts to the biblical). Stowe presents the emotions, reason, and other faculties of the enslaved in an able demonstration of their common creation from God.
Of course, she does so imperfectly, but the popularity and instant polarity her book prompted proves she was hitting near the nerve. There was a growing problem in nineteenth-century anthropology, theologically and scientifically speaking. Increasingly, people of all walks of life were accepting the precursors to evolutionary theory which were quickly adapted to social theory. By the time Charles Darwin published his later 1859 work, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, many white Americans were already seeing those of African descent as a different, less-evolved race. Social evolution became a convenient excuse for the propagation of the American version of the slave institution.
Unfortunately, Stowe’s corrective, published in 1852, doesn’t avoid this and proves the point. She does speak of the African “race.” As such, even while she’s presenting Africans as creatures of God, she does so in terms that many recognize as racist today. Indeed, among her more unfavorable quotes would be, “The negro, it must be remembered, is an exotic of the most gorgeous and superb countries of this world, and he has, deep in his heart, a passion for all that is splendid, rich, and fanciful; a passion which, rudely indulged by an untrained taste, draws on them the ridicule of the colder and more correct white race.” One can see a true effort on Stowe’s part to elevate those with more melanin in the minds of those who have less (even providing a backhanded compliment to her “colder and more correct” readers), but we see an underlying issue in the belief that God had created different races of mankind rather than one.
It's on that racial basis that progressives today distance themselves from the work. There’s an irony to that, but it’s a common malady today to judge authors of the past by our knowledge. For instance, we fail to imagine the situation as the abolitionist saw it — if we stole Africans from their land, then let’s raise money for whoever wants to go back. Such imperfect efforts at restitution became a message of hate only after white supremacists appropriated it after the war, wanting segregation.
Perhaps other factors trouble the modern progressive, however. For instance, it’s far easier to blame the South for the evils of slavery and assume all Southerners harbor racism. Yet, Stowe also castigates the North for its prejudices and role in the whole system, even having a Northerner as the slave trader taking Tom from his cabin in chains. She also presents several Southerners as sympathetic to the plight of blacks, including Southern abolitionists and even some slave holders struggling with the morality of continuing what they saw as a benevolent slavery versus releasing people to live in destitution. Stowe doesn’t allow her readers to have the simplistic view of today that says, “The Northerners were the good guys and the Southerners were the bad guys.”
Still, though, the most difficult for most to receive is the clear gospel testimony she presents in her work. Too many would repay evil for evil and know nothing of the righteousness of God coming against the wickedness of man. Tom understood that Legree would face the judgment and pleaded for his soul, all while demonstrating the love of God by willingly laying down his life to save others. Stowe, too, quoting several Bible verses in full, asks the reader to repent of their sins and trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ for salvation.
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