First Meeting of Uncle Tom and Eva
date: label: Date made
content: ca 1853
name: label: originator of scene
content: Stowe, Harriet Beecher
label: maker
content: Strong, Thomas W.
notes: label: Description
content: Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe was published in 1852, quickly becoming the nation’s bestselling book. It features a spirited, religious-minded enslaved black man named Tom, who is sold downriver by his financially-strapped owner in Kentucky to a plantation in Louisiana. There, his Christian beliefs spread hope to his fellow slaves and enable him to endure the harsh beatings of his cruel master. He is ultimately whipped to death after refusing to reveal the location of two runaway slaves. Published after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, the novel targeted Northern audiences, arguing against the injustice of slavery and spurring the abolition movement into action.
label: Description
content: Although the bestselling novel of the 19th century, many American were exposed to Uncle Tom’s Cabin through play adaptations known as Tom shows. The immense popularity of both the novel and plays transformed Uncle Tom into a cultural phenomenon in America and Europe, and manufacturers quickly capitalized on the production of “Tomitudes,” everyday commodities that referenced scenes and characters from the novel. These included card games, jigsaw puzzles, chinaware, jars and vases, snuffboxes, ceramic figurines, and decorative prints. Although some of these Tomitudes employed racial stereotypes and the imagery of blackface minstrelsy, most chose to depict the enslaved characters of Beecher’s novel in a sympathetic light, often carrying an anti-slavery message.
label: Description
content: The most popular depictions of Uncle Tom were those in which he was accompanied by the young white girl, Eva St. Clare. Representations of their companionship conveyed a message of racial bonding and celebrated the characters’ shared Christian faith. While riding aboard a Mississippi riverboat on his journey to be sold downriver, Tom would occupy his time sitting among cotton bales and reading from his Bible. After he introduces himself to the saintly Eva, the young girl decides to ask her father to buy Tom. This print, illustrating a scene from Chapter 14 of the novel, depicts the pair’s first meeting. Tom has one hand placed on his Bible, while his other, enchained by a manacle, motions towards Eva. With his confident pose and flowing robes, Tom looks more like a classical philosopher than a slave learning to read. Eva, reclining on a bale of cotton, appear almost doll-like. After Tom rescues Eva from her fall overboard into the waters of the Mississippi, her father agrees to buy him.
label: Description
content: Thomas W. Strong was a New York-based printer and wood engraver who began his career around 1840. His shop specialized in comic literature and he employed many talented cartoonists and draftsmen who would go on to work for Harper’s Weekly and Vanity Fair. This print was published around 1853 as the second in a series by Strong of scenes from Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
label: Description
content: Abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) rose to fame in 1851 with the publication of <i>Uncle Tom’s Cabin</i>, which highlighted the evils of slavery, angered the slaveholding South, and inspired pro-slavery copy-cat works in defense of the institution of slavery. Stowe’s father was the famed Congregational minister Lyman Beecher and her brother, Henry Ward Beecher, was also a famous preacher and reformer. In 1824, she attended her sister Catherine Beecher’s Hartford Female Seminary, which exposed young women to many of the same courses available in men’s academies. Stowe became a teacher, working from 1829 to 1832 at the Seminary.
label: Description
content: Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote numerous articles, some of which were published in the renowned women’s magazine of the times, <i>Godey’s Lady’s Book</i>. She also wrote 30 books, covering a wide range of topics from homemaking to religion, as well as several novels. The passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which legally compelled Northerners to return runaway slaves, infuriated Stowe, and many in the North. She subsequently authored her most famous work, <i>Uncle Tom’s Cabin</i>. Originally serialized in the <i>National Era</i>, Stowe saw her tale as a call to arms for Northerners to defy the Fugitive Slave Act. It was released as a book in 1852 and later performed on stage and translated into dozens of languages. Stowe used her fame to petition to end slavery. She toured nationally and internationally, speaking about her book, and donating some of what she earned to help the antislavery cause.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, New York City
topic: label: used
content: Reform Movements
label: depicted
content: Children
label: depicted
content: Blacks
label: depicted
content: African American
label: referenced
content: Civil War
label: Subject
content: Slavery
label: related event
content: Civil War
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content: Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
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content: Clothing & Accessories
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content: American Civil War Prints
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content: Art
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content: Domestic Furnishings
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Harry T. Peters "America on Stone" Lithography Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: DL.60.2374
label: catalog number
content: 60.2374
label: accession number
content: 228146
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Lithograph
label: Object Type
content: Lithograph
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: ink (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: image: 12 in x 9 in; 30.48 cm x 22.86 cm