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UNCLE TOM’S CABIN
This auction is for an original ca. 1897 EDITION of “UNCLE TOM’S CABIN” by Harriet Beecher Stowe and “THE WHITE SLAVE” by Richard Hildreth published and combined into one book Walter Scott, Ltd., London.
YOU’LL LOVE THIS BOOK!!!
It is dominated by a single theme: the evil and immorality of slavery.
In “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” Stowe emphasizes the horrors of slavery on almost every page of the novel while also asserting that Christian love can overcome something as destructive as the enslavement of fellow human beings.
“The Slave” was the first anti-slavery novel published in America. It tells the story, of Archy, the enslaved mulatto son of his owner. Archy marries another very light-skinned slave named Cassy who is stalked by the lust of slave-owners. Unable to submit to the injustice of slavery, Archy runs away to become an impressed British sailor who gladly fights against the American flag. The story Archy tells is about a fellow-slave named Thomas.
The beginning of the book will remind you of Harriet B. Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, but when Thomas witnesses his wife’s murder at the hands of her master the stories diverge dramatically. Thomas rejects both slavery and Christianity, runs away to the swamp, and he KILLS WHITES FOR REVENGE! Hildreth’s novel was thought to be genuine slave narrative.
It is a much more militant fictional protest against slavery than Stowe’s novel.
Upon publication, Uncle Tom’s Cabin ignited a firestorm of protest from defenders of slavery (who created a number of books in response to the novel) while the book elicited praise from abolitionists. Southern reactions ranged from forcing a bookseller in Mobile, Alabama to leave town for selling the novel to sending threatening letters to Stowe herself (including a package containing a slave’s severed ear). The novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the United States, so much so in the latter case that the novel intensified the sectional conflict leading to the American Civil War. The book also helped create a number of stereotypes about Blacks, many of which endure to this day. These include the affectionate, dark-skinned mammy; the Pickaninny stereotype of black children; and the Uncle Tom, or dutiful, long-suffering servant faithful to his white master or mistress. In recent years, the negative associations with Uncle Tom’s Cabin have, to an extent, overshadowed the historical impact of the book as a “vital antislavery tool.” In the first year of publication, 300,000 copies of Uncle Tom’s Cabin were sold. The book eventually became the best-selling novel in the world during the 19th century (and the second best-selling book after the Bible), with the book being translated into every major language. Uncle Tom’s Cabin sold equally well in England, with the first London edition appearing in May, 1852 and selling 200,000 copies. In a few years over 1.5 million copies of the book were in circulation in England, although most of these were pirated copies.
Published ca. 1897.
Harriet Beecher Stowe was raised in the Puritan tradition. Her father, Lyman Beecher was a minister. The Beecher’s moved to Cincinnati when her father was appointed president of Lane Theological Seminary. Cincinnati was just across the river from the slave trade. Harriet Beecher Stowe observed first-hand several incidences which compelled her to write this famous anti-slavery novel, including seeing a husband and wife being sold apart. Her family shared her abolitionist sentiment and was active in hiding runaway slaves. Harriet set out writing a controversial novel illustrating the moral responsibility of the entire nation for the cruel system of slavery. She presented the first episodes to the editor of the Washington anti-slavery weekly, The National Era, which published in forty installments. Despite The National Era’s small circulation, the installments reached a large audience because the weekly episodes were read to families and gatherings throughout the land. The episodes attracted the attention of Boston publisher, J.P. Jewett. First published in March of 1852, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” immediately broke all sales records of the day. It sold half a million copies by 1857. The issue of slavery had divided sentiments well before 1852. However, it took a sentimental human novel to catapult it to the national spotlight. Upon meeting Stowe at a White House reception, Abraham Lincoln was said to have exclaimed, “So this is the little lady who started this big war.”