Scan barcode
A review by kevin_shepherd
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
3.0
“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God.” ~Romans 13:1
“Is there a God to trust in? …O, I’ve seen things all my life that have made me feel that there can’t be a God. You Christians don’t know how these things look to us. There’s a God for you, but is there any for us?” ~UTC, Chapter 11
Harriet Beecher Stowe (b. 1811 - d. 1896) was a white christian abolitionist. Her seminal masterpiece, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (pub. 1852) inarguably stoked the flames of black liberation in nineteenth century America and all points abroad.
UTC is a compelling call to arms of the Christian Left.* It is a hard and often painful read, both because it exposes the barbaric cruelty of institutionalized slavery and because it proposes to give an omnipotent entity all of the credit for freedom and absolutely none of the blame for subjugation.
Stowe at once petitions the largely silent pious majority while also shaking a proverbial fist at godless atheists, acquiescent clergymen, kowtowing politicians, and even venture capitalists. Her fictional characters are firmly rooted in the reality of her time and are near-perfectly positioned to educate the ignorant and light a fire under the indifferent. Even President Abraham Lincoln allegedly credited her with putting the wheels of emancipation in motion.
I teeter between three and four stars for Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Stowe is certainly not unique in mistakenly superimposing piety over morality, and the abominable events of which she writes are sadly but mercifully understated. But her narrative, as it progresses, becomes decreasingly about the abolition of the slave-state and more about the establishment of the religious-state. Her agenda is obvious enough to give me pause, even if her other inclinations are commendable.
*Christian Left: an extinct species of believers that largely embraced center-left and left-wing sociopolitical policies of human decency and racial equality. The last known example died in captivity in Palm Beach Florida on the 9th day of November, 2016.
“Is there a God to trust in? …O, I’ve seen things all my life that have made me feel that there can’t be a God. You Christians don’t know how these things look to us. There’s a God for you, but is there any for us?” ~UTC, Chapter 11
Harriet Beecher Stowe (b. 1811 - d. 1896) was a white christian abolitionist. Her seminal masterpiece, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (pub. 1852) inarguably stoked the flames of black liberation in nineteenth century America and all points abroad.
UTC is a compelling call to arms of the Christian Left.* It is a hard and often painful read, both because it exposes the barbaric cruelty of institutionalized slavery and because it proposes to give an omnipotent entity all of the credit for freedom and absolutely none of the blame for subjugation.
Stowe at once petitions the largely silent pious majority while also shaking a proverbial fist at godless atheists, acquiescent clergymen, kowtowing politicians, and even venture capitalists. Her fictional characters are firmly rooted in the reality of her time and are near-perfectly positioned to educate the ignorant and light a fire under the indifferent. Even President Abraham Lincoln allegedly credited her with putting the wheels of emancipation in motion.
I teeter between three and four stars for Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Stowe is certainly not unique in mistakenly superimposing piety over morality, and the abominable events of which she writes are sadly but mercifully understated. But her narrative, as it progresses, becomes decreasingly about the abolition of the slave-state and more about the establishment of the religious-state. Her agenda is obvious enough to give me pause, even if her other inclinations are commendable.
*Christian Left: an extinct species of believers that largely embraced center-left and left-wing sociopolitical policies of human decency and racial equality. The last known example died in captivity in Palm Beach Florida on the 9th day of November, 2016.