Stereotypes In Uncle Tom's Cabin

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What Are the Existing Stereotypes in Uncle Tom’s Cabin?

Uncle Tom’s Cabin was a novel that changed a lot of American’s views on slavery. When Harriet Beecher Stowe first published the novel the year was 1852.and there was unrest among the northern and southern states. A law had been passed called the Fugitive Slave Law, which ordered citizens of non-slave owning states in the north to return run away slaves, when caught, to their owners in the south. To someone who was against slavery it must have been a heart wrenching moment to abide by this law and return a human being to there “rightful owner”. So there was obvious tension between the north and the south. After the law was passed Stowe’s sister-in-law said to her “if I could use a pen as you can, I would write something that will make this whole nation feel what an accursed thing slavery is” to which Harriet replied “I will if I live”. This was when she began writing her novel and within a year of being published Uncle Tom’s Cabin had sold over 300,000 copies and opened many people’s eyes to the wrongs of slavery. She did this by showing families being broken up during slave trades, and Tom being mistreated even after being shown as a kind and religious man. “It is not possible to measure precisely the political influence of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. One can quantify its sales but cannot point to votes it changed or laws that it inspired” (McPherson 89). Stowe’s novel was considered so important that when Abraham Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe he is quoted as saying, “So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that made this Great War” (McPherson 90). It is safe to say that this novel had a humongous impact on life as we know it.
Something that Harriet Beecher Stowe probably didn’t account for while writing was the over-commercialization of her novel. The popularity of it was so overwhelming that it was adapted many times for ...