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A review by cheekylaydee
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
4.0
I have attempted this book in the past and somehow given up and moved onto lighter reading. This time I stuck with it and I'm glad I did. This book was the first to tell the story of slavery from the slave's point of view. This is hugely significant.
Other books set during or just after this period (Gone with the Wind is the one that immediately springs to mind) tell the stories of white people who own black slaves. This is one of the rare books I've read (Alex Haley's Roots excepted) that tell stories of slavery from the slave's point of view. It's quite difficult to imagine in this modern age that skin colour could have had such an influence on how somebody could have been viewed and treated. This goes beyond mere racism, this is actually viewing certain human beings as nothing but cattle to be bought, traded, the women routinely raped and more than likely worked to death just to be replaced by the next on the market.
There are certain events in history such as the Holocaust and the slave trade that I personally find incomprehensible. Even Beecher-Stowe, who was attempting to portray slaves as individuals with rights still consistently refers to them as 'creatures' albeit 'gentle', 'simple' or 'docile' ones. The apartness is still so stark that even the author not once refers to them as people.
I find this incredible. Although this book was significant in that it started to raise questions about the morality of the slave trade in America I'm still left wondering how the author viewed those in slavery. Yes, it's abundantly clear that she had sympathy for them, that she thought it was fundamentally wrong, but to me, it still comes across as if she sees herself as significantly different because she has white skin. I am in no way trying to take anything away from this novel's historical significance but from the way it's written it appears that black slaves are to be helped by white people, but it still feels to me that because white people have all the power that they are somehow worthy of the title of human being whereas blacks are constantly referred to as 'poor critters' rather than human beings.
That's really the only significant flaw I found with the book, and maybe I have to remember that these were the first few tentative steps into questioning the morality of the slave trade. My modern morality still somehow finds this book wanting.
Other books set during or just after this period (Gone with the Wind is the one that immediately springs to mind) tell the stories of white people who own black slaves. This is one of the rare books I've read (Alex Haley's Roots excepted) that tell stories of slavery from the slave's point of view. It's quite difficult to imagine in this modern age that skin colour could have had such an influence on how somebody could have been viewed and treated. This goes beyond mere racism, this is actually viewing certain human beings as nothing but cattle to be bought, traded, the women routinely raped and more than likely worked to death just to be replaced by the next on the market.
There are certain events in history such as the Holocaust and the slave trade that I personally find incomprehensible. Even Beecher-Stowe, who was attempting to portray slaves as individuals with rights still consistently refers to them as 'creatures' albeit 'gentle', 'simple' or 'docile' ones. The apartness is still so stark that even the author not once refers to them as people.
I find this incredible. Although this book was significant in that it started to raise questions about the morality of the slave trade in America I'm still left wondering how the author viewed those in slavery. Yes, it's abundantly clear that she had sympathy for them, that she thought it was fundamentally wrong, but to me, it still comes across as if she sees herself as significantly different because she has white skin. I am in no way trying to take anything away from this novel's historical significance but from the way it's written it appears that black slaves are to be helped by white people, but it still feels to me that because white people have all the power that they are somehow worthy of the title of human being whereas blacks are constantly referred to as 'poor critters' rather than human beings.
That's really the only significant flaw I found with the book, and maybe I have to remember that these were the first few tentative steps into questioning the morality of the slave trade. My modern morality still somehow finds this book wanting.