Uncle Tom's Cabin: My New Favorite

Printed in 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel tells the story of 2 families held in slavery in the state of Kentucky.  The first printing of the novel sold 300,000 copies.  While I knew of the book's political impact, I was under the impression that I didn't need to read it because after all, I already know how the Civil War ended.  Isn't that all the book is about--the abolitionist cause and how it was authenticated to the extent of war?  Uncle Tom's Cabin offers its reader so much more.  The book is shocking, challenging, and compelling even today.

Stowe, who was one of thirteen children, wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin after the Fugitive Slave Law was enacted in 1850.  The law banned anyone from helping a fugitive slave.  Any slave caught in a free state was to be sent back to the south and to his master where the slave would be whipped and beaten for attempting to escape.  The law roused Stowe to be a voice for the helpless slaves.

The way we treat people does matter, but also the way we handle suffering in our lives matters as well.  I once read a quote by CS Lewis that has stuck in my mind ever since.  The quote has caused me to seriously think about how I treat others both in thought and in deed.  I think it perfectly explains at least part of the message that Harriet Beecher Stowe was trying to convey about the life of a slave.    I'll end with that quote. I'm so glad I finally read this book and hope this powerful and important work continues to be read in the generations to come!  If you read it or have read it, I would love to hear your thoughts on the book.

“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - These are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”

― C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory