English 207- American Literature

American Literature Final

On December 6
th
, 1865, the thirteenth amendment to the Constitution was ratified and the
issue of slavery was finally settled. Slavery was an incredibly divisive issue since its inception in
the British colony of Jamestown, but grew it into an American institution. Slavery generated
political, economic, moral and religious arguments which all culminated in the polarization of
the American people. The issue of slavery metaphorically divided the Northern and the Southern
states and it led to the lawful division of the country with the Missouri Compromise Line. The
issue finally culminated with the secession of the Southern States and the creation of the
Confederate States of America. Although slavery was not the leading cause of the Civil War, the
four years of fighting led to the Emancipation Proclamation, the Thirteenth Amendment and the
end of slavery. Although the institution of slavery was ultimately settled by a constitutional
amendment, the argument continues through the literature of the time. By analyzing some of the
works of this time period, we can gain a greater understanding of how slavery divided the
country.
Harriet Beecher Stowes novel, Uncle Toms Cabin, is considered to be the definitive
anti-slavery novel. The novel was serialized in 1952 in the antislavery journal, The National Era,
but was published in book form in the same year. Harriet Beecher Stowes book, Uncle Toms
Cabin, was meant to inflame the reader against the evils of slavery. Uncle Toms Cabin is the
story of two slaves, Eliza and Tom, whose families are torn apart by slavery. Unwilling to lose
her son, Harry, Eliza flees the farm with him and they endure hardships on their way to Canada.
Tom does not try to escape and as a result he is taken away from his family and is eventually
sold to the cruel Simon Legree. There Tom meets Cassy and Emmeline who he encourages to

escape. The book ends with Eliza being reunited with her family and with Tom being beaten to
death. Although the novel was a work of fiction, it quickly became a rallying cry for abolitionist
movement. Harriet Beecher Stowe presents two great evils of slavery; how slavery divides
families and how it destroys people. The basic conflict of Uncle Toms Cabin is that the Shelbys
are losing their farm and need to sell some of their slaves. Stowe presents the Shelbys as a kind
slave owning family; when Mr. Shelby is asked to sell Harry, he says, I would rather not sell
himIm a humane man, and I hate to take a boy from his mother, sir. (Stowe) Uncle Toms
Cabin presents a cruel truth of slavery, slaves were property. The Shelbys needed money and
were unfortunately left with two decisions; lose the farm or sell Harry. While it seems incredibly
cruel to separate a mother from her son, the Shelbys decision was economic rather than a moral
decision. Stowe makes it quite clear that the Shelbys are not bad people, but are forced to do
something immoral because of the nature of slave trade. Because slaves were property and the
slave trade was a business, slavery was ultimately controlled by money. The slave trader is
willing to take a son from his mother because he sees Harry as an investment and is willing to
exploit the Shelbys need for money. Slavery is perpetuated by the corrupting influence of
money, and mans greed forces Eliza to risk her life to keep her son. While Eliza was forced to
escape from the Shelbys farm to protect her son, but Cassy must sacrifice much more for her
family.
Tom meets Cassy on Simon Legrees plantation, and he learns of the tragic loss of her
family. Sold to different slave masters, Cassy loses her children and is sexually abused by her
slave master. After the affair results in a pregnancy, Cassy is forced to poison the newborn
because she cannot endure another child being taken away from her. It is on Simon Legrees
plantation that Stowe presents the greatest evils of slavery by showing that slavery only leads to

cruelty. Although Cassy killed her newborn child; Stowe does not present her as a vicious
person. Cassy is presented as desperate; filicide almost becomes justifiable because Cassy
chooses to spare her child from the pain caused by slavery. Tom is forced to work on a brutal
farm where even the slaves treat each other cruelly, but no man is as cruel as the plantations
owner, Simon Legree. A cruel and evil man, Simon Legree is a caricature of the southern
plantation owner. Simon Legree is a brutal slave owner who values money more than human
lives saying, I dont go for savin niggers. Use up, and buy more, s my way Im quite sure it
comes cheaper in the end. (Stowe) Although Simon Legree is an undoubtedly evil man, Stowe
goes further and makes him actively oppose Christianity. Tom is portrayed as a faithful Christian
whose faith is tested by Legree and the cruelty of slavery. By having Simon Legree actively try
to break Toms faith, Stowe makes slave owners appear to be anti-Christian. Uncle Toms Cabin
is a story which dramatized the cruelty of slavery in order to change public opinion. Although
the book was written using secondhand accounts, Stowes novel is an enduring account of
slavery.
The most reliable accounts of slavery were slave narratives, which chronicled the
experiences of escaped slaves. The autobiographical accounts of Harriet Ann Jacobs and
Frederick Douglass are two of the most well-known slave narratives. Frederick Douglass
autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, focuses on the physical violence of
slavery and the difficulties slaves experience in the North. Although slavery is commonly
associated with the South, Frederick Douglass describes his experiences in Maryland, a northern
state. The novel begins with Frederick Douglass childhood where he learns the dynamic
between slaves and the slave masters, and witnesses the brutal treatment of slaves. Douglass
describes the cruel atmosphere on the farm by saying, It was a common sayingit was worth a

half-cent to kill a nigger, and a half-cent to bury one. Historically, cruelty towards slaves has
been associated with Southern plantations, but the autobiography confirms that slavery in the
North is just as violent. Frederick Douglass is sold to a family in Baltimore where he is taught to
read by the kindly Mrs. Auld. However, Mr. Auld discovers what shes doing and forbids her
from continuing to teach Frederick. In what may be the cruelest line of the novel, Mr. Auld says,
Learning would spoil the best nigger in the worldIt would make him forever unfit to be a
slaveit could do him no good, but a great deal of harm. Even in the supposedly progressive
northern states, slavery is justified by racism. Racist beliefs justified treating slaves as less than
human, but keeping them uneducated made slaves think less of themselves. From that point, the
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass argues that education will end slavery and eventually
bring about equality.
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, both
tell the story of a child who is born into slavery, but gender gives each a distinctly different view
of slavery. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl was written by Harriet Ann Jacobs in 1858, five
years after Uncle Toms Cabin. Like Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harriet Ann Jacobs writes about the
plight of female slaves who are forced to endure sexual abuse at the hands of their masters.
Speaking to more than Northern Abolitionists, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl was written to
convince women that slavery was immoral. Like Uncle Toms Cabin, Jacobs autobiography also
presents the sexual abuse of female slave, but Jacobs story is more sympathetic. Jacobs master,
Dr. Flint, is a cruel man and threatens to force himself on her. Desperate, Jacobs gives herself to
a neighbor, Mr. Sands, in order to try and escape her cruel master. Justifying her actions, Harriet
Ann Jacobs writes, I wanted to keep myself purebut I was struggling alone in the powerful
grasp of the demon Slavery; and the monster proved too strong for me. Jacob argues that like all

women, enslaved women want to be free to purse love and have families, but that slavery forces
them into immoral relationships. Unfortunately for Jacobs she becomes pregnant and her master
refuses to sell her to Mr. Sands. After the birth of her children, Joseph and Louisa, Incidents in
the Life of a Slave Girl then becomes a story of a mothers sacrifice. Like Eliza and Cassy,
Jacobs also tries to protect her children from slavery. Jacobs pretends to run away and hides in
her grandmothers attic, hoping that her slave master will give her children to Mr. Sands. Jacobs
hides for five years waiting for Mr. Sands to free her children, but realizes that Mr. Sands has no
intention to free them. Jacobs sacrifices her health in order to protect her children, but ultimately
has risk being recaptured in order to free them. Jacobs tries to convince women that slavery is
immoral by emphasizing that it destroys families.











Works Cited

Baym, Nina, Wayne Franklin, Philip F. Gura, and Arnold Krupat. The Norton Anthology of
American Literature. 7th ed. Vol. B. New York: W. W. Norton &, 2007. 1528-616. Print.