Uncle Tom's Cabin - change in public opinion of slavery Uncle Tom’s Cabin is the work of Harriet Beecher Stowe. This book is a realistic but fictional perspective of slavery. The key characters in the story include Uncle Tom, George Harris and Eliza. Uncle Tom is slave that is trustworthy and pious. He does not wrong anybody and only hitherto obeys the master. Being a spiritual person, Uncle Tom does his best to do what is right and obey the Bible. On the other hand, Eliza is a very beautiful slave under the ownership of George Shelby Sr., who formerly owns Tom. George Harris is the husband to Eliza and he lives around the nearby plantation. The brilliance of George caused him to invent a machine that was utilized in the factory where he works. Consequently, his owner became so jealous and decided to demote George from the factory and made him to carry out hard labor at the plantation. The setting of the story is across the Mississippi and Kentucky states (Tang, Research & Education Association 6-20). Rarely does a single work of literature transform the society or sets it on the road to a dreadful conflict. One such catalytic story is Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852). Many consider it as being among the most influential American fictional works ever published. The number of copies that Uncle Tom’s Cabin sold were numerous than any other fictional title to have been published before. Five thousand of its copies were sold within its first two days, around fifty thousand copies were sold after eight weeks, up to three hundred copies within a year and more than one million copies within the first sixteen weeks. This just shows how many people were interested in the book and the impact it had on those who bought it. What makes such an accomplishment even more astounding is that it is a woman who wrote this book at a point in history when the role of women was presumed to be child rearing and domestic duties. Women were not allowed to hold positions of influence or play a role in the society’s leadership. According to history, Abraham Lincoln met Harriet in the year 1682 and was amazed that such a little woman could write a book that led to the Great War. The effect of Uncle Tom’s Cabin did a lot in arousing the antislavery sentiment within the North and also provoked angry rebuttals within the south compared to any other occurrence in the antebellum era. The author, Harriet Beecher Stowe who was born in Lichfeild, Connecticut was the sister, daughter and the wife of liberal theologians and clergymen. Her brother Henry Ward and her father Lyman were among the preeminent theologians during the nineteenth century. This devout Christian nurturing, concentrating on the doctrines of guilt, sin, salvation and atonement had an undisputable impact in her written work. Each of the characters used in the story portrays some element of these beliefs (Stowe 1-200). The character Uncle Tom is granted the Christ like trait. Tom offers forgiveness to those who oppress him and also prays for those that sin against him. Towards the story’s end, he offers his life for the salvation of his people (Mayer 130; Dixler 115). This helps the readers to learn how they should deal with their enemies and those who oppress them, rather than revenging or doing something bad to them. The upbringing of Beecher is vividly depicted in the characterization and formation of the entire story. She even goes to the extent of crediting God with authorship which allows her to be perceived as God’s instrument dealing with the ills of slavery. Prior to the publication of this story-Uncle Tom’s Cabin, details concerning the evils of slavery and how slaves are treated were readily available though not much of this information was accessible by those outside the antislavery circles. The narratives regarding the escaped slaves and the work of other writers contained stories related to the real incidences of plantation barbarity. The North Star’s Fredric Douglas and William Lloyd Garrison, the Liberator’s publisher were the two famous and fervent abolitionists (Historyguy.com). They played a great role in contributing to the body of the anti-slavery writings. Initially, Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published in the national Era-antislavery newspaper, on weekly basis between the summer of 1851 and the 1852 spring. In the story’s original form, it hardly attracted much attention from outside the anti-slavery circles. However, this changed completely after it was published for the first time, in 1852, between hard covers. The Uncle Tom’s Cabin story succeeded where other writings on anti-slavery had failed. This is because it made a profound emotional impact and humanized the enslaved, elevating the slaves to a place where they could have feelings and thoughts like other people in the human race. Through the use of the character trait of George Harris, Harriet provides flesh to the one-dimensional skeletal perspectives of the slave humanity that has been held by most Americans. Besides, she also brought to light the inhuman family disintegration that the slavery institution perpetuated. The families of many slaves were separated, as the family members were sold off, for necessity or profit, in diverse directions and at times, never to meet again. In Stowe’s novel, Eliza boldly escapes the south when she crosses the icy Ohio River as a way of guaranteeing the safety of her child. Similarly, Cassy commits infanticide instead of compelling her child to go through the indignities of the slave life. Lucy, a third mother decides to commit suicide after her son of ten months is sold further from her. Stowe directly appeals to the hearts of her readers through use of the Victorian sanctity of a family.
The publication of the Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin combined with the invasive and offensive nature of the Fugitive Slave Act (1850), transformed the northerners such that they could not perceive slavery with a distorted view. At this point in time, slavery was no longer just a southern affair with no impact on the lives of the northerners. After most of the people from the north became polarized against the slavery institution, it was not before long that conflict ensued. Differing perspectives regarding the institution of slavery led to the rising rift between the south and the north. This is the chasm that ended up becoming the American Civil War. The Uncle Tom’s story provided a moving and powerful voice towards the abolition movement. It shook out the complacent southerners and northerners and compelled a nation to focus on its collective soul for both the horrors of slavery and the moral contradictions of the institution of slavery. Beecher’s novel is a demonstration of the contradictions and absurdity of slavery.

Works Cited

Dixler, Elsa. Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, New York: Barron’s Educational Series, 1985. Print, May 16, 2012

Historyguy.com. American Civil War: Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), 2011. Web, May 16, 2012

Mayer, Sylvia. Beyond Uncle Tom's Cabin: Essays on the Writing of Harriet Beecher Stowe. Plymouth: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. Print, May 16, 2012

Stowe, Charles, Edward, The Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe. Echo library. 2006. Print, May 16, 2012

Tang, Edward and Research & Education Association, Uncle Tom's Cabin (Maxnotes Literature Guides), New Jersey: Research & Education Association, 1996. Print, May 16, 2012