You ought to be ashamed, John! Poor, homeless, houseless creatures! It’s a shameful, wicked, abominable law, and I’ll break it, for one, the first time I get a chance; and I hope I shall have a chance, I do! . . .if a woman can’t give a warm supper and a bed to poor, starving creatures, just because they are slaves, and have been abused and oppressed all their lives, poor things! (Stowe 144).
This excerpt from Stowe’s novel is an exchange between Senator Bird, and his wife, which condemns the institution of slavery, and its unmoral non-Christian ways. As Mrs. Bird scolds Mr. Bird for …show more content…
This was done through the conversational, informal writing style Stowe uses, which inspires people in a connective way that political speeches and newspapers could not (Impact of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Slavery, and the Civil War). With Stowe illustrating her ideas of a greater America through the details of her work, it allowed the abolitionists to envision they country they had only dreamed of. To many abolitionists, the country they desire requires them to act upon their morals, rather than follow the law. Stowe writes about this concept in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, “So long as the law considers all these human beings, with beating hearts and living affections, only as so many things belonging to a master. . . so long it is impossible to make anything beautiful or desirable in the best regulated administration of slavery” (Stowe 51). This excerpt from Stowe’s novel accurately depicts the lack of beauty Stowe, slaves, and the abolitionists saw in the United States with slavery still being …show more content…
Stowe has received vast amounts of critiques for Uncle Tom’s Cabin, with some believing it is inaccurate. According to Thomas Gossett, Stowe had very little direct contact with slavery, other than a single visit to a plantation in Kentucky in 1834, eighteen years before the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Le Beau 672). Another critic, James Baldwin, considers Stowe to be a pamphleteer “who not only did little to change attitudes in post-civil War America, but who actually inculcated racist attitudes and behaviors” (Belasco). A third critic of Stowe are those who were pro-slavery during the nineteenth century and beyond. They believed slavery was a humane system, and all negative attitudes toward slavery being torturous were fabricated by Stowe (Kane). All of these critics challenge the ideas and acts that Stowe has been believed to express, because she had sought the direct references of slavery from slaves and those who encountered it. Along with these recitations, Stowe strove to bring a brighter future to America, without slavery, and fought to end slavery. In conclusion, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s award-winning novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin has made one of the most prominent impacts on the institution of slavery, and the oppression of African-Americans. She does this through the first-hand accounts she acquired, the national recognition she received from President Abraham Lincoln