A Case Against Slavery & Uncle Tom’s Cabin Essay

HB Stowes Uncle Toms Cabin was a force playfully evocative condemnation of sla genuinely, and was famous in its own time. While many held that Stowe herself knew nonhing about slaveholding or southern life, having never seen southern plantation life, it had its intended effect irrespective to stir up anti-slavery sentiment in the north, and to a lesser extent, in the South. Chapter VII is called A Mothers Struggle, and it brings together many of the themes that dominate this book.First, the centrality of motherhood and the invincible power of a mother that is soon to be separated from her only son leads the action of this work. Second, the dominance of the Protestant Christian combine, a faith that serves to both assist slaves in tolerating their condition as well as providing them the strength to escape is the engine of the action. Since graven image is on the side of those who oppose slavery, ultimately, their postulate leave alone emerge victorious and hence, the strength to persevere is present.Hence, this chapter is a central part of the work as it synthesizes the main themes of the book in rather stark terms, since this chapter is really the first of all action chapter of the book, that is, it is the beginnings of Elizas escape from her bondage and traces her moves due norths to the Ohio river. The first real issue that drives Eliza to escape is the fact that she and her son are perchance to be sold. The Shelby family that owns them seeks to sell several slaves to pay off debts, and Eliza, who is non paltryly treated by her mistress, Mrs.See muchFirst Poem for You EssayShelby, will not be separated from her only son (1-2). Here, the institution of slavery is shown in its worst aspect the breaking up of families in the interest of the monetary solvency of their masters. It was debated how often this was actually done, but this first few pages show the slave owning Shelby family as more or less humane, but forced due to serving to part w ith slaves, slaves, like Tom himself, who has befriended the son of the Shelby family.But stronger than all was maternal love, wrought into a paroxysm of frenzy by the near approach of a fearful danger. Her boy was old enough to have walked by her side, and, in an indifferent case, she would only have led him by the hand but today the bare thought of putting him out of her arms made her shudder, and she strained him to her bosom with a convulsive grasp, as she went rapidly forward (1). This passage is an important part of the introduction to this chapter in that it places maternal power at the center of the war against slavery.It is this fear mixed with love that will keep Eliza moving forward. distinguished is the dominion of the mind over the body, that, for a time, can make flesh and nerve impregnable, and string the sinews like steel, so that the weak drop dead so mighty. It is love, ths power of mind, the love for her son that keeps her moving forward, rather to face death , freezing, or torture if caught rather than be apart from her boy (2). It seems that, as Eliza continues her trek forward, that her body has become completely subsumed under her mind, and her love.Hence, she refuses to eat what she has packed for the trip North, and instead only wants her son to eat (3). But along with the power of a mothers love, is the power of the belief in God and his Scriptures An hour before sunset, she entered the village of T , by the Ohio river, weary and foot-sore, but still strong in heart. Her first glance was at the river, which lay, like Jordan, between her and the Canaan of liberty on the other side. (4). This passage is telling, in that it provides Old Testament references to the move toward liberty.The move of slaves northward to freedom is likened to the move of Israelites, themselves slaves to the Egyptians, over the Jordan river to the Canaanite valley which God has chosen for his people. For the slave treated harshly and not given even basic freedoms, the move northward was considered the promised land, the land of freedom, regardless of the hardships of slavery this is the indictment of the institution as a whole. Slaves wold risk everything to avoid the institution, even a more or less booming existence that Eliza enjoyed with the Shelbys.In this chapter, the mood is that if God closes one door, He opens another. So with Eliza gets to the river, the barrier between herself and freedom, it has been largely iced over (5). Given this, the ferry will not run. However, she is briefly taken in by a family connected with the ferry house on her side of the river. The action quickly and awkwardly shifts back to the slave quarters at Mrs. Shelbys, where the slaves are speaking about the upcoming sale. Speaking of the slave monger, Chloe says, He desarves it said aunt Chloe, grimly hes broke a many, many, many hearts, I tell ye all she said, stopping, with a fork uplifted in her hands its like what Masr George reads in Rav elations, souls a callin under the altar and a callin on the Lord for vengeance on sich and by and by the Lord hell hear em so he will (7). This is very important, since it is clear that the slaves hold that God is on their side, not the other way around. On the other hand, this point of view is made more ambagious by Uncle Toms statement that damming people to Hell is not a very nice thing to do, and that eternal punishment is not a fit crime for selling slaves, which subsequently all, is not eternal (7).This creates a concept of equivocalness where both factions of the slave population have two different points of view the first, that of Chloe, that slavers are diabolical and will be punished to Hell, and the more moderate view of Uncle Tom, that slavers are victims of circumstance, who themselves, did not invent this institution. But Aunt Chloe responds, though indirectly to Uncle Tom Dont natur herself kinder cry out on em? said Aunt Chloe. Dont dey tear der suckin ball up right off his mothers breast, and sell him, and der little children as is crying and holding on by her clothes, dont dey pull em off and sells em?Dont dey tear wife and husband apart? said Aunt Chloe, beginning to cry, when its jest takin the very life on em? and all the while does they feel one bit, dont dey drink and smoke, and take it oncommon easy? Lor, if the devil dont get them, whats he good for? And Aunt Chloe covered her face with her checked apron, and began to sob in good earnest. (8) Again, Stowe is making another attack on slavery here, using the splitting up of families as her center line of argument.Since she is dealing with a family that treats their slaves moderately well, she cannot really rely on the physical rage argument so common in anti-slavery polemics. Since motherhood is at the center of this work, it seems that the basic argument against slavery is that since slaves have no freedom, they cannot fight back when their families are taken apart. Hence , Stowe holds that the family, especially the mother, is the institution of society that maintains moral norms and hence, will be the institution that takes slavery apart.If anything, this is the primary case against slavery being made here. piteous back to the action on the Ohio river, Eliza has been spotted by the slave trader, the very focus of evil throughout this book. It must also be pointed out that the trader and his style of life are equally repugnant to the Shelbys (10). But as far as Liza is concerned, when she is spotted, A thousand lives seemed to be change state in that one moment to Eliza. Her room assailable by a side door to the river. She caught her child, and sprang down the steps towards it.The trader caught a full glance of her just as she was disappearing down the bank and throwing himself from his horse, and calling loudly on Sam and Andy, he was after her like a hound after a deer. In that dizzy moment her feet to her scarce seemed to touch the ground, an d a moment brought her to the waters edge. Right on behind they came and, nerved with strength much(prenominal) as God gives only to the desperate, with one wild cry and flying leap, she vaulted sheer over the turbid current by the shore, on to the fold of ice beyond.It was a desperate leap impossible (14). This passage is worth extended comment. First of all, as God has closed the door of the ferry, he has opened another, more dangerous door, that of skipping over the ice cakes. This seems powerfully symbolic the ice represents the cold hearts of the slave traders and even the good slave owners. Under profound pressure, the power of familyof motherhoodtakes over, what seems impossible is not so, if God is on your side.Slavery, it seems, will be defeated by slave mothers trampling on the cold hearts of the slave owners through material love and devotion to get to freedom. On the other side, Eliza meets a friendly farmer, Mr. Symmes, who assists in her escape. Stowe remarks on pa ge 10, So r this poor, heathenish Kentuckian, who had not been instructed in his constitutional relations, and consequently was betrayed into acting in a sort of Christianized manner, which, if he had been better situated and more enlightened, he would not have been left to do. Again, a powerful statement is being made here since slave owners were normally of the gentlemanly class, that is, the civilized class, civilization is equated with the dominating of slaves. Since poor whites were not slave owners (and treated only little better than the blacks) and were not part of their civilization, they had not learned about the inferiority of blacks and the racial and class pecking order of the South. Therefore, their lack of civilization is a good thing, since impartial common sense seems to dominate over civilized manners. Hence, the hero of the story (or at least of the chapter) is this simple farmer from Kentucky who does not represent civilization, but simple agrarian manners and common sense morality. Hence, in conclusion, Stowe is making several points here. First, that the real evil of slavery is the destruction of the family. If the family is the center of social life in that it is the bearer of tradition and moral values, then its destruction must lead to the beastialization of society.This might explain the evil of the slave traders, since they seem to specialize in breaking up families, and hence, are the very symbol of this beastialization. Second, a mothers love, coupled with Gods force, will lead the southern slaves to freedom. Third, that freedom must be earned, and this is applicable to slaves and slave owners, both of which have not known freedom. Slave owners are as debased by slavery as the slave, since he is dependent upon them and hence, not free. Lastly, that nothing is impossible with God, and with a love of freedom.This is the case against slavery, in that it crushes all of these impulses, impulses that God as implanted in the human spir it and hence, are part of His creation, now enslaved by others.All quotes above are from the Virginia University edition of Uncle Toms Cabin, Published by the University of Virginia E-Text Center of the University of Virginia Library System. (http//etext. lib. virginia. edu/etcbin/toccer-new2? id=StoCabi. sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=7&division=div1)