Preview

How Did Harriet Beecher Stoowe Influence The Civil War

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
775 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Did Harriet Beecher Stoowe Influence The Civil War
Mohammad Rabah

Harriet Beecher Stowe and Other Influences on the Civil War
Harriet Beecher Stowe's book Uncle Tom's Cabin is often seen as a primary influence of the Civil War. She showed just how terrible and difficult the life of a slave really was. By doing so she caused a lot of disturbances across the country regarding the institution of slavery. It open many people's eyes to the terrible conditions slaves lived under and led many to act towards the abolition of slavery.
Uncle Tom's Cabin displays the hardships of Tom, Eliza, and George, as well as the other slaves they encounter along their journey. The hardships suffered by them showed just how cruel and terrifying the life of a slave could be. Never before had a novel emphasized
…show more content…
The other main reasons are the control of the government, economy, states' rights, abolitionism, and the election of 1860. Although the focus revolved around slavery a lot of the tension that led to the war was from how the South felt it had no power when it came to making decisions. “As new states were added to the Union, a series of compromises were arrived at to maintain an equal number of “free” and “slave” states” (Hickman 1). However; as new states were added they were all being declared “free” states without the South having any say in the matter. Fearing they were losing power the South turned to the states' rights argument, stating that the federal government didn't have the right to change the laws of slavery in states whom already own slaves (Ayers). Things grew worse during the abolitionist movements which called for an end for slavery, whether it be immediate or gradual. This caused many disputes among the people which often led to biblical disputes (Hickman1). Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin should the cruelty of the Fugitive Slave Act and gave support to the abolitionist movement. The election of 1860 was the final straw. With the election of Abraham Lincoln as president, they feared all was about to change. “The North with its growing population and increased electoral power had achieved what the South had always feared: complete control of the government by the free states”(Hickman 2). After the election the South immediately began to discuss seceding from the Union. The secession of the South was the ultimate leading factor for the North to go to war, in order to keep the country united

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Uncle Toms Cabin Thesis

    • 963 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Uncle Tom’s Cabin is based on slavery in the 1800’s. Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of the novel, was an avid abolitionist. Her main goal of the novel was to convince the North of the urgency to end slavery, and to ‘expose’ the south and the horrible stories of slavery.…

    • 963 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Uncle Tom's Cabin Thesis

    • 1028 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” is a book written by Harriet Beecher Stowe who was highly against slavery. She believed slavery was evil, un-ethical and un-Christian. This book is an anti-slavery novel meant to persuade the Northerners that keeping slaves and mistreating them is “evil”. Slavery was thought of as one of the worst times in American history and one of the most embarrassing and tainted times in history. The harm that was brought upon other humans and how they were treated like cattle was very evil and Harriet agreed.…

    • 1028 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Uncle Tom’s Cabin is an affectionate historical book written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote numerous books but she is best known for her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. She wrote this novel during the era of civil war (1). The book was published in the year 1852.It’s an anti-slavery book which tells us about the historical problems such as slavery, racism, color discrimination and many more. The book begins in Kentucky, at Shelby’s plantation where Mr. Shelby sells Uncle Tom and Harry to Mr. Haley. Throughout the novel innocent people are sold and bought. The main thing that the book is about is slavery.…

    • 660 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Uncle Tom’s Cabin share the same theme to the movie adaptation of Abraham Lincoln’s life, but with a twist of vampire hunting. They are both endeavors in freeing the slaves and eradicating racial discrimination. The book and the movie have shown the struggles of the black Africans who were treated as if they were worthless and as lowly as animals. The book had elicited reactions and even offense. In fact during the height of this social issue, Pres. Abraham Lincoln formally met Harriet Beecher Stowe and said, “ So you’re the small girl who caused this big commotion” as a…

    • 101 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Uncle Tom Cabin

    • 1253 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe was determined to make the case against slavery. She set an example though her works and tried to express the wrong doings and hardships of slavery. Stowe using a series of scenes in the chapters we read that shows the emotions and displays the faith of her Christianity. One of the main themes throughout the text is human rights. Stowe depicts slavery by expressing that slavery took many rights away from the enslaved. The loss of the basic right to have and raise a family is not an option for these slaves which might be slavery’s cruelest effect. Stowe targeted mainly her white female audience, because she was a female author, and addressed this denial of human rights. By knowing that she would find empathy in this group of people that were devoted to taking care of a family and home, she got her message across. In Uncle Tom's Cabin, Stowe emphasizes the slaves' right to family by focusing on its destructive effect slavery had on slave families at the time.…

    • 1253 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Uncle Tom's Cabin Essay

    • 1308 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Nineteenth century America was a patriarchal society; women barely had any rights, most, if not all, of them were domestic housewives, and their opinions on political and legal matters did not count for anything. This was the society that Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote for when she wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin. To regular Americans it seemed that women have no power but Stowe projects the positive light on women. The novel portrayed women as loving mothers and wives that try to do the right thing, for example, the women characters, such as Eliza and Mrs. Bird, in the novel were all against slavery and attempted to do something about it. Stowe also uses sentimentalism, feminine morality, and Christian values in Uncle Tom’s Cabin that eventually persuaded…

    • 1308 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    While Harriet Beecher Stowe's, Uncle Tom's Cabin, deals with the wrongs of slavery from a Christian standpoint, there is a strong emphasis on the moral strength of women. Eliza, Eva, Mrs. Bird, Miss Ophelia, Aunt Chloe and Mrs. Shelby all exhibit power and understanding of good over evil in ways that most of the male characters in Stowe's novel do not. This emotional strength, when compared with the strength of the male characters, shows the belief of women as equals to men.…

    • 813 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Of all of the different themes that are explored in the book Uncle Tom’s Cabin, one of the most important of them is the theme of race. It’s so important because many of the other themes in this book can all relate back to the theme of race in one way or another. For example, the theme of slavery can very easily be related to race, but even other themes such as religion or violence were also influenced by race. The main reason that race had such a significant impact on all of these other things was the simple fact that many white people felt that black people were an inferior race, and they acted accordingly. This opinion was one that was shared by all too many people, and it affected the way that people of all races were seen by other races,…

    • 1063 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    After he read the novel Uncle Tom 's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, he had an inspiration to write his own novel with the same topic–to expose Spanish colonial abuse in print. Beecher Stowe 's novel describes black slavery abuse done by white men.…

    • 1090 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    "Uncle Tom's cabin" describes not only the performance and the character of the black slaves, but also the different types of slave owners. It describes the acceptance of Christianity, with slaves and slaves submissive type Tom; shape not willing to let the owners decide their own life and death with rebellious slaves, such as…

    • 499 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Stowe was published in 1852, and the book expressed the issues with slavery. A play reenactment of the book increased the popularity of theater as well as abolitionism.…

    • 587 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe and Incidents In The Life of A Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs are two books which were written against slavery. Both authors are deeply against slavery and write these books to convince their audience that slavery is bad. They both want the reader to get an image of how slavery was about during the 1850's. Only difference is that Stowe writes about things that occur during the 1850's but are not based on a true story. In other words, Uncle Tom's Cabin is fiction where has Jacobs book, it is an autobiography, a slave narrative. Even though Uncle Tom's Cabin is fiction and Incidents In The Life of A Slave Girl is a life story, they both confirm the reality and viciousness of slavery by focusing in religion, mental and sexual abuse, and how slavery obliterates the moral principles of slaveholders.…

    • 1365 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    However, to examine the text closely is to behold just far it extends the evil effects of slavery. In Stowe’s world, the idea of captivity extends far beyond Africans in chains. It encompasses families of slave-owners forced to participate in a system they have come to oppose because of their financial commitments. It ensnares countless Christians who believe that it is by divine will that they enslave people from Africa and free them from their barbaric urges. It even comes to apply to lawmakers forced to comply with pro-slavery legislation for fear of the political repercussions. Uncle Tom’s Cabin had a profound effect on the history of a nation in a way that is nearly unheard of for a work of fiction. Yet, even after the dust of the Civil War had long settled, Stowe’s novel continued to teach generations of readers an indelible lesson about the many forms that captivity can…

    • 2167 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Uncle Tom’s Cabin takes place during the slave period in the United States. It starts of with one setting and story line then breaks of into many different plots. It is about a slave named Toms who throughout the novel keeps up his faith in Christ and does his best to help others. He befriends many people but the one person whom he will always remember is a little girl named Eva. He and Eva form a close relationship by Eva reading to Tom from his Bible, Eva herself grows to understand and love Christianity. Tom also shares his Christian faith with many other people and although beaten by his slave owner for sharing his faith he never gives up. Although he is unjustly and ignorantly vilified by contemporary Black society, Tom forgives his oppressors, turns the other cheek to blows, blesses those…

    • 564 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    One of the reasons for the South fighting against North is slavery, one of the main reasons for the war. In the split of the North and South, the South developed tensions and is angered because of abolitionism. Abolitionism is a belief of freeing all slaves. The South is so angered because in plantations, slaves are their cheapest work and they earn more money when they…

    • 264 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays