Tensions heightened between the North and South as America drew closer to civil war. The people were beginning to take sides and the public opinion was being swayed by authors and journalists. Two certain literary works of the 1850s, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Hinton R. Helper’s The Impending Crisis of the South, persuaded the people in the middle ground to join the North’s noble cause of defending freedom. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s more emotional story of Uncle Tom’s Cabin became the most effective novel on the American public opinion. Stowe’s work was emotional and vivid. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was widely distributed throughout the world and it energized anti-slavery forces. Helper took a more logical path in criticizing slavery and his book was mostly used by Republican candidates as campaign literature against Southern Democrats.
Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin used emotional and stirring words and images into her reader’s minds compared to Helper’s use of graphs and charts to get his point across. In Uncle Tom’s Cabin imagery is popularly used and at the time when literacy was uncommon. Images helped readers understand more. Helper uses graphs and charts, which most likely …show more content…
Stowe’s novel conveyed slaves as sympathetic beings who deserved the rights of any man. Her novel harshly criticized slavery as being immoral and unGodly. Helper’s essay mainly focused on the economic disadvantages of slavery and didn’t address the morality of the peculiar institution. Stowe widely impacted the anti-slavery forces of the North. Her Christian beliefs were commonly found among the abolitionist group which was common ground between her and her readers. The Impending Crisis of the South could be found in the hands of many Republican politicians at the time, using it as a weapon against Southern and Northern Democrats. The book’s economic points made good campaign