To wake up each morning in one’s own bed, to walk about each day at one’s own will, to lay down to sleep each night belonging only to one’s self: this is what it means to be free. The very definition of humanity calls for the freedom to own one’s own soul and decide where that soul should roam. It is easy to forget that not every human being has known this priceless gift of God- not of God’s own will but of the will of another free human being. This outrageous injustice of stealing another’s freedom and playing God is the very reason wars are fought. Harriet Beecher Stowe renewed the fight for freedom of all people in the pre-civil war era, amidst great criticism, in her great work Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Born one of eleven children in Connecticut,
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Slavery was already a very sensitive topic. Stowe tackled the subject with tact and sympathy. She was also careful to portray “its atmosphere with fire and sympathy”, though it did little to mollify the people of the South who felt the novel was a direct attack on their character and lifestyle ("Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe"). The novel also exceeded the norm by being the first novel by an American author “to take the negro seriously” and to “have a black man as the hero” ("Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe"). As many know, bad publicity is still publicity and Harriet Beecher Stowe gained quite a bit. Despite many saying the novel had no chance of being a big seller, “ten thousand copies were sold in less than a week. Within a year the sales amounted to three-hundred thousand” ("Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe"). Something in the novel must have struck readers, Southerners and Northerners alike, to account for the rapid speed in which it spread across the nation. Even Abraham Lincoln was not immune to the infectious nature of the novel and upon meeting Stowe stated “So you 're the little woman who wrote the book that started this Great War!” (Weinstein, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”). Love her or hate her, Stowe had a gift for grabbing the attention of an entire nation through her words- a gift she used to its full
Slavery was already a very sensitive topic. Stowe tackled the subject with tact and sympathy. She was also careful to portray “its atmosphere with fire and sympathy”, though it did little to mollify the people of the South who felt the novel was a direct attack on their character and lifestyle ("Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe"). The novel also exceeded the norm by being the first novel by an American author “to take the negro seriously” and to “have a black man as the hero” ("Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe"). As many know, bad publicity is still publicity and Harriet Beecher Stowe gained quite a bit. Despite many saying the novel had no chance of being a big seller, “ten thousand copies were sold in less than a week. Within a year the sales amounted to three-hundred thousand” ("Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe"). Something in the novel must have struck readers, Southerners and Northerners alike, to account for the rapid speed in which it spread across the nation. Even Abraham Lincoln was not immune to the infectious nature of the novel and upon meeting Stowe stated “So you 're the little woman who wrote the book that started this Great War!” (Weinstein, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”). Love her or hate her, Stowe had a gift for grabbing the attention of an entire nation through her words- a gift she used to its full