Review: An abolishionist's plea to the Northern states for action.....
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 09 27, 2012
I found this book to be intriguing if, for no other reason, than it is one of the most frequently used reference books of this era but, on the other hand, one of the books that remain the most highly unread. Yes, Miss Stowe did portray the inhumane cruelty of the early 1800s and, yes, she provided a quality storyline to bring these concepts to life. But, that being said, I strongly feel that her depiction of the slave holders tilted to both polar extremes. One the humanistic side she showed two sets of slave owners who, for the most part, treated their charges as nearly being part of the `family'. In some instances the attention and care that they received even outstripped family members. This, I am sure, is the manner in which the author would have treated slaves if, indeed, they were in her charge. On the other extreme Miss Stowe depicts Simon Legree as the incarnate projection of pure evil. A cotton farmer, who by all accounts is monetarily quite successful, treating his slaves as a few steps below that of mere disposable waste. If such were the case, Mr. Legree would be forced to take most (if not all) of his profits and use them for the continual repurchase of replacement slaves for the ones he presently is mistreating. For they will soon be dead either through his own direct hand or by his continual abuse. Yes, I understand that the author did have a statement to make that literally screamed against the recent passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. She, likewise, felt it her mission to embolden the Northern States to take action against the dehumanizing actions of the Southern plantation owners. By using these extremes and ignoring the norm, her mission was successful. Reality, on the other hand, was slightly different. Yes, the African race were treated as mere chattel and, yes, they were subjected to a fully dehumanizing set of circumstances. But, no they would not normally be treated such that their adult life span was reduced to a few years. Regardless of the location and output of the plantation, they would not be treated to the demonized actions shown by Mr. Legree. They were simply too expensive to replace if the owner placed any value on his profits! And by being so they had little chance of being killed on the arrogant whims that are shown in this novel.The other interesting concept that is shown in this 1852 publication is the overwhelming influence that the Christian religion had on Miss Stowe's life. While I am certain that the slave population did cling to this religion as a source of comfort due of their circumstances, I doubt if it had the strong influence on other non-blacks that it had on the author. The black slaves were purposely taught by the slave holders, through various means, the full scope of Christian redemption. But they did so not for the slaves salvation but, rather, for their own selfish purposes. It provided for them a more placid, yet hopeful, group of indentured workers that would neither rebel nor disobey their owners. Without concept of an existence of a continued life after death from this horrendous existence, where all things would be completely rectified, slave owners could not have controlled such large mass of people. Rebellion and revolution would have been the rule and not the exception. Miss Stowe, on the other hand, made no mention of this form of manipulation on the owners part and, instead, saw Christianity as being a universal religion that all persons should embrace as she did.Please, for your own sake, pick up this important work and actually read it instead of merely remembering the slight reference made to it while sitting through 5th grade American history class........