Tomitudes and Tom Plays
"The novel continued to provoke controversy through reconstruction and beyond. Its influence was greatly amplified by ... popular plays and a host of merchandise known as Tomitudes."
~David S. Reynolds
~David S. Reynolds
"The force of Stowe's novel was exemplified by a powerful cultural phenomenon known as 'tomitudes' or representative of the novel…The most influential tie in were plays based on the novel."
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"Uncle Tom's Cabin was often produced as a play and later as a film, and many people who did not read the book saw it dramatized. Although white actors usually played the parts in blackface, some productions starred African-American actors and singers. At least seven silent versions had been made by 1927 ..." (Source: Film)
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"When producers made Tom Shows based on the novel, they changed those characteristics of the novel. So they make Uncle Tom into a much older man, more of a grandfatherly figure... the shows became musicals, so there is song and dance numbers, and then they changed his speech patterns, and... they omit his bravery and the courage that he showed and the sacrifice he made by literally dying rather than giving up another black person to be abused. If your only understanding of what Uncle Tom's Cabin was with those slave shows... then you get a very unbalanced view of the book." ~Prof. Turner, Interview
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"... you will hear Simon Legree talk about Uncle Tom as a very tough cookie. He could never crack him. He tried to get Uncle Tom to crack and he wouldn't... So the real Uncle Tom was not... boot licking, compromising... The real Uncle Tom was very Christian and very resistant and openly defiant in the end and he got killed for it. So its very unfortunate that that term Uncle Tom entered the popular culture and it is almost always used by people who have never read the book. because its completely wrong mis-characterization of the character Uncle Tom." ~Prof. Basker, Interview
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