Historical Themes of Uncle Tom's Cabin

The purpose of this essay is to explain the main historical themes posed in Uncle Tom's Cabin. The novel is an anti-slavery novel by the American author, Harriet Beecher Stowe, which was published in 1852. The novel had such a profound effect on the attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the United States that it is believed to have intensified the conflict leading to the civil war. Among the many themes of the novel, the three main themes that seemed to recur were the evil and immorality of slavery, the moral authority of motherhood, and the redeeming possibilities of Christianity. Throughout the novel, Stowe emphasizes the connections between the three themes and the horrors of slavery. This essay will analyze those themes and explain why they are important.

The overall theme in Uncle Tom's Cabin has to be the evil and immorality of slavery. Throughout the novel, the author tells of all the terrible things that happened to slaves such as: families being separated, slaves being abused, slaves being killed, slaves being "sold down the river", and slaves being hunted down if

they ever escaped. The majority of the slave masters in the novel, such as Shelby and St. Clare, seemed to treat their slaves very well. They gave them lots of freedom to do what they wanted to do, almost as if they were their children. There were some slaves like George, for example, who weren't so lucky. George was an intelligent man with a very cruel master. Apparently George's master didn't like the fact that George was smart and knew of better and faster ways to do his work, so he forced George to do all the dirtiest tasks on the property. He thought this would bring George down and force him to become humble like the rest of the slaves. George didn't like the idea of having his cruel master as his master because he felt that he was so much better than him. He felt as though he was a better man than his master, he knew more business than his master, he was a better manager than his master, he could read better than his master and he had better handwriting than his master. The way George's master treated him caused him to run away, using Canada as his destination, so that he could escape the evils of slavery and become a free man. (Stowe 17)

Another big theme in Uncle Tom's Cabin is the moral authority of motherhood. Throughout the novel, Stowe writes about mothers being separated from their children. One brief part of the novel tells of Hagar, the 60 year old woman who is separated from the only son she has left, a 14 year old boy who is

bought by Haley at an auction. She begs and begs Haley to buy her also but he cruelly refuses. Another cruel separation happens when Haley and the slaves he is trading are sailing on a boat to the south. A woman named Lucy who is on the boat with her baby is going down south with Haley to be traded onto a plantation. She thinks she's going to take her baby with her, but Haley doesn't tell her that he's sold her son to someone else on the boat. When the boat makes a stop and Lucy isn't paying attention, Haley has the person he sold the baby to take the baby and leave the boat. Lucy returns to find her baby gone and Haley tells her that she couldn't take her baby down south with her and that he sold her baby to a family who could take better care of him than she ever could. In a way, Haley seems to mean well, but after all he's just being cruel and collecting his money. As a result of losing her baby, Lucy jumps off the boat later on that night. These poor women had no control over what happened to them or their children, but there was one mother in the story who did. When Eliza heard that her son Harry was sold to the slave trader Haley, she knew she couldn't let her only living child be taken from her. She packed some things and left in the middle of the night, holding tightly onto her son while he slept. With her husband George already in danger and now her son also in danger, she also made plans to escape to Canada. Stowe states that maternal love is the strongest love of all. It seems that when a child is in danger,

its mother will do anything to keep it safe. Throughout the night Eliza escapes with her son she walks as fast as she can. Stowe asks the reader if they knew that

one of their family members were going to be sold the next day, how fast would they walk to with their family member to save them from being sold. Eliza is so set on protecting her son that she doesn't eat or sleep. Her son asks her why she won't eat or sleep and she tells him that she can't do either until she knows he is safe. At one point, Eliza is hiding in a tavern with her son while he sleeps. Haley, Sam, and Andy are out looking for Eliza and her son. Sam sees Eliza looking outside as they're about to pass by the tavern. Sam makes it look like the wind blew his hat off and makes loud noises to get Eliza's attention and to distract Haley so that he doesn't see Eliza. Haley sees Eliza, so she grabs her son and runs out of the tavern, to the river, and ends up jumping across the icy river just so Haley couldn't get to her son. She ended up cutting her feet on the ice, which shows how far she'll go to protect her son. (Stowe 137, 146 Ð'- 149, 55 Ð'- 57,