Reactions of Southerners
“A little Yankee woman wrote a book. The single act of that woman’s will caused the war, killed a million men, desolated and ruined the South, and changed the history of the world.”
~Thomas Dixon, a popular Southern author
~Thomas Dixon, a popular Southern author
Because of the outright declaration against slavery in this book, Southerners felt threatened. They claimed that Uncle Tom’s Cabin was a ‘pack of lies’ and even went to the extent of banning it. An article by the Randolph County Journal described the trial of a Samuel Green who was sentenced to ten years in prison for owning Uncle Tom's Cabin. They defended themselves claiming that blacks felt no pain when hit and couldn't love, and stated that living conditions for slaves were exaggerated. In rebuttal, Stowe published A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, in which she provided the slave narratives that she based her novel on.
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Stowe wrote, "This work, more, perhaps, than any other work of fiction that was ever written, has been a collection and arrangement of real incidents, of actions really performed, of words and expressions really uttered, grouped together with reference to a general result, in the same manner that the mosaic artist groups his fragments of various stones into one general picture. His is a mosaic of gems -- this is a mosaic of facts." (Source: Reynolds)
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As Uncle Tom’s Cabin’s popularity soared, the novel provoked heated debate over the authenticity of Stowe’s depiction of slavery, and whether her characters were 'real.' Stowe’s opponents argued that her portrayal of slavery was misleading and exaggerated. Her critics began publishing pro-slavery tracts to refute the facts presented in the novel. Stowe responded by releasing her own book, The Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which provided documentation on the facts in her novel, and named the books and the people that served as her sources of information."
(Source: Uncle, Sparks)
"Some of the longest pro-slavery reviews of Uncle Tom’s Cabin argued that it was written by a radical reformer who had abandoned the domestic sphere and made a shocking entrance into the political arena. 'Mrs. Stowe,' wrote one reviewer, 'belongs to the school of Women’s Rights... one which would place woman on a foot of political equality with men, and cause her to look beyond the office for which she was created-the high and holy office of maternity.' In other words of other reviewers, she was a 'termagant virago,' a 'foul-mouthed hag' who 'deliberately step[ped] beyond the hallowed precincts - the enchanted circle [of the home].”
(Source: Reynolds, Mightier)
(Source: Reynolds, Mightier)
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"Defenders of slavery argued that the institution was divine, and that it brought Christianity to the heathen from across the ocean. Slavery was, according to this argument, a good thing for the enslaved. John C. Calhoun said, 'Never before has the black race of Central Africa, from the dawn of history to the present day, attained a condition so civilized and so improved, not only physically, but morally and intellectually.'" (Source: The Southern)
While Stowe did not start the war, Uncle Tom's Cabin did increase the differences between the North and the South. Many Northerners realized how unjust slavery was for the first time. With increasing opposition to slavery, Southern slave owners worked even harder to defend the institution. The stage was set for the American Civil War."
(Source: Uncle, Ohio)