Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin: a Political Novel for the Ages

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“These good men and Christians cannot know what slavery is; if they did, such a question could never be open for discussion. And from this arose a desire to exhibit it in a living dramatic reality.” Thus does Harriet Beecher Stowe justify the writing of perhaps one of the most influential novels in United States history. By using characters and surroundings meant to mirror those that existed in the real world, using emotion over reason, and utilizing Christianity, something all her readers were familiar with and attached to, Stowe gets across Uncle Tom's Cabin's sole purpose as a political novel, with the single message that slavery was an un-Christian, inherently flawed, and utterly evil establishment. Stowe uses memorable figures concurrent with the reality of her time to make her point, and incorporated various characters meant to be reflections of real people to supplement her message and help solidify the novel's standing as a political novel. Notable characters in the novel who exemplify this are George Shelby and Augustine St. Clare, Senator Bird, and Ophelia St. Clare. All of these characters mirrored actual people from that time period. George and Augustine are the typical moral slave owners, plantation owners who knew that permitting slavery is immoral but were unwilling to do anything about it. Senator Bird is a typical northern politician of the time period, a politician who personally felt slavery is evil but still voted for a fugitive slave law. Ophelia is a typical northern abolitionist who, despite wanting emancipation, harbored prejudices against blacks herself. By using complex characters and settings that reflected those in the real world, Stowe gave people of that time something to relate to, a taste of reality in a supposedly fictionalized form. This helped her readers identify with the characters and get deeply involved and committed to the

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