To Go Peaceably Out Of It

Uncle Tom's Cabin is a classic American novel that describes life as a slave. I have had teaches make references to the novels in a vast majority of my classes, however I have never actually had the chance to read the novel.

One section that particularly stuck out to me was on page 15. It says:

"O, I understand the matter well enough. I saw your winking and whispering, the day I took him out of the factory; but you don't come it over me that way. It's a free country, sir, the man's mine, and I do what I please with him, -that's it!"

I find it incredibly ironic that a slave owner would give a speech about America being a free country. A man who cruelly beats his slaves, refers by the degrading name of "nigger," and abuses black men for being intelligent.

There have been several times throughout the novel that I felt moved. Stowe did a fabulous job of taking me out of my little bubble and placing me into a foreign life, a life I could never relate to.

In one class period we discussed the sentimentalism behind Stowe's writing. Some have said they found it a bit unnecessary but I would have to disagree. Her audience was primarily focused at white slave owners. The sentimentality is needed to take that audience and place them into the life of the people they call "slaves." It provides an intense emotional bond between the reader and the characters.

There have been many times while reading the book that I wish I could temporarily travel back, before the Civil Rights Movement and contemporary society to see life from the viewpoint of the readers when the novel was first published. In today's society we have been so exposed to slavery and its evil that I feel we are numb. I think the novel would have been even more compelling that it is had I not already read authors such as Martin Luther King Jr.

As a final thought, I'm going to leave a few of my favorite quotes from the first half of the book:

"The woman did not sob nor weep. She had gone to a place where tears are dry; but ever one around her was in some way characteristic of themselves, showing signs of hearty sympathy."

"The quiet tone in which the woman pronounced these words might have led to a superficial observer to think that she was entirely apathetic; but there was calm, settled depth of anguish in her large, dark eyes, that spoke of something far otherwise."

"And the little woman looked so handsome, with the tears sparkling in her eyes, that the senator thought he must be a decidedly clever fellow, to get such a pretty creature into such a passionate admiration of him;"

"Mr. Wilson's mind was one of those that may not unaptly be represented by a bale of cotton - downy, soft, benevolently fuzzy and confused."