Uncle Tom’s Cabin might be just another old book now…but it was the runaway best-seller in the 19th Century. Plus, a related poem.
The date is June 5th, Wednesday, and today I’m coming to you from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
On this day in 1851 the first two chapters of Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe appeared in The National Era.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin was set to run for just a few weeks in the abolitionist newspaper, but the story and its characters became so popular, that Harriet Beecher Stowe expanded the narrative. It ended up running for 40 weeks. On the weeks that Uncle Tom’s Cabin was not in print, The National Era would receive complaints from impatient readers.
With the success of the serialized version, Stowe was persuaded by a publisher to make it into a book. The first edition of Uncle Tom’s Cabin was was published 9 months after its first serialized appearance in March 1852. It sold 3,000 copies in the first day and 300,000 in it’s first year. It was translated into several major languages and sold 200,000 copies in England in its first year. Uncle Tom’s Cabin would go on to become the best-selling book of the 19th century, second only to the Bible.
Besides being a major best-seller, Uncle Tom’s Cabin is credited for increasing sympathy for American slaves and therefore an impetus for the Civil War. Stowe did not sugar-coat the experience of slaves, drumming up the sympathy of many Americans who may have otherwise been on the fence over the “Question of Slavery.”
Proponents of slavery claimed that the book was not accurate. In response, Stowe published a companion piece to the novel in 1853, defending the accuracy of her depiction of slavery and revealing sources and influences.
The main source Stowe mentioned was the autobiography of Josiah Henson, which Henson would re-published as Uncle Tom’s Story of His Life. [Josiah had published his life story as The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada, as Narrated by Himself. After the success of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Henson shortened the title of his book to: Uncle Tom’s Story of His Life.]
Stowe also revealed she relied up the book American Slavery As It Is which was a compilation of testimonies from hundreds of former and escaped slaves of what slavery is truly like.
Of course, the major theme of the book is the immorality of slavery. One aspect that Stowe focused to help make her point was the separation of families. She showed siblings, spouses, parents and newborns torn from each other’s arms and shipped hundreds of miles apart. This was especially impactful since the popular beliefs of the Victorian Era emphasized the sacredness of the family unit.
Today’s poem is by Frances E. Watkins, titled “Eliza Harris” who is a main character in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Eliza is a new mother who flees for Canada. It’s a long poem, so I’ve omitted a few stanzas.
Eliza Harris
Frances E. Watkins
Like a fawn from the arrow, startled and wild,
A woman swept by us, bearing a child;
In her eye was the night of a settled despair,
And her brow was o’ershaded with anguish and care.
She was nearing the river—in reaching the brink,
She heeded no danger, she paused not to think!
For she is a mother—her child is a slave—
And she’ll give him his freedom, or find him a grave!…
Oh! how shall I speak of my proud country’s shame?
Of the stains on her glory, how give them their name?
How say that her banner in mockery waves—
Her “star spangled banner”—o’er millions of slaves?
How say that the lawless may torture and chase
A woman whose crime is the hue of her face?
How the depths of the forest may echo around
With the shrieks of despair, and the bay of the hound?…
In agony close to her bosom she press’d
The life of her heart, the child of her breast:—
Oh! love from its tenderness gathering might,
Had strengthen’d her soul for the dangers of flight.
But she’s free—yes, free from the land where the slave
From the hand of oppression must rest in the grave;
Where bondage and torture, where scourges and chains,
Have plac’d on our banner indelible stains. …
The bloodhounds have miss’d the scent of her way,
The hunter is rifled and foil’d of his prey;
Fierce jargon and cursing, with clanking of chains,
Make sounds of strange discord on Liberty’s plains.
With the rapture love and fullness of bliss,
She plac’d on his brow a mother’s fond kiss:—
Oh! poverty, danger and death she can brave,
For the child of her love is no longer a slave!
Tears of grief and shame after reading that powerful poem “Eliza Harris” by Frances E. Watkins.
When I found it I knew I had to included it! Her words cut to the bone.