Introduction
When Uncle Tom’s Cabin was first published in 1852, no one-least of all its author, Harriet Beecher Stowe-expected the book to become a sensation, but […]
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe seemed destined to write a powerful protest novel like Uncle Tom’s Cabin: her father was Lyman Beecher, a prominent evangelical preacher, and […]
Plot Summary
Following three slaves and their experiences in and out of slavery, Stowe’s novel deals with the effects of slavery on both blacks and whites in […]
Characters
A Adolph Dolph Augustine St. Clare’s personal slave, Adolph, is something of a dandy. He wears his master’s castoff elegant clothing and looks down on […]
Themes
A Human Rights Slavery took many rights away from the enslaved. The loss of the basic right to have an intact family-and especially for parents […]
Construction
A Point of View The third person (“they,” “he,” “she”) omniscient or all-seeing narrative point of view is necessary to Stowe’s novel, as the novel […]
Historical Perspective
A The Fugitive Slave Law In its early years as a nation, the United States gradually became divided into two main regions, the North and […]
Compare and Contrast
1850: The U.S. Congress voted to pass the Fugitive Slave Law, which required Northerners to return runaway slaves to their Southern masters and tightened restrictions […]
Further Reading
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself, Douglass’s autobiography, was first published in 1845. Douglass tells of his life […]