Effect on the Abolitionist Movement
"It is a powerful and intensely interesting work, and deserves the
extensive circulation it is receiving." ~The Liberator
extensive circulation it is receiving." ~The Liberator
Uncle Tom's Cabin spread like wildfire because of the style, language, and description of the tragic events in slavery. Abolitionists agreed that this book revealed blacks’ humanity and capabilities. It was highlighted that blacks were considered property, not allowed even the most basic rights.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin ushered the abolitionist movement forward because of its simplicity and description, allowing common men to understand difficult topics that scholars argued about. This book strengthened the abolitionist movement and inspired others to become abolitionists. The movement surged over the next years.
|
Uncle Tom’s Cabin really swept thousands of people who were sitting on the fence into the Abolitionist Movement. People especially in the North who thought slavery was wrong but they were willing to put up with it ... Uncle Tom’s Cabin really changed that ... and so the abolitionist movement got a huge boost from Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Uncle Tom took the movement that used to be kind of a fringe movement for radicals namely the anti-slavery movement and made it mainstream."
-Prof. Koester, Interview
"She brought together all these images in such a way that they swayed the emotions of millions of readers."
|
For the first time, Northerners felt the horrors of slavery. Anti-slavery reformers, once disunited, jumped aboard the 'Uncle Tom' juggernaut. So did politicians, which also ignited controversy in Congress, hailed by slavery's opponents and blasted by its supporters."
(Source: Reynolds, Did)
"I would have to say there was so much about that fictional account in Uncle Tom's Cabin that spoke to the hearts of abolitionists that it helped to fuel a greater militancy... especially in the North and also to anger lots of people in the South." ~Prof. Williams, Interview
"The value of Uncle Tom's Cabin to the cause of Abolition can never be justly estimated. [It] so stirred the hearts of the northern people that a large part of them were ready either to vote or, in the last extremity, to fight for the suppression of slavery." ~Booker T. Washington
Despite the criticisms and controversies surrounding the novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin transcended its fictional genre, and brought the urgent issue of slavery’s brutality into the homes of white Americans. It galvanized many into becoming abolitionist sympathizers, if not activists themselves.”
(Source: Uncle, Abolitionism)
SLAVERY SECTIONAL.
SPEECH OF HON. CHAS. SUMNER, OF MASSACHUSETTS, ON HIS MOTION TO REPEAL THE FUGITIVE SLAVE BILL, IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 1852 (Source: Freedom) "A woman, inspired by Christian genius, ... with marvellous power sweeps the chords of the popular heart. Now melting to tears, and now inspiring to rage, her work everywhere touches the conscience ... In a brief period, nearly 100,000 copies of Uncle Tom's Cabin have been already circulated. But this extraordinary and sudden success ... cannot be regarded merely as the triumph of genius. Higher far than this, it is the testimony of the people, by an unprecedented act, against the Fugitive Slave Bill.” (Source: Freedom)
|
"In 1903, women's rights activist Susan B. Anthony gave her personal book collection to the Library of Congress... Miss Anthony inscribed many of the volumes. Her notations explain that this copy of Uncle Tom's Cabin was originally given to well-known anti-slavery and women's rights advocate Lydia Mott... Miss Mott gave the book to Miss Anthony. Published in 1852, Uncle Tom's Cabin sold 300,000 copies in its first year and intensified significantly the polarization of abolitionist and anti-abolitionist sentiment that contributed to the Civil War."
(Source: Copy) |