Journal for Harriet Beecher Stowe

Gregory Alcala
English 48A
Journal for Stowe
September 30th, 2009

Quote:
“Her husband and her children were her entire world, and in these she ruled more by entreaty and persuasion than by command or argument. There was only one thing that was capable of arousing her … anything in the shape of cruelty would throw her into a passion….” - quoted from The Norton Anthology: American Literature 7th edition Vol. B
Summary:
This quote from Stowe’s acclaimed novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, is speaking about the character Mrs. Bird the wife of the senator. Throughout this story Stowe writes that both women and slaves could persuade their husbands or slave drivers into thinking because of their own bias towards the lower class members. Stowe wrote that Mrs. Bird thought of herself as a true Christian by feeding and sheltering a run away slave. Stowe’s passion for showing the antislavery movement with Christian values is written through Mrs. Bird’s character. Mrs. Bird is described as a small figure, no more then 4 feet, that normally did not ask her husband questions about the House of States. Stowe is telling her readers that Mrs. Bird was the meek housewife who would listen to her husband and not think about subjects outside the home. Yet when Mrs. Bird talks about the law that was passed that would make it a crime to help run away slaves even in the slave free states she seems to fire up. Mrs. Bird convinces her husband that turning away anyone from their home would be going against the word of God. Through Mrs. Bird Eliza was able to get further into the North towards freedom.

Quote:
“"Uncle Tom’s Cabin" was the first major American novel to feature a Black hero. Harriet created memorable characters who portrayed the inhumanity of slavery making her readers understand that slaves were people who were being mistreated and made to suffer at the hands of their masters. Through her novel, Harriet insisted that slavery eroded the moral sensibility of whites who tolerated or profited from it. She wrote passionately to prick the consciences of fellow Americans to end their blind allegiance to slavery. ” -quoted from History’s Women (http://www.historyswomen.com/socialreformer/HarrietBeecherStowe.html)
Summary:
Stowe shook the nation with her novel, both the North an South saw this book as shocking. Abraham Lincoln when meeting Stowe for the first time after she had published Uncle Tom’s Cabin he allegedly greeted her by saying “So this is the little old lady who started this great new war.” Stowe’s work is remembered as a turning point in people’s view of slavery. Stowe’s novel was the first to show slaves as human beings who fled the Southern states to protect their children and to escape the horrible conditions. Stowe is famously remember as a feminist fighting to stop slavery and showing women as a intelligent members of society.

Response:
Harriet Beecher Stowe is a powerfully influential member of the popular American authors who would still have a novel that is seen as important in modern times. Stowe used American slang in her novel for character’s speech. This made the character more easily linked to the past and time the novel was set in. The reader gets a clearer mental image of what these character would sound like through Stowe’s writing. Still, this doesn’t make the character any less easy to understand of their struggle and the human emotions that each character feels when Eliza interacts with them on her escape to the North. Years after Stowe’s novel was published and slavery has been had been abolished in America, her novel is still read to see the genuine human emotions in each character.