The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1901-01-25
THE CRITIC ANp ..UNcLE ToM,s CABIN,

THE CRITIC AND ssUNCLE TOMS CABIN
Mr.. F. Hopkins Smith, an artist and writer Of
more than ordinary ability has fit recently to
indulge in an attack upon ssUncle Toms Cabin
The book has always been on the H.ndex expur-
gatorls' OF the south with good reason. The book
was one OF the great means by which the
science Of the North awakened to the enorm-
ity Of human slavery, and whether the picture
was a true one or not, we do not believe but that
Mr.. Smith himself would say that the results
which it helped bring about were beneficial. From Z
our own knowledge we have no means OF knowing
whether the picture of slave life painted by MRS.
Stowe was a true one or not 1t is fact that both
sides aredepcted, the love of the old slave for his
master, the hard necessity which compelled the s
sale, the grief of the master in parting with his
faithful servant, all these suppose Mr.. Smith
would allow to be true and ife-like pictures 1t is
only when the canvass is reversed that Mr.. Smith
objects. From what know of human nature
we do not believe that any one set Of men can be
placed in absolute control of others without some
terrible nus ice being DONE Cases where
fathers have mlstreated their children most
'shan1efully simply because they had the power to
do So If these things are true among those whom
every tie of blood and affection should prompt to
to better conduct, is it reasonable to suppose th
masters, chosen not because of any fitness to
masters, but simply because they had the priq Il
should not often be cruel brutal and inhumaI
Every fact of history in regard to American sava
shows it to have been degrading and brutalzingl ~
u
ignorant negroes board ship off the coast Of Afri
and the keeping them in bondage through tread
cry, to the sale Of the white mans own ofspriR
the auction block, every detail Of slavery is 4
voting and criminal 1t w Guild be strange indd
if there not some of the slave -holders of
south who were humane in regard to the detaila s
their ownership, but we do not believe any nd
truly entitled to be called humane man ever gavel
endorsement to the practice of human slave
Thus far we have been talking of past condition
con6it that n u11,ith hofor n ~.
birth, but we ask Mr.. Smith to 60 to the south{ n
to-day and see if he cannot find conditions now y
listing which are almost as bad, almost as nexcj
able as the pictures presented in ssUncle ToH
CABIN. One of the Chicago papers recently cd
tanned series of articles concerning the prisI
methods OF the south today. These practices COD
not exist IN the nonh thirty days. The contre
farms where convcts are leased to the highest Ia
der whose only care is to get the most work outw &
the convict for the least money, convict cam Il
where men and women herded together II III
cattle, where the youthful first offender and I q
hardened prostitute made to keep compd u
without restraint, places which yeritabe bre| I
ing grounds for crime and disease and CORRUPTED
These articles gave names and places and detA u
which easily to be proven false if false tfftl
were, but southern voice has been raised Ik
denial These convicts chiefly negroes for iaX A
fact that these States many of them, receive an
nua income from their penal institutions and rm II
upon them as one of their sources of revenue. Wl
is also well known fact that it is almost TN
possibility to convict a white of crime con |
mitted against black, while it is the easiest thi
possible to convict negro of an offence aganstM II
white. Mr.. Smith should endeavor to answer u IL
facts of the present day before he attempts to l
prove the pictures of the past Uncle TonN oh
Cabin will live and will be one of the masterpiece IN
of literature long after the name and fame Of II NJ
Hopkinson Smith have passed away, although Wjl
name will live longer than it would otherwise hf
done because the hardihood of his attack II
name Of Benedict Arnold will long endure in Ami
lean history