Race Relations In Uncle Tom's Cabin

Great Essays
Race relations are a problem that have plagued society for a number of centuries, from Columbus’ poor treatment of the Native Americans, to today’s plentiful race related stereotypes. Time after time, racism has been a horrible practice of some, while many have tried to eradicate the issue. Slavery was a particularly dark period of race relations in America, in the form of white men who claimed ownership of his black brothers. This was solely on the basis of a pseudoscience that they were inferior, and thus weren 't worthy of basic human rights. It was a sordid period in human history, yet some of history’s great leaders and heroes arose in opposing this great evil. Among the most important and vocal of the leaders of the antislavery movement …show more content…
Douglass’ focus is more broad, consequently making its point stronger. Specifically, Stowe’s book focuses upon the bonds between women such as Eliza and their families, as well as how slavery wrecks said bonds. Stowe makes this focus clear in Uncle Tom’s Cabin when she depicts the conversation between Master Shelby and his wife after he had agreed to sell off Eliza 's only son so he could pay off his mortgage, “‘Well, I can believe anything now,—I can believe now that you could sell little Harry, poor Eliza 's only child!’ said Mrs. Shelby, in a tone between grief and indignation” (Stowe 28). Through the angst of Mrs. Shelby, Stowe is prominently displaying the crux of her novel. By demonstrating indignation for the practices of slavery from a white slaveholding woman, she is intending to garner sympathy for slaves like Eliza from her audience, and hoping that they convince those in their life to believe the same. Furthermore, Stowe appeals to women in that she connects with a mother 's sense of grief; a common issue for slave women, like Eliza, was that they were often parted from their

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