The cabin of Uncle Tom

Author: Harriet Beecher Stowe (USA) Lin Yupeng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-06-01
Features: Uncle Tom's Cabin has been published for over 150 years since its debut. The book was first published as a standalone novel in 1852 and immediately achieved huge success. It sold 10,000 copies within a week, with 100 printings and 350,000 copies sold in its first year—astronomical figures for mid-19th-century America. The book was also a sensation abroad, with 40 publishers in Britain bringing it out, selling over 1.5 million copies. It was warmly embraced by readers worldwide and highly praised by renowned writers such as Tolstoy, Turgenev, George Sand, Heine, and Dickens. It was adapted into plays and musicals and performed on stages across the United States for many years. Today, it has been translated into over 40 languages worldwide. Its charm has endured, and time has proven it to be a classic. The book profoundly influenced American history, and many believe it was one of the factors leading to the outbreak of the Civil War. Thus, when author Harriet Beecher Stowe visited the White House in 1863, attempting to persuade President Lincoln to take decisive action to help thousands of escaped slaves who had reached the capital, President Lincoln called her a "little woman who wrote a book that started a great war."
The planter Shelby, to pay off his debts, decides to sell the slave Tom and the son of the female slave Eliza. Eliza, upon hearing this, flees with her son overnight to Canada. Tom is sold to New Orleans, where he saves the life of a young girl during the journey. The girl's father buys Tom as a household servant in gratitude. After the girl dies, her father, according to her wishes, decides to free the black slave, but before the legal procedures can be completed, he is killed in an accident. Tom falls into the hands of a particularly cruel slave owner and eventually dies, battered and broken.
The novel centers on the fate of the slave Tom, depicting the lives of several enslaved people. Mr. Shelby, a planter in Kentucky, is forced to sell his two favorite slaves—Tom and Little Harry—to pay his debts. Harry is the son of Shelby's personal maid Eliza. Eliza overhears Shelby and his wife discussing the sale of slaves to settle their debts and flees the plantation with Little Harry overnight. Pursued by slave traders, she risks her life crossing the Ohio River on floating ice, escaping to a free state. There, she unexpectedly meets her husband George, who has also escaped from slavery, and the family together makes their way to Canada.
Tom was born and raised on Shelby's plantation. As a child, he served the young master, and later became the overseer of the slaves. He was diligent, loyal, and deeply trusted by his master. When Tom learns from Eliza that his master plans to sell him, he refuses to flee, believing that doing so would be a betrayal of his master's trust. Instead, he decides to bear the burden for his master, allowing himself to be sold to repay the debts. With sorrow, he bids farewell to his family and boards a steamboat bound for the lower Mississippi River with the slave trader Haley.
On the boat, Tom saves the life of a young girl who falls into the water by accident. Grateful, the girl's father, St. Clare, buys Tom. Tom then comes to St. Clare's plantation, where he drives the carriage for his master and also accompanies the young girl Eva. Later, Eva dies, and soon after, St. Clare also dies in an accident before he can fulfill his promise to free Tom. St. Clare's ruthless wife, Marie, sells Tom, and he falls into the hands of the cruel planter Legree. Later, Tom is brutally beaten to death by Legree for refusing to whip other slaves and for refusing to reveal the whereabouts of two escaped female slaves.
The power of the novel lies in its exposure of the horrors of slavery. In Christian countries, sacred marriage and family bonds are rendered meaningless among slaves, who are treated as private property. Their families can be torn apart at will, with spouses separated and children torn from their mothers as common occurrences. After being sold by Shelby, Tom is forced to abandon his wife and child and leave his homeland. The novel also depicts the tragic stories of other families torn apart by slavery. For example, during Tom's second sale and his journey to the lower Mississippi River, the only child of a fellow slave who was tricked into being sold is secretly taken away, leaving the mother heartbroken and driven to suicide by drowning in the middle of the night. The elderly Paula, whom Tom meets in New Orleans, is consumed by grief after her children are repeatedly taken away, leading her to drown in drink and eventually die a tragic death. In Legree's plantation, Cassy, who was once well-educated and grew up in comfort, with fair skin, beauty, and refined manners, is sold multiple times and even her children are taken away. She eventually becomes Legree's sexual slave, degraded and cruelly tortured.
The novel also portrays many mother and child pairs torn apart at auction, such as Susanna and Emmeline. These scenes of family separation and the breaking of bonds are heart-wrenching and deeply moving, striking the readers with their power. The author seeks to move readers with moral fervor, awakening the conscience of the American people to see the inhumanity of slavery. In her view, the root of slavery is the evil in human hearts, and to eradicate it, the purifying power of Christianity must be harnessed to cleanse people's souls.