Mrs. Stowe’s ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’

MRS. STOWE’S ‘UNCLE TOM’S CABIN’
A FIGHT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS.

Among the effective writers of nineteenth century America, Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe occupies a prominent place as a sensitive novelist who valiantly wages an ideological battle against social injustice and inequity which incarnated largely in the demoniac shape of slavery, thereby boldly championing the cause of human rights, with indefatigable energy. At a period when the spirit of revolution was gathering momentum, she brought out her novels. With the publication of The Communist Manifesto in the year 1848, the simmering discontent against the ruling class and the aristocratic class began finding an open expression in the form of revolution in Europe. The same spirit of revolt is seen among the oppressed and afflicted sections of Americans. Working classes field themselves in an ideological war against all the privileged classes and it was a war for the rights of the downtrodden and suppressed classes, a fight for human rights.

At the early years Mrs. Harriet Stowe was very much influenced by her father. Her father, a staunch Calvinist, imposed his Calvinistic doctrines on the members of his family. He played the role of “a benevolent bully” at home (to use the words of John R. Adams) and thrust his religious views on them. But he was affectionate to his daughter and regarded her in high esteem which is proved by his shrewd observation made in a letter written in 1889: “Harriet is a genius, I would give a 100 dollars if she was a boy. She is as odd as she is intelligent and studious”. Catherine, her elder sister, who had inherited her father’s bullying temperament, wielded much influence on Harriet. In a way, she did some good to her sister by rebelling against Calvinistic theology as interpreted by Jonathan Edwards and drifting towards a liberal and more congenial concept of a more merciful and benevolent God. The credit of sowing the seeds of anti-slavery sentiments in Harriet’s mind goes to her aunt Mary Foote Hubbard who had witnessed all the brutalities of slavery in the estate of her husband, a slave holding planter. Mrs. Stowe, re-collecting her aunt’s words, remarks - ‘What she saw and heard of slavery filled her with loathing. I often heard her say that she frequently sat by her windows in the tropical nigh, when all was still, and wished that island might sink in the ocean, with all its sin and misery and that she might sink with it”. Her father’s prayers against the atrocities of slavery and for the deliverance of the bleeding slaves made a deep impact on her tender mind. During her stay at Cincinatti, she went to see the slave holding plantations in Kentucky on the other side of the River Ohio, where slaves “were bought and sold, tortured; dishonoured, murdered with no hope of rescue or redress in this world”

During this juncture her father Lyman Beecher and all the members of his family became sympathizers of the slavery and began supporting the emancipation of slaves. The period was marked by heated discussions for and against the abolition of slavery. Though her sister Catherine in a way supported slavery by publishing a book in a 1837 (i.e.) Miss Beecher on the Slavery Question),the younger members of her family Charles Henry and Harriet as well as Prof. Stowe favoured the abolition of slavery and helped the fugitive slaves in escaping to Canada. At this stage, Harriet was much influenced by Theodore Weld’s American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses (1839). Mrs. Stowe later told Weid’s wife Agcline Grimke that “she kept that book in her work basket and slept with it under her pillow by night till its fact crystallized into Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

In September, 1850, the U.S. Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act which pronounced that it was illegal to help fugitive slaves in escaping from their masters. This cruel law of the Government infuriated Mrs. Stowe and hardened her attitude towards slavery. From a passive supporter, she now became a passionate champion of the abolition of slavery. Mrs. Edward Beecher, her sister-in-law, provoked by the Act, exhorted her to use her pen against slavery” “Hattie, if I could use a pen as you can, I would write something that would make this whole nation feel what an accursed thing slavery is”. Obviously Mrs. Stowe, stimulated by this peace of advice, commenced the writing of Uncle Tom’s Cabin the following year itself.

            Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the most popular novel of Mrs. Stowe, was first published serially in The National Era during 1851-­52 and later in the book form in 1852. It has earned for itself a special niche in the temple of literature. Its record of being the world’s all time best seller still remains unbeaten. In the first year of its publication 300,000 copies were sold in America; what is more striking is the fact that 10,000 copies were sold in the first week itself. What is more remarkable about this novel is that it was more popular in Great Britain which is testifiable by the fact that a million copies were sold there. Its position by 1976 is that it was translated into 58 languages. One is bewildered to note that nearly 150 editions (many with numerous reprints) came out in English, nearly 60 editions in the French, about 80 in German and nearly 60 in twenty­ one languages of the Soviet Union. The novel could get a mixed reaction in America, while the abolitionists commended it, the anti-abolitionists condemned it, and even questioned ‘the validity’ of its facts. As a befitting reply to the mounting attack on its factual truth, Mrs. Stowe wrote A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1853 which is almost an enumeration of the disputed facts drawn from laws, court records, newspapers and private letters which clearly lend authenticity to the numerous incidents, events and episodes described in the novel.

            Uncle Tom’s Cabin is the most remarkable antislavery novel of the period in the sense that it presents the sensitive problem of Negro slavery in America to the entire civilized world. Already there appeared a few books on the same subject among which Theodore Weld’s American Slavery As It is (pub. 1939) was the most popular one; 100,000 copies of this work were sold mostly in the Northern parts of America; but it could not draw the attention outside America and even in England it was received coolly. Thematically Uncle Tom’s Cabin is created as a powerful axe to kill the monster of slavery and as such the main aim of the novel is to whip the passions of the readers and rouse their sentiments against the social evil of slavery. Kentucky and Louisiana, the southern states of America where slavery was much rampant in its heinous form, form the setting of the novel. Negro slaves were treated worse than beasts; the treatment meted out to them was inhuman; they were beaten black and blue and whipped mercilessly. Like commodities or other trading goods they were sold and bought and marketed. Children were snatched away from mothers; wives were separated from husbands. Female slaves were sexually exploited resulting in miscegenation. Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a realistic portrayal of the abominable practice of slavery in the southern states of America. Mrs Stowe succeeds in presenting a poignant portrayal of the cruelties perpetrated by the white masters on the black slaves.

Uncle Tom, the central character in the novel, is a black slave working in the benevolent family of Shellys. He is an upright and honest gentleman, noble-minded and kind-hearted person and a good Christian, always loyal and faithful to his master. Owing to economic stringencies, Shelly is forced to sell his slaves Tom and Harry, the son of the mulatto slave Eliza, to Haley a slave trader. Eliza, having overheard the conversation between her master Mr. Shelly and the slave trader is very much annoyed at the thought of the separation from her good-natured son. Facing many dangers, she runs away and escapes across the Ohio River. But Tom, being faithful to his master, resigns to his fate. Removed from his wife Chloe and children, he accompanies the slave trader. George Shelby, the good natured son of his previous master, happens to meet him on the way, feels pained at this sale and promises to liberate him some day. On the way (on his voyage down the Mississippi River) Tom rescues the life of little Eva, the daughter of Augustine St. Care. As a gesture of gratitude, St. Clare buys Tom to work as a servant in his house i.e. in his New Orleans house. Tom stays in their house for two years, and it is a happy period for him. Tom is ill-fated; Eva dies of illness and St. Clare is killed in an accident. Consequently Tom is sold again in an auction and this time Simon Legree, a planter from Louisiana, a wicked and debased alcoholic buys him. Legree suffers from a fear complex as he feels that he is haunted by the spirit of his mother. Tom’s moral courage and strong faith in Christianity impress his cruel master and at the same time frighten him. Two female slaves, Cassie and Emmaline make an attempt to escape. When Tom remains silent in disclosing their whereabouts, Legree,  enraged with mad fury, gets him flogged to death. At this juncture, George Shelly arrives to redeem Tom; but it is too late, Tom dies. George is so moved at the painful death of Tom that he solemnly vows to fight for the abolition of slavery.

The texture of the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin is woven around a double plot. Uncle Tom, a middle-aged black slave and a pious Christian, is the leading light of the novel; and events and experiences in his life constitute the main plot of the novel. Besides, other important characters in the main plot are - Mr Shelly, Haley, his friend Loker, another slave dealer, Tom’s wife Chloe, Mr. Augustine St. Clare and his wife Marie, their angelic daughter Eva, Ophelia the sister of Mr. St. Clare, Negro friend Tipsy and Simon Legree.

The sub-plot is woven round the events in the life of Eliza, Tom’s fellow slave. Other notable characters are - Eliza’s husband George Harris, their son Harry and workers in the underground Railway, notably Mrs Bird and her husband a senator in the Senate of Ohio State. The sub-plot stands in sharp contrast to the main plot bearing more or less an antithetical relationship to the latter. While the events in the main plot move southwards, episodes in the sub-plot move northward. While sorrows of Tom the main character in the main plot are seen in an ascending order as he journeys south ward, the difficulties in the life of Eliza, the main figure in the sub-plot are seen in a descending order as she journeys northwards. South is marked by cruelty and death, while the north represents relative happiness and life. The sub-plot has a happy ending in the sense that Eliza, her husband Harris and their son Harry escape from slavery to freedom in Canada, whereas the main plot ends in a tragedy when Tom in spite of his Christ ­like life dies of merciless flogging.

Tom is presented as a good-natured, steady, sensible and pious fellow. His honest and pious nature attracts his first master Mr. Shelby who trusts him on any occasion. His truthful disposition as well as his loyal nature is commendable. Though he gets many opportunities to escape to Canada, he refuses to take advantage of these opportunities on account of his loyalty to his master. When Tom and Harry are sold to Holey, his wife. Chloc pleads to him to escape along with Eliza and her son. But Tom firmly declines togo and says -­

‘No, mom, - I an’t going ... Mas’r always found me on the spot, - he always will, I never have broken trust nor used my pass no ways contrary to my word, and I never will’.... (U T C, p. 43).

The greatness of Tom’s character is revealed when he tells his wife that God is great because he has spared his life and children from being sold to the slave trader. He doesn’t curse God for his miserable fate, but he thanks Him for having saved his wife and children with Stoic courage and resignation:

“I’m in the Lord’s hands, nothing can go no further than he lets it; - and that’s one thing I can thank him for. It some that’s sold and going down and not you nor the Chil’en. Here you’re safe, - what comes will come only on me; and the Lord’ll help me, - I know he will.
(UTC, pp 105-6).

It is not that Tom doesn’t like to be free; but Tom wants freedom not at the cost of his integrity and loyalty to his trusted master.

Augustine St. Clare, Tom’s second master, is a benevolent person and is kind­hearted towards his slaves. He has no firm faith in God or religion or Bible. After the death of his beloved daughter Eva, he becomes broken-hearted. When the master is in sorrow, Tom comforts him, consoles him, exhorts him and prays to him to become a Christian and ultimately succeeds in getting his master changed to Christianity just before his death.

St. Clare: ‘Oh, Tom, my boy, the whole world is as empty as an egg-shell. (UTC, p. 337)

Tom: ‘I know it Mas’r, I know it’, said Tom; ‘but Oh, if Mas’r could only look up, - up where our dear Miss Eva is, upto the dear Lord Jesus;

Just before his death, St. Clare, pressing Tom’s hand, speaks to Tom: ‘I’m dying, pray:’ (UTC, p. 355), and Tom prays concentrating all his mental energy and religious strength for the departing soul.

Tom’s life with his third master, Simon Legree, who represents brutality, is marked by patience and forbearance, fortitude and courage. When Simon asks Tom to reveal where his two women slaves Cassy and Emmeline have escaped, Tom refuses to give any information: Legree, almost mad with anger, speaks to Tom:

‘I’ll conquer Ye or kill ye; - one or t’other. I’ll count every drop of blood there is in you, and take’em, one by one, till ye give up;’ (UTC, p. 461)

But courageous Tom is not cowed down by these words of intimidation, and undeterred by the threats, Tom speaks in the true spirit of Christ: ‘Maser, if you was sick, or in trouble, or dying, and I could save ye, I’d give ye my heart’s blood; and, if taking every drop of blood in this poor old body would save your precious soul, I’d give’em freely, as the Lord gave his for me. Oh Mas’ don’t bring this great sin on your soul. It will hurt you more than ’t will me. Do the worst you can, my troubles ’ll be over soon; but if ye don’t repent, yours won’t never end. (UTC, p. 461)

When Simon Legree threatens him - Here, you rased, you make believe to be so pious, didn’t you never hear, out of Yer Bible, Servants, obey Yer masters’ Ain’t I yer master Didn’t I pay down 1200 dollars, cash, for all there is inside yer old cussed black shell? An’t yer mine, now, body and soul (UTC p. 393)

Tom with unflinching moral courage answers: ‘No, no: no: my soul an’t your haven’t
bought it, - ye can’t buy it’.

Simon Legree feels timid before Toms’s religious courage. When he gets Tom flogged to death by Sambo and Quinbo, Tom, almost dying, Christ-like forgives them and tells them ­

“Poor creatures”! said Tom “I’d be willing to bar all I have, if it’ll only bring ye to Christ O Lord; give me these two more souls, I pray”.

In spite of the merciless treatment and inhuman flogging he received from his brutal master, he doesn’t lose his Christ-like stature; and just before he faints, he forgives his cruel master ‘I forgive ye, with all my soul’. (UTC, p.462)

From the beginning till the end of the novel, Tom continues to represent the shining principle of Christian virtue and till the last moment of his life, he stands a shining symbol of passive resistance to injustice, to the institutionalized social evil of slavery, and in his mission of upholding Justice, he fights heroically for the great human cause and dies Christ-like.

Though another notable character Topsy, an eight or nine year old Negro girl another aspect of slavery is revealed. St. Clare purchases the girl out of sympathy for he from a restaurant, because as he passes daily by the restaurant he has to see the pitiable sight of the girl weeping with regular beatings. She is a wayward but talented girl; she is a type of minstrel and St. Clare wants her to be educated and trained by Miss Ophelia. She has much talent for mimicry, dancing, tumbling climbing, singing, whistling and imitating every sound that hits her fancy. Obviously everyone, including Eva in the household of St. Clare is impressed by her. She presents a contrast to Eva poses a challenge to the abilities of Miss Ophelia: It is Eva’s love that transforms Topsy and brings her on the right path and makes her decent and upright. It is through Topsy that Mrs Stowe portrays the miserable plight of the Negro slave children - their abject state, the inferiority complex and their incorrigible conduct. The depravity in the Negro slaves is more a result of the brutalities perpetrated on them and the hostile, aggressive violent and ruthless environment than appendage to their Negro race.

The brutal exploitation of women slaves is sketched in through Prue, a tall bony-coloured woman-rushs and hot rolls vendor, addicted to alcohol. Women slaves are sexually exploited, used like cattle to breed slaves for the market. Slave teachers are so callous that they snatch away children from their mothers, so as to forget the agony caused by the separation such mothers are driven to alcoholism. Prue, who represents this type of atrocity of slavery, is a slave in a plantation adjacent to that of St. Clare. Her job is to produce children at random speed to be sold in the market. She is bought by another master who allows her to keep one of her children. When her child dies, she resorts to drinking to forget her pain. She becomes an addict to alcohol and starts stealing her master’s money. Consequently she is beaten and despised both by the master and the slaves. At last one day when she is caught stealing, she is beaten to death. How strongly the slaves loathe and detest their wicked white masters is vindicated by the following words of Prue

‘I looks like gwine to heaven/” said the woman; “an’t thar where white folks is gwine? S’pose they’d have me than? I’d rathe go to torment, and get away from Mas’r and Misses”.

The main theme of the novel is the exposure as well as condemnation of slavery; in general, it is an attack on the theological, moral, economic, political and social evils. The novelist supports the Christian tenet of love and opposes the Calvimistic doctrines. Evils of slavery in all its dark phases and dimensions are exposed through various Negro characters. The economic factor is also there to fan the flame of injustice. The economy of the Southern States was mainly dependent on slavery. Negro slaves provided cheap labour; they worked hard for longer hours for lesser wages. As such slavery was linked with economic exploitation. Mrs Stowe had in the beginning used the sub-title “The Man That was a Ting” for the novel which clearly explicates the intrinsic nature and the inherent objective of the novel’s imperatives focussing the inhuman treatment meted out to the Negro slaves by the white people. The brutality of using women slaves as cattle to breed slaves for the market is depicted through the sorrowful life of Prue. The immorality of sexual exploitation of women slaves is exposed through Cassy, Emmaline and Lucy in Legree’s plantation. The cruelty of physical torture to slaves is vividly presented through Tom, the central character, in the Legree plantation. Tom is the only one among many slaves subject to every day physical torture, and it is he who dies of torture and becomes a martyr for a social cause. He resists slavery through his true Christian way of life till the end and it is through him the novel becomes a fight for Human Rights.