The Effect of Uncle Toms Cabin Essay -- Uncle Toms Cabin Essays

The Effect of Uncle Tom's Cabin Seldom does a one work of literature change a society or start it down the road to cataclysmic conflict. One such catalytic work is Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852). It is considered by many, one the most influential American works of fiction ever published. Uncle Tom's Cabin sold more copies than any other previous fiction title. It sold five thousand copies in its first two days, fifty thousand copies in eight weeks, three hundred thousand copies in a year and over a million copies in its first sixteen months. What makes this accomplishment even more amazing is that this book was written by a woman during a time in history women were relegated to domestic duties and child rearing and were not allowed positions of influence or leadership roles in society. Legend holds that when Abraham Lincoln met Stowe in 1682 he said, "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war". The impact of Uncle Tom's Cabin did more to arouse antislavery sentiment in the N orth and provoke angry rebuttals in the south than any other event in antebellum era. Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896), born Lichfeild, Connecticut, was the daughter, sister, and wife of liberal clergymen and theologians. Her father Lyman and brother Henry Ward were two of the most preeminent theologians of the nineteenth century. This extremely devout Christian upbringing, focusing on the doctrines of sin, guilt, atonement and salvation, had an undeniable impact in her writings. &nb... ... a disconnected view. Slavery was no longer a Southern issue that had no impact on the life of those in the north. Once a majority of the northern population became polarized against the institution of slavery it was only a matter of time before conflict came to a head. Differing views about the institution of slavery contributed to the growing rift between the north and south. This chasm became the American Civil War. Uncle Tom's Cabin gave a powerful and moving voice to the Abolition movement. It shook out of complacently northerners and southerners alike, and forced a nation to look within its collective soul at the horrors of slavery and moral contradictions of the institution itself. Stowe's novel demonstrates the absurdity and contradictions of slavery.