Political Cartoons
"Here Topsy, the impish slave child in ... 'Uncle Tom's Cabin,' personifies the secessionist state South Carolina. An elegantly dressed lady, Columbia, is based on Stowe's Miss Ophelia ... Columbia shows the flag to Topsy, displaying the holes in its blue field. She scolds her, 'So, Topsey, you're at the bottom of this piece of wicked work -- picking stars out of the sacred Flag! What would your forefathers say, do you think? I'll just hand you over to the new overseer, Uncle Abe (i.e., President-elect Abraham Lincoln). He'll fix you!' Topsy responds, 'Never had no father, nor mother, nor nothing! I was raised by speculators! I's mighty wicked, anyhow! What makes me ack so? Dun no, missis -- I 'spects cause I's so wicked!' Behind her another slave turns to run down the steps exclaiming, 'Hand us over to ole Abe, eh? Ize off!.'"
(Source: Strong) |
Uncle Tom's Cabin was a piece of pure fiction ... Uncle Tom's Cabin was a great pecuniary speculation; it made Mrs. Stowe's husband rich. It was for that purpose it was written."
~Free Press
"An imaginative and biting satire on Harriet Beecher Stowe and her recently published antislavery novel 'Uncle Tom's Cabin.' ... The artist has concocted a chaotic, nightmarish vision, where armies of demons and other monsters battle in a barren, desert setting ... In the center a leering black man dressed as a Quaker holds a flag 'Women of England To The Rescue.' To the left, near the mouth of a cave marked 'Underground Railway,' Mrs. Stowe is pulled and harassed by demons. She holds up a book that reads, 'Uncle Tom's Cabin, I Love the Blacks.' ... In the distance, several monsters feed copies of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' to a blazing fire." (Source: Milne)
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We believe it to possess a certain melodramatic power ... But we believe it also to be devoid of truth, principle, reality ... We can imagine her [Harriet Beecher Stowe] to be endowed with an awful sense of womanhood ... We can imagine that she writes a big, scrawling hand, with the letters all backwards, avoiding neatness with pains-taning precision -- her voice is probably harsh, her attitude imposing, and she will, or does, wear her own grey hair in the mother-of-a-nation style ... The book is false in fact, as the fine ladies are false in sentiment."
~Wheeling Daily Intelligence