Uncle Tom's Cabin
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Harriet Beecher Stowe, in Uncle Tom's Cabin, portrays three characters---Uncle Tom, Shelby, and Simon Legree---who symbolize opposing race theories. Uncle Tom is the saintly embodiment of the theory that blacks are as intelligent and virtuous as whites, if not moreso. Tom represents the theory that race is a false basis on which to measure human beings. Simon Legree is the symbol of the theory that blacks are animals, beasts, sneaky, evil, wild creatures who were created to be used and abused as slaves by superior whites. Shelby falls in the middle of Tom and Legree, believing that blacks may have been made to be slaves, but that they are nevertheless human beings who are capable of virtue and intelligence and should be treated with a minimum of respect. Stowe uses these characters and theories to present the full spectrum of race theories while notturning her novel into a blatant polemic against whites. Stowe uses the domestic sphere to show that there was a variety of attitudes and treatments of blacks by whites. In the domestic sphere, as opposed to slave auctions and hard labor in the fields, whites are shown as capable of treating slaves with care and respect---as much as is possible in such a situation. Based on her experience with slaves in the domestic sphere, one white slaveholder says, "I was born and brought up among them. I know they do feel, just as keenly,---even more so perhaps,---as we do" (Stowe 200). Shelby is another character who, through his interact
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ong enough to defend that independence" (Garraty 156).
The Republican party evolved out of the Federalist ideology which argued for a powerful centralized political and economic system. Accordingly, they stood against slavery and against Southern states' secession. The Democratic party was split by the issues of slavery and the sovereignty of the states (Garraty 384), a split represented by the Douglas-Buchanan feud. Lincoln was a Whig who became a Republican (Garraty 387), demonstrating the alignment between those two parties. The divisions among these parties was not always a simple one, but, in general, the Federalists were related to the Whigs and Republicans, while the Anti-Federalists were related to the Democratic Republicans and the Democrats. In general, the Federalists/Whigs/Republicans favored a centralized political/economic system aimed at national unity, while the Anti-Federalists/Democratic Republicans/Democrats favored more states' rights and a decentralized economic system based on regional needs.
Work Cited
Garraty, John A. The American Nation. New York: HarperCollins, 1995.
In Black Elk Speaks, as told through John G. Neihardt (Flaming Rainbow), we read primarily of what Black Elk of the Oglala Siou
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1695
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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