The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1896-07-03
SHE TURNED ON THE LIGHT

In the passing of Harriet Beecher
Stowe. one Of the colossal figures of the
days of the anti-slavery campaign dis
appears. Mrs. Stowe contributed to the
making Of history to a greater extent
than any other American woman. 1t is
no exaggeration to say that her literary
work was more potent than any other
factor. II not than all other factors. In
moulding public opinion in the north
against slavery, until the sentiment
there antagonistic to the institution be-
came Irresistible and the continuance
of a union half slave and half free be-
came an impossibility. The publication
of her Uncle Toms Cabin was the turn
Ing point of the campaign against
slavery. Before its pathetic tales the
conservatism of the north wavered
and broke, and hundreds of thousands
who had looked on slavery as an I'M
desirable yet tolerable institution, and
on the abolltionists as meddlesome,
dangerous cranks, swelled the ranks of
those who held with Wendell Phillips
that the Federal constitution. so long as
1t protected or provided for slavery.
ant with hell When the glory for the
elimination Of slavery is to be passed
around by the historian to come, Mrs
Stowe will be justly entitled to as large
a share as any who participated in the
mighty conflict with that terrible relic
of barbarism walled around with the
greed and selfishness of her own race.
The men who actually severed the
bonds of the blacks were after all mere
instrumentalities; they acted in re-
Spouse to an urgent public sentiment.
Harriet Beecher Stowe was one of the
individuals who created that sentiment.
Mrs. Stowe put fiction to its noblest
use-that of vehicle in which to parade
the iniquities of great moral wrong.
She wrote for a principle and not for
gain. 1t is true that many of the evils
of slavery were exaggerated, and even
some that did not exist were pictured in
Uncle Toms Cabin, and in these ways
injustice, often grievous injustice, was
done the slave holders, but the great
central fact that in republic resting
upon a recognition of the principle that
"all men are created equal" one lot Of
people called another lot masters was in
no way robbed of its ominous import
ance by the incidental deliquencies of
the story. OF course Legree, at whose
hands Uncle Tom is supposed to meet
his death, could not be taken as in any
way a typical southern character, and
his course in killing Uncle Tom could not
be accepted as typical of southern treat
20 ~ - <Ia o1,
acter and usefulness ascribed to Uncle
Tom were of TOO much value to be thus
recklessly murdered by men supposed |
to be as greedy as Legree. Uncle Tom |
was piece of property in the eyes of the
slave holder, and slave holders were not |
in the habit of destroying their valuable |
1t Is obvious that both the |
character and the incident were exag-
gerated, and in consequence conveyed |
some false and unpleasant impressions
in the north concerning the southern
people, very regrettable effects, indeed.
But the exigencies of the form in which
the author presented the theme of hu
man slavery in the United States some
times demanded the coloring of drama
tic though improbable situations and
in order to startle the popu-
lar mind into recognition of the more
somber truths of the subject the author
deals with. 1t is rare, indeed, that pub
lie sentiment is aroused to the reforming
stage regarding any wrong condition
through only an abstract discussion of
that condition. 1t takes some unusual
of that wrong condition,
dramatic or extraordinary.
to awaken in the masses realization Of J
the urgent necessity for reformation.
The wrongs that Uncle Toms Cabin may |
have perpetrated were as nothing to the |
awful wrong it helped to pillory.