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hugh 's review for:
Uncle Tom's Cabin
by Harriet Beecher Stowe
I was expecting this to be pretty much of a gloom-fest given the subject, but found it surprisingly positive. HBS goes out of her way to be even-handed and show the less bad sides, not just grinding misery. She makes some really scathing satirical points about lukewarm anti-slavery activists, and really gives the agency to the victims - it ends up being a story about slaves enduring nightmarish conditions and heroically finding ways to survive and keep hoping, and support each other.
Some moments that really struck me:
The slave-owner who prides himself on his humanity because he only chains his slaves' feet, not their hands.
The sympathetic christian man who recognises an escaped slave, and helps him, but tries to persuade him that it's immoral to escape and he should go back to his owner.
The right-on northern lady who flaunts her enlightened anti-slavery views, but gets her ass kicked by a young slave girl who can sense her anti-blackness, despite her intellectual positions.
Some moments that really struck me:
The slave-owner who prides himself on his humanity because he only chains his slaves' feet, not their hands.
The sympathetic christian man who recognises an escaped slave, and helps him, but tries to persuade him that it's immoral to escape and he should go back to his owner.
The right-on northern lady who flaunts her enlightened anti-slavery views, but gets her ass kicked by a young slave girl who can sense her anti-blackness, despite her intellectual positions.