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Uncle Tom's Cabin

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 not

turning 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 interaction with slaves such as Tom in the domestic sphere, increasingly suffers in his conscience from partaking in the evil institution of slavery (Stowe 169).

Christianity and the Bible are used by Stowe to show that religion can be used to support evil purposes as well as to defend righteousness. One pro-slavery character quotes the Bible to defend slavery: "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be" (Stowe 200). An opposing view is expressed from the...

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Uncle Tom's Cabin. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 02:55, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1702665.html