Double Standards Stowe Away

Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a story containing children, not a story for children. Much of the subject matter in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel was intended to arouse anger in Christian parents (Stowe’s audience); and thus, the reader witnesses numerous relevant injustices committed toward slaves. But, in order for Stowe to truly bring about change, these crimes against African-Americans could not be mere lashings; they had to tear at the heart of the reader. Consequently, Stowe chose one of the most powerful rhetorical images; one that is heart breaking to all: the threat or actualization of separation, whether through death or distance, from one’s children.

The reason for Eliza’s flight is her fear of separation from her only son. All parents, especially those who have lost children can relate to Eliza’s “paroxysm of frenzy by the near approach of a fearful danger.” Humans instinctually value children, especially in literature, as more important than adults. Whenever there is a perilous situation, adults should readily sacrifice their security if it means helping a child. The idea of using Harry (Eliza’s son) as a device to arouse sympathy in the audience is not surprising in and of itself. What truly creates the controversy in Stowe’s portrayal of this child in particular is the context: the antebellum south. In the character Harry, the reader of the day must have found an internal conflict. Harry is a mixed image of a slave, sub-human by the standards of society; and a child in danger, regarded universally as of super-human value. They, the white upper middle class, know that this child must be protected and nurtured, and on the deepest plains of their consciousness they want to root for the one who protects him. However, wanting slaves to escape goes against society, the government and most likely the personal convictions of the readers.

This dichotomy that Stowe implanted into the minds of her original audience is further emphasized by the use of an aside. It comes at the beginning of the seventh chapter when she asks the audience how they would feel if it were their own child “that [was] going to be torn from [them] by a brutal trader, tomorrow morning.” This is a direct attempt to exploit the moral confusion she has (hopefully) created in her audience. Stowe continues throughout the passages to address the audience, sometimes directly sometimes indirectly. She essentially repeats her aside through Mrs. Bird to Senator Bird. Mrs. Bird complains that illegalizing support for escaped slaves “is something downright cruel and unchristian.” Interestingly enough, it is phased as though Mrs. Bird could be speaking straight to the reader.

After all, Stowe’s agenda becomes quite clear: she means to undermine social and religious justifications for the ill treatment of slaves. And I must say, she is effective.