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105 SOUTHERN REVTEW OF UNCLE TOM'S CiBlrV (1852)

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Southern Review of Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852)

During the decade preceding the Civil War, long-standing diferences between North anil South became more pronounceil and inueasingly dfficult to compromise. Slavery proued the most diuisiue of these issues. The publication of Hadet Beecher Stowe's UncleTom's Cabin in 1852furthu injamed regional diseord. Stowe gew up in New England before moving in 1832 with her family to Cincinnati, where her father, Con- gregationalist minister Lyman Beecher, had aceepted the leadership of l-ane Theological Seminary.While liuing in Cincinnati, she had the opportunity to obserue the institution of slauery more closely, while also embarking on a writing carcer.The Fugitive Slaue Law of 1850 intetrsifed hn opposition to slavery. In 1852, she prodwzd Uncle Tomt Cabin, afaional auount of the "pea.iiar institution" as seen through slaues' q,es.The following selection is a reuiew of Stowe's worh that appeared in l/re Southern Literary Mes- senger. Formeily edited by Edgar Allan Poe, the Richmonil, Virginiebased journal was the South's leading literary peilodieal.

Q u e s t i o n s t o C o n s i d e r

1 . Why does the Southern Literary Messenger point out that a "female writer" authored Uncle Tom's Cabin?

2. How is the book characterized in the review?

3. Why is the author of the review fearful of the book's influence?

4. What is the significance of UncleTbm\ Cabin?

. .. M. beg to make a distinction between lady writers and female writers. We could not find it in our hearts to visit the dullness or ignorance of a well-meaning lady with the rigorous discipline which it is necessary to in{Iict upon male dunces and blockheads. But where a writer of the softer sex man- ifests, in her productions, a shameless disregard of truth and of those ameni- ties which so peculiarly belong to her sphere of life, we hold that she has for- feited the claim to be considered a lady, and with that claim all exemption from the utmost stringency of critical punishment. . . .

. . . [Mrs. Stowe] wshed, by the work now under consideration, to per- suade us of the horrible guilt of Slavery and with the kindest feelings for us as brethren, to teach us that our constitution and laws are repugnant to every sentiment of humanity.We know that among other novel doctrines in vogue in the land of Mrs. Stowe's nativity-the pleasant land of New England- which we are old-fmhioned enough to condemn, is one which would place woman on a footing of political equality with man, and causing her to look

n Southm l)tercry Messenga 18 (Octobcr 1852): 630-638.

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beyond the office for which she was created-the high and holy place of maternity-would engage her in the administration of public afi-airs; thus handing over the State to the perilous protection of fiaper diplomatists and wet-nurse politicians. Mrs. Stowe, we believe, belongs to this school ofWomant Rights, and on this ground she may assert her prerogative to teach us how wicked are we ourselves and the Constitution under which we live. . . .

But whatever her designs may have been, it is very certain that she has shockingly traduced the slaveholding sociefy of the United States, and we desire to be understood as acting entirely on the defensive, when we proceed to expose the nriserable misrepresentations of her story. . . .

. . . many of the allegations of cruelry towards the slaves, brought forward by Mrs. Stowe, are absolutely and unqualifiedly false. . . . We are of opinion too that heart-rending separations [of families] are much less &equent under the institution of slavery than in countries where poverty rules the working classes with despotic sway. . . .

But let it be borne in mind that this slanderous work has found its way to every section of our country and has crossed the water to Great Britain, fill- ing the minds of all who know nothing of slavery with hatred for that insti- tution and those who uphold it. Justice to ourselves would seem to demand that it should not be suffered to circulate lonser without the brand of false- hood upon it. Let it be recollected, too, that tle importance Mrs. Stowe will derive from Southern criticism will be one of infamy. Indeed she is only entitled to criticism at all, as the rnouthpiece of a large and dangerous faction which if we do not put down with the pen, we may be cornpelled one day (God grant that day may never come!) to repel with the bayonet. There are questions that underlie the story of "LJncle Tom's Cabin" of far deeper signif- icance than any mere false coloring of Southern sociery and our readers will probably see the work discussed, in other points of view, in the next number of the Messenger, by a far abler and more scholar-like hand than our own. Our editorial task is now ended, and in dismissing the disagreeable subject, we beg to make a single suggestion to Mrs. Stowe-that, as she is fond of referring to the Bible, she will turn over, before writing her next work of fiction, to the twentieth chapter of Exodus and there read these words-"THOU SHALI NOT BEAR FALSE'WITNESS AGAINSTTHY NEIGHBOR]'

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C h a r l e s S u m n e r o n " B l e e d i n g K a n s a s " ( 1 8 5 6 )

The 1850s btought a new, Iess compromising ,rn rorron of politicians to prominenre in both the North and South. Among thk new gloup was Charles Sumner'of Massa- chusetts. Holding undergraduate and law degrees fom Hawaril, Sumner spent the years immediately after hk eilucation touing Europe, where he ftret ffidny of the leading