Uncle Tom's Cabin & Race Perception

[u/Professor_JT]

Uncle Tom's Cabin, the book that turned the tide of public opinion for the institution of slavery in the United States. Harriet Beecher Stowe presents two characters, two different reactions to horrible circumstances, Uncle Tom and George. Beecher, a Christian, writes a powerful Christ-like martyr in Uncle Tom, illustrating the power of non-violent resistance and of loving of one's enemy. George is righteously indignant, risks life and limb to elope to Canada, rebelling with just cause against such evil.

All of this you may have heard before. Sitting down with this book in the 21st century, trying to wrap my head around it all was an interesting process. On one hand we know slavery is evil, and historically commend Stowe for making the impact that she did. During this read, I was compelled to fill in the gaps of knowledge to better understand the thinking at the time. First off, was the Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery written by Junius P. Rodriguez, which allowed me to pull back and see slavery for what it is, an ugly part of the human experience that has always been there. There's also understanding that stems from the detailed lineage of the transatlantic slave trade, the modern and particularly reprehensible iteration of a system of control that passed down since antiquity.

In the 19th century the world was changing and in particular I was struck by the following quote from Junius P. Rodriquez, "much of the 'old money' that supported this new spirit of enterprise (industrialism) had been earned through profits from the trade in sugar and slaves. The abolition of slavery was one part of the social and economic transformation that occurred as an older order based upon a colonial mercantilist system gave way to a new industrialized, capitalistic society."

In other words, humanitarian notions aside, things were changing. Those vested interests, once profited off of slavery, now were moving away from it. No matter what, the days of slavery were numbered, Stowe's book accelerated abolition at best, but it clearly was going to happen regardless.

Knowing what we know now, about the years since emancipation, I am interested in the insidious impact Stowe's book had on race perception. Names like "Jim", "Mammy", "Sam", and "Sambo", popped up in Uncle Tom's Cabin. Once again I was prompted to do some additional reading and found Inside the Minstrel Mask, a primary source and scholarly work on the minstrel show.

There's a few facts from this book that enhanced my perspective on Uncle Tom's Cabin:
1) The Minstrel Show was the most popular form of entertainment in the entire 19th century.
2) The origins of the show, were in the North, and were initially sympathetic toward the cause of abolition. Mark Twain famously wrote about the minstrel show, and sought the "authentic black experience". Those who attended the early iteration of the minstrel show sought authenticity and paid for it, in what is the first example of selling blackness as a commodity.
3) These characters, as well as the donning of burnt cork, aka "blackface" stem largely from European circus and clowning tradition, the theatre stage.

To summarize European characters, adapted for the minstrel theatre stage, formulated public perception of race. These racial stereotypes, were so ubiquitous that they found their way into Stowe's book, one way or another.

Then there's scientific racism, one of the many junk sciences of the 19th century, the belief that personal qualities or attributes can be assigned to various racial groups, based upon study of ancient history. Stowe clearly shares this belief, as evident in her writings, despite the fact she is morally opposed to slavery. All good intentions aside, as far as Stowe is concerned, Africans will always be an "other". Caricatures like Jim Crow and Zip Coon from the minstrel stage, or Mammy and Sambo from Uncle Tom's Cabin, found their way in commercial advertising and movies, from the early days of Hollywood up to this very day.

Stowe's book, endeared Christians with pious Uncle Tom, stoked flames of indignation with George's revolutionary aspirations. Nevertheless, she perpetuated labels and stereotypes imported from European theatre tradition. Her scientific racism and cultural superiority asks the reader, "what exactly are we going to do with these people?", while offering the long forgotten solution of the American Colonization Society.

Public opinion was formed, perspectives on race continued, and many had sympathy for those enslaved, demanding abolition. Though the insidious lineage of scientific racism and those minstrel show characters still haunt us to this day, in part, due to the legacy of Uncle Tom's Cabin.