Uncle Tom's Cabin and Other Business

In case you didn't know, the book originally had two names Uncle Tom's Cabin or Life Among the Lowly. If you care to read about it, here are some of the reviews and arguments that went on after the publication of the book. Great primary sources! I've included mostly the Southern Reviews as I found them the most passionate and interesting. But for contrast, I did include at the end a Northern Review. You may want to read these after you finish the book, but here they are, either way. =)

There are many more here:
JSTOR Reviews Homepage for Uncle Tom's Cabin or Life Among the Lowly

From The New York Daily Times Review. Keep in mind that the author of this review, while crediting Stowe's style, does not agree with the book's premise regarding the evils of slavery:

Walpole
22 June 1853

SOUTHERN SLAVERY. A Glance at Uncle Tom's Cabin.

FIRST PAPER.

BY A SOUTHERNER.

"The time has come for a calm review of Mrs. HARRIET BEECHER STOWE’s book,—a book which has attracted so much attention, both at home and abroad. It is quite clear that the review must come from the South. The book cannot be fairly judged anywhere else in all the world; in truth, it cannot be comprehended anywhere else. Its style may be admired the world over, its vivid sketches of the lights and shadows of life, its life-like creation—presenting at one moment the loveliest impersonation of virtue, and at the next the most revolting embodiment of course vice,—gives powerful interest to the book, independent of the particular class or race whose wrongs it is intended to depict.

"The power of the book is not to be questioned. Its fidelity, its fairness, its morality we may venture to discuss; but it would be idle to deny that it is a powerful appeal to humanity; that it moves the soul in its very depths; and that it awakens the intensest interest in the fortunes of the humble hero of the story, and of all the personages in any way connected with him."

From the Southern Literary Messenger Review. Previous to the excerpt given, they have denounced Mrs. Stowe as being a lady because of what she has written:

Unsigned; probably John R. Thompson
Richmond, October 1852

Mrs. Stowe—to whose work of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" we now propose to devote ourselves... has placed herself without the pale of kindly treatment at the hands of Southern criticism. Possessed of a happy faculty of description, an easy and natural style, an uncommon command of pathos and considerable dramatic skill, she might, in the legitimate exercise of such talents, have done much to enrich the literature of America, and to gladden and elevate her fellow beings. But she has chosen to employ her pen for purposes of a less worthy nature. She has volunteered officiously to intermeddle with things which concern her not—to libel and vilify a people from among whom have gone forth some of the noblest men that have adorned the race—to foment heart-burnings and unappeasable hatred between brethren of a common country, the joint heirs of that country's glory—to sow, in this blooming garden of freedom, the seeds of strife and violence and all direful contentions... We know that among other novel doctrines in vogue in the land of Mrs. Stowe's nativity—the pleasant land of New England... is one which would place woman on a footing of political equality with man, and causing her to look beyond the office for which she was created—the high and holy office of maternity—would engage her in the administration of public affairs; thus handing over the State to the perilous protection of diaper diplomatists and wet-nurse politicians. Mrs. Stowe, we believe, belongs to this school of Women's 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 such a claim is in direct conflict with the letter of scripture, as we find it recorded in the second chapter of the First Epistle to Timothy—

"Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.

"But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence."

And another from the same source, different date:

Unsigned; probably George Frederick Holmes
Richmond, December 1852

"...We have said that Uncle Tom's Cabin is a fiction. It is a fiction throughout; a fiction in form; a fiction in its facts; a fiction in its representations and coloring; a fiction in its statements; a fiction in its sentiments; a fiction in its morals; a fiction in its religion; a fiction in its inferences; a fiction equally with regard to the subjects it is designed to expound, and with respect to the manner of their exposition. It is a fiction, not for the sake of more effectually communicating truth; but for the purpose of more effectually disseminating a slander. It is a fictitious or fanciful representation for the sake of producing fictitious or false impressions. Fiction is its form and falsehood is its end. When Aristotle assigned to poetry the precedence over history for its superior efficacy in instructing, refining, and ennobling mankind: when Bacon re-echoed the praise... they certainly never anticipated that the realm of fiction would be degraded into the domain of falsehood, or that fiction would cease to be the means of inculcating truth for the sake of substituting itself as the ultimate aim in the place of truth...

"But the magic wand is broken—the priceless treasure lost—when, instead of limiting the play of the imagination to its legitimate employment, we turn it to unholy uses. Nay, it is degraded and stripped of its power of transmitting this baser life of ours into the semblance of a golden age, when we suffer its potency to be turned to opposite ends, and to be applied not to the revival of the latent image of ideal excellence, but to the dirty sorcery of party purposes and fanatical aims... [T]he fiction, which is the hand-maiden of truth, may refresh our fainting spirits in the wilderness of life: the fiction, which ends in fiction and is the slave of falsehood, will spread a fatal blight where all was salubrious, and happy and prosperous before.

"In Uncle Tom's Cabin, the vice of this depraved application of fiction and its desolating consequences, may be readily detected. Every fact is distorted, every incident discolored, in order to awaken rancorous hatred and malignant jealousies between the citizens of the same republic, the fellow countrymen whose interests and happiness are linked with the perpetuity of a common union, and with the prosperity of a common government. With the hope of expediting or achieving the attainment of a fanatical, and in great measure, merely speculative idea, of substituting the real thraldom of free labor for the imaginary hardships of slavery—the hydra of dissension is evoked by the diabolical spells of falsehood, misrepresentation, and conscious sophistry...

"...[Uncle Tom's Cabin] has obtained an unhappy notoriety... The copy before us purports to belong to the ninety-fifth thousand already published in America; and we see that upwards of one hundred and fifty thousand have been issued in England. How rapid the circulation of error! how slow the program of truth! How easy the propagation of falsehood; how arduous the dissemination of its antidote! When in the course of a few short mouths [months?], a quarter a million of the readers of the English tongue manifest their readiness to welcome and their anxiety to believe a lie, it is useless for the injured party to disprove the false statement, as his disclaimers will be drowned by the clamors of the aggregated fanatics. The circumstances of the time; the distempered atmosphere of public sentiment, both at the North and beyond the Atlantic; the mawkish sensibilities and the imbecile ignorance of many within our own borders; the recent and still active agitation of the Slavery question in Congress and in the Presidential canvass; the frenzy of fanaticism and the fever of political intrigue, have all conspired to give a popularity and currency to the work at this particular moment, which its ability does not justify, and its purposes should forbid."

In contrast, a review from a Northern Paper (I believe published by the Unitarian Church):

The Christian Inquirer
Unsigned Review
New York: 10 April 1852

UNCLE TOM'S CABIN;

OR, LIFE AMONG THE LOWLY.

"This book, written by Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, daughter of that famous old man, Dr. Beecher, and wife of Dr. Calvin Stowe, is a very noble one. We have read it, as it was published piecemeal, in the National Era, with ever-increasing delight. The deepest [spirit] of piety, and the largest spirit of humanity prevail on every page, and charm in every line.

"The main purpose of the book is to show the system of Slavery in the United States as it really is. This is done with singular truthfulness and remarkable wisdom. It is evident at first glance that she has obtained all her knowledge at first-hand. No one who had not lived in the midst of slavery, and observed it most sharply, could have made a picture so faithful in its minute details, as well as in its general effect. The book breathes the very air of the Kentucky farm and the Louisiana plantation. In this respect alone it is a real addition to American literature. Nine-tenths even of the good books written in the country might, for all we can see, have been as easily written in England, or on the Continent. Only the tenth book bears the stamp of an American growth, and is an autocthon—born of the soil. Such a book is this of Mrs. Stowe, one which could not have been written but by an American—by one acquainted with the actual workings of slavery, and acutely observing its most casual and fleeting shadows. We have the virtues and the vices, the rudeness and refinement, the chivalry and meanness, the wild generosity and the Yankee cunning which are found mixed together in this singular system of American Slavery, which is so fast becoming the American institution. Even that curious patois, the negro dialect, is very accurately represented in these chapters.

"But the spirit of truth—of stern, downright truth of this story, is far more extraordinary than its picturesque fidelity in details. Mrs. Stowe has avoided all the dangers to one or another of which most of those who write on this subject fall a prey. She has resisted the temptation to exaggeration of every kind. She has shown the evils inherent in the system, but has painted generous and noble characters among those involved in it. Mr. Garrison's proverb that "Where there is a sin there is a sinner," has not blinded her to nature's proverb, that "This is a very mixed-up world." On the other hand, no longing after poetic justice, no wish of the novelist to bring about a happy termination of the story, has caused her to shrink from the tragic truth of the facts as they are. Her slaves are not all good, nor all evil."

In other news: We are meeting at Katie's (7998 Lusterpointe Ct.) for a movie night in lieu of our regular December meeting because of the holidays. We will be watching Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen and having an authentic British tea (read: dinner)- yumm! Katie has agreed to a fine Yorkshire Pudding, Megan and Gina are bringing side plates and Candi is bringing dessert- all yet to be determined. Megan and Candi are going to search for the film.

January 21st- We are resuming our regularly scheduled program with a review of Uncle Tom's cabin, with the discussion lead by Gina (myself). I will also bring a little Southern goodness to eat. For Katie's sake, I will forego the chitlins.

Megan is checking about a possible condo stay in St. George for a retreat in February. If that goes through, we will be reading Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey, and Marie, you won't have to choose a book until February (for March's reading). If it doesn't happen, then you are in charge of choosing for January.

Whew- did I get it all? =)

Oh! And get little journals for the readings- we'll share what we wrote in them at the discussions and post them later on the blog.

Ok, I'm done. =)