Uncle Toms Cabin (Part One)

Uncle Toms Cabin (Part One)

1) Stowes life and works (Beecher family)anti-slavery divisionsgradual vs. immediate abolitionanti-slavery divisionsgradual vs. immediate abolitionfemale leadership vs. no female leadershipviolence vs. no violenceanti-slavery divisionsgradual vs. immediate abolitionfemale leadership vs. no female leadershipviolence vs. no violenceformer slaves settled in Africa vs. former slavesremain in USStowes life and works (Beecher family)2) origins of Uncle Toms Cabinorigins of Uncle Toms Cabin1) fugitive slave law of 1850Now, 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.I will write something. I will if I live. . . I shall do it at last. I shall write the thing if I live.-Charles Edward Stowe, Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe (1889)origins of Uncle Toms Cabinfugitive slave law of 1850religious visionSuddenly, like the unrolling of a picture scroll, the scene of the death of Uncle Tom seemed to pass before her. At the same time, the words of Jesus were sounding in her ears: Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. It seemed as if the crucified, but now risen and glorified Christ, were speaking to her through the poor black man, cut and bleeding under the blows of the slave whip. She was affected so strongly that she could scarcely keep from weeping aloud.-Charles Edward Stowe, Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe (1889)Stowes life and works (Beecher family)origins of Uncle Toms Cabinpre-conceptions about Uncle Toms Cabinracist?

I find the accusedGUILTY!! . . . of writing stuff she couldnt possibly know about. A slaves experience. The black experience. . . my life here in America.-Robert Alexander, I Aint Yo Uncle: The New Jack Revisionist Uncle Toms Cabin (1992)

Uncle Toms (in the popular imagination)

Uncle Toms (in the popular imagination)

Uncle Tom in Stowes novel

He was a large, broad-chested, powerfully-made man, of a full glossy black, and a face whose truly African features were characterized by an expression of grave and steady good sense, united with much kindliness and benevolence. There was something about his whole air self-respecting and dignified. . . (UTC, ch. 4)Stowes life and works (Beecher family)origins of Uncle Toms Cabinpre-conceptions about Uncle Toms Cabinracist?influence of Tom shows

Stowes life and works (Beecher family)origins of Uncle Toms Cabinpre-conceptions about Uncle Toms Cabinracist?influence of Tom showsinfluence of romantic racialism

theories of race18th century (enlightenment)universal human subjectrace as surface difference(Adam and Eve)theories of race18th century (enlightenment)19th century (romanticism/ Herder)universal human subjectnational subjectrace as surface differencerace as essential difference(Adam and Eve)(sons of Noah)It is the effect of a particular providence or, to speak in the dialect of science, an express law of nature, that each peculiar race of men should occupy those limits, which have been assigned and no other.-Alexander Kinmont, Twelve Lectures on the Natural History of Man (1839)origins of Uncle Toms Cabin1) fugitive slave law of 18502) religious vision3) death of her sonThere were circumstances about his death of such peculiar bitterness, of what might seem almost cruel suffering, that I felt that I could never be consoled for it, unless it should appear that this crushing on my own heart might enable me ot work out some great good to others. . . It was at his dying bed, and at his grave, that I learnt what a poor slave mother may feel when her child is torn away from her.-Stowe, letter on the death of her sonStowes life and works (Beecher family)origins of Uncle Toms Cabinpre-conceptions about Uncle Toms Cabinracist?sentimental?Uncle Toms Cabin is a very bad novel, having, in its self-righteous, virtuous sentimentality, much in common with Little Women. Sentimentality, the ostentatious parading of excessive and spurious emotion, is the mark of dishonesty. . . [Novels like Uncle Toms Cabin] are forgiven whatever violence they do to language, whatever excessive demands they make of credibility. . . -James Baldwin, Everybodys Protest Novel (1955) As we have no immediate experience of what other men feel, we can form no idea of the manner in which they are affected, but by conceiving what we ourselves should feel in the like situation. Though our brother is upon the rack, as long as we ourselves are at our ease, our senses will never inform us of what he suffers. They never did, and never can, carry us beyond our own person, and it is by the imagination only that we can form any conception of what are his sensations. Neither can that faculty help us to this any other way, than by representing to us what would be our own, if we were in his case. It is the impressions of our own senses only, not those of his, which our imaginations copy. By the imagination we place ourselves in his situation, we conceive ourselves enduring all the same torments, we enter as it were into his body, and become in some measure the same person with him, and thence form some idea of his sensations, and even feel something which, though weaker in degree, is not altogether unlike them. His agonies, when they are thus brought home to ourselves, when we have thus adopted and made them our own, begin at last to affect us, and we then tremble and shudder at the thought of what he feels. For as to be in pain or distress of any kind excites the most excessive sorrow, so to conceive or to imagine that we are in it, excites some degree of the same emotion, in proportion to the vivacity or dullness of the conception.-Adam Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759)

for further readingPhilip Fisher, Hard Facts: Setting and Form in the American Novel (1986)George Frederickson, The Black Image in the White Mind (1971)Thomas F. Gossett, Uncle Toms Cabin and American Culture (1985)keep in mind when reading novels1) pay attention to the narrationkeep in mind when reading novelspay attention to the narrationmimesis (showing): dramadiegesis (telling): epic poetry, novelskeep in mind when reading novelspay attention to the narration (diegesis)who is the narrator? how much does he or she know?keep in mind when reading novelspay attention to the narrationwho is the narrator? how much does he or she know?how does the narrator tell the story?order of eventskeep in mind when reading novelspay attention to the narrationwho is the narrator? how much does he or she know?how does the narrator tell the story?order of eventsduration of eventskeep in mind when reading novelspay attention to the narration (diegesis)2) pay attention to other discourses (heteroglossia)keep in mind when reading novelspay attention to the narration (diegesis)pay attention to other discourses (heteroglossia)look for patterns of character and plotBattle Hymn of the RepublicMormon Tabernacle ChoirMormon Tabernacle ChoirTraditionalGod Bless America1992-07-14T07:00:00Zstauffer@fas.harvard.edu Originally released 1963, 1965 SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT (P) 1973, 1976 SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT2010-07-21 08:48:37