The Importance Of Slavery In Uncle Tom's Cabin

Many have alluded to the idea that slavery was necessary before the writing of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The majority of people living in the south believed this to be true in 1850, a rather high number of people used it to justify their personal ownership of slaves. Others believed that slave possession was justified if the slaves were taken care of and protected. A popular idea was that proper caretaking was enough reason that slave owners shouldn’t feel guilty about owning slaves. Not all people in the south were racist, but that didn’t deem slave ownership right. This mindset is one of the reasons slavery thrived in our country for as long as it did. This is the belief that Harriet Beecher Stowe wanted to challenge with Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Uncle …show more content…
As mentioned earlier, several owners were kind to their slaves to try to justify to themselves that it was acceptable to own them. Slavery was in no way acceptable, even if the persons being imprisoned are well taken care of. Stowe attacks this belief in numerous scenes, which usually include Arthur Shelby. Stowe includes Shelby to debate any argument that even a kind slave owner could still be a man of high morals. The best example of this is an early scene in the book following Shelby’s sale of Tom to Daniel Haley. Shelby informs his wife of the sale, then after calming her nerves smokes a cigar to soothe his own (25). This scene happens while Uncle Tom, Aunt Chloe and a few others enjoy dinner in Tom’s cabin, uninformed of the sale of Tom and Harry. The irony is that the supposedly moral slave owner is knowingly breaking up two slave families who appear to be fortunate to have one another and all he has to do is soothe his nerves over is smoke a nice …show more content…
Slaves were torn away from their families and homes on a daily basis. Often times slaves were raped and beaten only to be re-sold, raped, beaten and possibly killed by a new owner. The perfect example of this is Tom’s later slave owner, Simon Legree. Simon is a ruthless owner who does not hesitate to abuse his slaves as punishment. In one instance, Simon whips Tom across the cheek for refusing to flog another slave (143). Basic human rights and needs are often refused because slaves are considered a possession, not a person. One instance of this is a story told to us by Prue, a slave owned by Mr. Landis who meets Tom selling muffins. Her story is about her child, Jeannie. The baby was healthy at birth, but after Mrs. Landis became sick, Prue had to watch over her. When this happened, Prue developed a fever and ceased to produce milk. Mr. and Mrs. Landis did nothing to aid the child’s development. They did not give her milk or allow Prue to see the baby, citing that Jeannie’s crying was keeping Prue up at night and not allowing her to work properly (100). This evil is not difficult to catch. The indecency and disregard that slave owners showed to their slaves is incomprehensible and truly