How Does Harriet Beecher Stowe Support The Abolishment Of Slavery

While some may fail to recognize Harriet Beecher Stowe’s political impact on the abolishment of slavery, it can easily be argued that her novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, played a role in awakening a society who had long remained oblivious to it. Selling more than 300,000 copies in its first year, Uncle Tom’s Cabin provided its readers with insight into the horrific and inhumane conditions that slavery bestowed. From stories of slave children being torn apart from their mothers to stories about the violence involved in slave trading, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel helped bring a great American tragedy from out of the shadows and into the light. Stage adaptations of the novel helped further sway its audience into supporting the abolishment of slavery. With a nation …show more content…
Another way this is attempted is through the use of social entities - such as religion. In chapter sixteen of the novel, Tom’s new owner, St. Claire, and his mistress, Marie, have a discussion about religion and how it relates to slavery. The mistress, arrogant and oblivious, argues that the bible supports slavery and expresses that she is glad it exists. St. Claire, on the other hand, struggles with the idea and voices his contrasting opinion to Marie. “The whole frame-work of society, both in Europe and America, is made up of various things which will not stand the scrutiny of any very ideal standard of morality”. These contrasting opinions reveal the ignorance about slavery in relation to religion to readers. They also express ideas of the immoral nature of slavery as it stands in American society. While including these remarks in her novel may have been precarious, it is evident that Stowe wrote her novel in a way that would appeal to Christians and their family values. And in doing so, she was able to call upon them to recognize their duty in ending