100-word response 1 reference
Chad
For this week’s discussion I chose “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Honestly it is not difficult to link the historical relevance to the time it was written. Stowe wrote the book in 1852, this is nine years prior to the outbreak of the American Civil War. The book brought to light the treatment of slaves by their masters and the institution of slavery itself. Many were ignorant of the atrocities slaves endured every day. The book was made illegal to own most southern slave owning states and was classified as abolitionist’s propaganda and attempts were even made to counter the story by attempting to make slave master’s as benevolent owners who were a necessary evil to make sure the slaves were properly provided for.
· What specific connections can be made between the piece and the event?
· What is the author’s attitude toward the event?
· What values of the time period are being expressed and/or challenged in this piece?
The easy connection is abolitionism and slavery which was gaining steam in the general public of the time. Harriet’s attitude towards slavery was that she wanted to make everyone aware of how brutal and barbaric the practice was. She was fighting for abolition of the institution. The values being expressed were those of slavery and anti-slavery. Her values raised the awareness to a public which had been ignorant to the treatment of slaves or had just looked the other way up to then. The story caused so much scandal towards slavery that southern states felt it necessary to pass laws in their states to outlaw the book and made it illegal for anyone to own it. The pro-slavery factions, as stated previously, also attempted to demonize the book and classify it as abolitionist propaganda that was not to be believed. They also went to levels of writing stories that put slave masters as providing necessary protection for the slaves for the slaves own benefit. This being the thinking that the slaves would be unable to function in society as free men and women. This period in American History is definitely not a high point for us as nation.
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